{"id":761274,"date":"2026-06-26T09:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T09:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/761274\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T09:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T09:39:15","slug":"dad-hits-back-at-trolls-after-daughter-violet-zerbst-suffered-burns-to-face-after-squishy-sensory-toy-exploded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/761274\/","title":{"rendered":"Dad hits back at trolls after daughter Violet Zerbst suffered burns to face after squishy sensory toy exploded"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Queensland family has become the target of a vicious torrent of online abuse after a schoolgirl suffered severe facial burns when a squishy sensory toy exploded.<\/p>\n

Violet Zerbst, 10, was playing with a knock-off NeeDoh, a squishy sensory toy filled with a gel-like liquid designed to reduce stress, after heating it up in a microwave when it burst in her face.<\/p>\n

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The contents of the toy sprayed onto Violet, causing significant chemical burns that left her face raw and blistered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to the microwave and I put it in and I was just waiting… and then I got it and I was just squishing it,\u201d Violet told 7News on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe liquid was like at the bottom and then it went into a sort of ball and it burst onto my face.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could feel my skin coming off. And it was in my mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her father Jody Zerbst added: \u201cIt literally just exploded.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was treated at home by paramedics before being rushed to Gold Coast University Hospital where she spent one week receiving treatment and recovering from her injuries.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the dangerous incident, Violet\u2019s dad decided to warn other parents in hopes of sparing other families similar pain.<\/p>\n

But he wasn\u2019t expecting to be met with a barrage of online abuse, with trolls claiming his daughter \u201cdeserves to burn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s thousands of comments, and they\u2019re just brutal,\u201d Mr Zerbst told news.com.au<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re ranging from \u2026 how stupid the parents are to like, \u2018oh, that kid deserves to burn. How dumb can you be\u2019 and just really twisted sort of mean stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some social media users blamed Violet\u2019s parents for the incident, accusing them of not supervising their child.<\/p>\n

\u2018[It is] parental neglect not teaching kids about hot liquids and the dangers,\u201d one person wrote.<\/p>\n

Another said it is \u201ccommon sense\u201d not to put a toy in the microwave.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe 10-year-old suffered burns to her face. Credit: Supplied\"VioletViolet spent a week in hospital recovering. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

Despite the backlash, Mr Zerbst was able to maintain his humour and brushed off the negative comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll Violet\u2019s older sisters just thought it was hilarious. That was kind of a good entertainment for a few hours\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Zerbst said the family was grateful for the actions of medical staff who assisted Violet.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody from the ambos, to the nurses… they were just amazing and compassionate and expert and thorough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought, my god we are so privileged here.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Daily Mail<\/a>, NeeDoh toys come with a warning on their packaging, but some knock-off versions are not clearly labelled.<\/p>\n

The scary incident has renewed warnings from doctors about a rise in online trends that encourage kids to soften sensory toys using a microwave.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, toys should not be going into the microwave,\u201d Queensland Children\u2019s Hospital burns specialist Dr Veevek Thankey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would want parents to initiate first aid management as soon as the burns happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhichever body part that\u2019s been affected by the burns run under cool running water for at least 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake sure that no ice actually put onto the burn because that will actually make the burn worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nightly is not suggesting Schylling, the original creator and brand behind NeeDoh, has any association with the trend circulating on social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queensland family has become the target of a vicious torrent of online abuse after a schoolgirl suffered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63,43,44,701,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-761274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-queensland","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}