Ella Cain, 2, was playing in the garden when she smelled and brushed the stems of a plant with delicate yellow flowers. The next day she had small blisters on her skin
A mother has issued a warning after her toddler suffered extreme burns after bumping into a plant while playing in the garden.
Ella Cain was playing outside when she smelled and brushed the stems of a plant with delicate yellow flowers. The next morning, mother Audrey Cain woke the then two-year-old when she noticed small blisters bubbling up 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.
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After looking up the plant online, which had invaded the family’s 113-acre estate, Audrey realized it was a wild parsnip plant. The sap of this species can cause severe burns on human skin due to its reaction with sunlight, similar to giant hogweed.
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. Ella was forced to wear long-sleeved clothes and play in the shade all summer after coming into contact with the plant on July 23, 2023.
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. 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 those plants all over our property. We thought it was some kind of flowering plant, we never knew it was anything dangerous. She was in our backyard. She never picked them, she just smelled them, and then she just touched them. We didn’t think anything of it.
‘The next thing you know, she’s had all these burns and they’ve been getting worse over the next few days, including all over her face. She must have brushed against it too, because her leg broke too.
“I thought she might have come into contact with poison ivy, but looked around the entire yard and didn’t see any. Then I looked up what the yellow plants were near our house and discovered they were wild parsnips and that’s what caused that.”
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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. Audrey said: “Ella said it was itchy and painful so we used chamomile lotion and switched to hydrocortisone. To cure it we used vitamin E oil.
“The burns took up to two weeks to heal, and the whole time she was saying how painful it was. The doctors told her to be careful not to be out in the sun for too long and to stay covered up for the rest of the summer.
“We kept her play area in the shade and kept 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 away 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 know how to stay away from it.”