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There’s a new social media craze among teens and kids that’s been leaving their bodies with painful blisters. It’s called the salt and ice challenge. Doctors, however, are warning parents to stop their kids’ foolishness before worse things happen.
To perform the challenge, you have to put salt and spread it thin on a small area of your skin. Then, you place an ice cube on top of the applied area and hold the cube for as long as you can. The result will be a painful burning sensation.
Salt and ice challenge is more notorious than mannequin challenge but not as dangerous as the ice bucket challenge. Once the kids decide that they can no longer endure the pain, they can finally take the ice off of the salted skin.
What’s left is a maroon colored spot called a blister. The shape of the blister will vary, for it takes the shape of the ice cube’s base.
Almost all kids who did the challenge was left with a second-degree burn. Doctors said that these burns were almost similar to a frostbite. The reason why kids don’t feel it is because they don’t realize that it’s happening.
By the contact made between salt and ice, the salt causes the temperature of the ice to drop as low as 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Since the ice somehow numbs the skin from the actual pains, kids had no idea that they’re already getting burned.
Damage become permanent within five to 10 minutes after the release. Kids would take photos of the injuries as proof and post them on various social media and pass the challenge on to the next victim. The person has to be nominated to do the challenge.
Kids as young as eight years old were caught doing this very dangerous challenge.
Dr. Brian Wagers, pediatrician at Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health in Indianapolis, Indiana, said that the salt and ice challenge had been popular among kids for years. Due to its low production budget and direct cause-and-effect, this challenge will continue to be popular among children.
Dr. Wagers told Fox 59, "Some of the pictures you'll see on the internet and YouTube, those kids have third-degree burns. I mean, it turns it to leather essentially. So, you lose the blood vessels that are in there. You lose sensation, because of the nerve endings ... You'll never have hair if you did it on your arms. So, you'll have a bald patch."
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