A mother has warned her parents after suffering extreme burns to her face after bumping into a flower.
Ella Cain was innocently playing in the backyard when she smelled and nudged the stems of a plant with delicate yellow petals.
The next morning, her mother, Audrey Cain, woke the two-year-old to find small blisters bubbling on her skin.
Thinking she had fallen victim to poison ivy, the 27-year-old business owner dabbed the spots with chamomile lotion to relieve the itching.
But later that day, the blisters burst into large, angry-looking burns all over little Ella’s body, including her arms, legs, cheeks and nose.
After looking up the plant online, which had invaded the family’s land, Audrey realized it was a wild parsnip plant.
The plant can cause a skin condition known as phytophotodermatitis.
The root of the plant – a parsnip – is fine to eat, but the plant above ground carries a poisonous sap that prevents the skin from protecting itself from the sun’s rays, causing horrific burns when exposed to natural light .
The panicked mother of four called doctors, who advised her to use hydrocortisone to soothe Ella’s scorched skin and keep the toddler out of the sunlight.
After coming into contact with the plant, Ella was forced to wear long-sleeved clothes and play in the shade all summer.
Now fully healed, Audrey shares the three-year-old’s experience to warn parents about the potentially poisonous plant lurking in their gardens so they don’t have the same experience.
The plant is common in England, especially in the south and southeast, and in Wales.
Audrey, from Vassalboro, Maine, USA, said: ‘It was heartbreaking to see her in so much pain with these burns all over her body.
“We have that plant all over our property. We thought it was some kind of flowering plant; we never knew it was dangerous.
“She was in our backyard. She never picked them, she just smelled them and then just touched the stems. We thought nothing of it.
“The next thing you know, she’s got all these burns, and they’ve gotten worse over the next few days, including all over her face.
‘She must have bumped into it too because her leg broke too.
“I thought she might have come into contact with poison ivy, but looked all around the yard and didn’t see any.
“Then I looked up what the yellow plants near our house were and found out they were wild parsnips, and that’s what caused that.”
The doctor advised Audrey to treat Ella’s burns with hydrocortisone cream and keep her out of sunlight to prevent the burns from getting worse after the incident in July last year.
Audrey said: “Ella said it was itchy and painful, so we used chamomile lotion, then switched to hydrocortisone. To cure it we used vitamin E oil.
‘The burns took up to two weeks to heal. That whole time she was saying how painful it was.
“The doctors told her to be careful not to stay out in the sun for too long and to stay covered up for the rest of the summer.
I was afraid she would be scarred for life
Audrey Cain
“We kept her play area in the shade and her skin covered as much as possible.
“We live on 113 hectares of land so it would be impossible to get rid of them all, but we prune them as much as we can and water the area.
“I was worried that she would be scarred for life, but I think using vitamin E oil during the healing phase really helped because she has no scars.
“I’m sharing what happened so people are aware and can stay away from it.”
What is a parsnip plant burn? And how do you prevent it?
Wild parsnip brun is a skin condition also called phytophotodermatitis.
- Burns on parsnip plants occur when a chemical called furocoumarin reacts with sunlight
- This chemical is found in limes and citrus fruits, celery, figs, fennel and several other plants.
- The burns usually start as a rash that forms within 24 hours of exposure.
- People with mild parsnip plant burn may not even notice it, as the condition tends to resolve on its own
- Worse cases can develop into severe blistering, which could land you in the hospital
- Treatment varies depending on the severity
- Make sure you wash your hands thoroughly after handling citrus fruits, avoid touching other people when preparing food, and make sure you cover up if drinking or eating outside during the summer months.