The simple TikTok toffee recipe worrying hospitals

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When 12-year-old Violet Higgins was making a candied fruit recipe she learnt from TikTok, she didn't expect to end up in hospital.

The year 7 student from Shepparton, in regional Victoria, had made the candied fruit recipe, tanghulu, before by putting sugar and water in a plastic bowl and then in the microwave.

Violet Higgins has dressing removed from her burnt foot at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital.Credit: Chris Hopkins

But one Saturday afternoon she was left screaming when hot syrup melted through a plastic bowl and landed on her left foot.

"I was screaming because it was burning so bad," Violet said. "My mum came rushing, and she ripped it (the crystallised syrup) off my foot."

After the crystallised syrup was peeled off by Violet's mother, Rebecca, she was taken to hospital where she received treatment for burns to her toes.

For the past four weeks, Violet has been using crutches to get around. Luckily, she did not have to undergo skin grafting for her injuries.

"It could have been really bad because the skin grafting could have not worked because it (the burn) was on my toes," she said.

"I didn't think something like that could happen because no one showed (on TikTok) that something could go wrong."

Violet said she was shocked by her injuries and thought making candied fruit was much safer than a viral Kylie Jenner lip challenge she did a few years ago.

Violet was following a candied fruit recipe called tanghulu when hot syrup landed on her left foot.Credit: Chris Hopkins

The challenge left many young fans of the beauty mogul with severe bruising and bleeding to their lips to replicate Jenner's artificially enhanced lips. Violet remembers all too well her brush with the trend.

"I definitely got bruising on my lips and didn't do it again," she said.

Now health authorities are urging parents to supervise their children who are attempting to make popular cooking recipes at home.

According to burns specialists at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, at least 15 children attended burns centres, with about one-third needing skin grafts, after making toffee or similar DIY recipes in Australia and New Zealand in the past month.

Dr Monique Bertinetti, a paediatric and burns surgeon at the Royal Children's Hospital, said there was a spike in the trend and health authorities were concerned.

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"We are certainly seeing a spike in toffee scald burns, especially in young adolescent teens who are experimenting off the trends from social media," said Bertinetti.

"We are wanting to get that message out there earlier than later because if we don't get that out we could see a further spike."

About four children have presented to the hospital with burns to their abdomen, hands and feet after dropping hot syrup on their bodies, which often had to be pulled off by a parent or adult, Bertinetti said.

"The temperatures that the toffee gets to is much higher than a hot liquid. A hot liquid rolls off the body but whereas the toffee is sticky and so parents have had to pull the burning off the kids, so it's continued to burn," she said.

"A third of these children required grafting, and their recovery can be a lot longer, and in addition to that they will need scar management following the grafting, splinting, garments, silicone, for up to six to 12 months."

Melbourne University associate professor and social scientist Lauren Rosewarne said children needed to be equipped with skills to discern whether a social media challenge or video was realistic to replicate.

"Ask kids to think about what the goal of these videos are. They just want clicks; they are not there to help you cook in a safe way, and it's the same way for adult content," Rosewarne said.

"Their difference is that kids are simply consuming more of this content than adults and there's a compound factor. It's a volume issue."

Rosewarne also said health authorities were facing a losing battle to raise awareness about these issues stemming from social media as trends come and go faster on apps like TikTok.

"The attention span or the half life of these trends is so quick that by the time you write the article and by the time I comment on it - it's moved on," she said.

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