Inside the squishy nightmare: Explosions, burns, and thousands of calls to poison control

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Warning: Some of the images you may see are graphic. For questions or if you suspect a poisoning, contact Poison Help at PoisonHelp.org or call 1-800-222-1222.

Katie Zerbst was doing laundry on a Sunday morning in June when she heard a "guttural" moan. "It was the sound that makes you just drop everything and run," the 45-year-old mother told Business Insider.

Rushing into the kitchen, Zerbst found her 10-year-old daughter, Violet, covered in steaming hot, sparkly goo. Burns seared across her face, and skin from her top lip was flapping down into her mouth. Moments earlier, Violet had popped a squishy toy into the microwave for 30 seconds. She wanted to make the glittery cube more malleable so she could squish it more easily. When she pulled it out, it erupted like a volcano.

Violet ended up in the emergency room, and she isn't the only child to visit the hospital after playing with a squishy.

Business Insider reviewed dozens of incident reports, spoke to parents, and consulted doctors and regulators about the risks behind this year's biggest toy craze. Despite a spike in reports of burns and concerns about toxic exposure, oversight of squishies — slime-filled toys shaped like dumplings, fruit, ice cubes, and other cute characters — falls into a regulatory gray area, and the market is teeming with counterfeits and knockoffs.

What's in a squishy?

Squishies, with their gooey, foamy, or gel-like textures, fall into the category of "sensory toys," like fidget spinners, kinetic sand, and magnetic balls.

In recent years, the toys have gone "from zero to hero," Five Below CEO Winnie Park told investors in June. They're helping the retailer to become "America's greatest little toy store" by driving brick-and-mortar traffic, Park said on September's earnings call. Kohl's also credited the toy with a sales bump, and workers from several retailers have taken to social media with tales of over-eager customers demanding their favorite squishies. Instagram and TikTok are full of satisfying videos of hands squishing toys shaped like a strawberry or a tube of toothpaste.

However, reports from homes and hospitals across the country describe exploding and leaking toys, along with chemical smells. America's Poison Centers told Business Insider that more than half of the 11,500 reports about squishies received by its member organizations since 2024 happened in the first six months of 2026, though only a small portion of the ruptures caused severe injury.

Schylling, which manufactures the most popular squishy brand, NeeDoh, was hit with two lawsuits in July over squishy explosions that plaintiffs say resulted in severe burns. One complaint said that a NeeDoh Nice Cube, left lying on a TV stand near a window, remained cool to the touch but, when squeezed, erupted with a scalding gel that left blisters on the person's leg. Lawyers for the company declined to comment on the allegations.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has also seen a spike in squishy-related incident reports from shoppers and hospitals this year. A Business Insider review found about two dozen consumers describing how ruptures — due to microwaves, hot cars, and squeezing — have burned kids this year. Roughly 20 more reported strong smells emanating from the squishy toys. Hospital reports collected by CPSC showed about a dozen explosion cases in 2025, the latest year available.

One parent told the CPSC the toy didn't "just pop"; it "exploded" in February 2024 after their daughter squeezed it on her 10th birthday. This August, another reported that their 8-year-old son was squeezing his squishy normally when it ruptured. "The outer layer of the toy failed without warning, spraying the internal filling directly across my son's face and into his eyes," causing immediate "burning and distress," the report said. A February report to CPSC echoed a common complaint about a squishy that "emitted an extremely powerful and persistent chemical odor, resembling acetone or nail polish remover," which gave its owner a headache.

In response to growing public concern, the CPSC issued guidance in August, warning shoppers of serious burn hazards from intentionally or unintentionally exposing toys to heat. A spokesperson told Business Insider that these toys hit on several longstanding concerns for the agency, including the dangers of water beads and potential exposure to unsafe chemicals. As for the dangers of microwaving them? That's considered improper use, and the agency doesn't typically punish companies when consumers don't follow safety warnings, the spokesperson said.

Underlying these reports is the common frustration that squishy ingredients vary widely and often aren't listed on the packaging. NeeDoh discloses that its products, including the Nice Cube, Dream Drop, and Groovy Glob, use fairly common ingredients such as maltose sugar, cornstarch, and polyvinyl alcohol, the latter of which the brand says is non-toxic and also found in white glue.

While these ingredients are considered chemically safe, the lawsuit in California cites academic research to argue that some of these substances have thermal properties that, along with a soft polymer casing, can make scalding hot gel feel deceptively cool to the touch — until the toy pops.

The market is also rife with knock-offs, and federal safety rules are patchy. US regulations don't require independent testing and certification of toys, unless they're marketed to children under 13.

Manufacturers initially decide how to market and age-grade their products, subject to CPSC oversight. While products clearly intended for young children, such as baby pacifiers or toddler teethers, must meet stricter testing requirements, squishies can plausibly be sold as children's toys, adult stress balls, desk accessories, or collectibles. Many are marketed as products for all ages, and verifying a toy's age classification can involve a lengthy review.

That ambiguity raises a broader question: When an all-ages product becomes wildly popular with children, should it be treated as a children's toy? The CPSC says it considers not just a product's label, but also how it's designed, marketed, and reasonably understood and used by consumers when determining whether it's a children's product. That last part can change over time, and sometimes it shifts faster than regulators can keep up with.

The agency said that reputable brands typically go beyond legal requirements by seeking voluntary safety certification from independent organizations, such as ASTM International or United Laboratories, and include their logos on their packaging. An ASTM spokesperson told Business Insider the organization's standards are periodically reviewed and revised in consultation with a committee of more than 1,000 members to address new products and hazards.

The squishy market is ballooning

The Zerbst family bought their Glitter Super Squeeze at a local toy store in Queensland, Australia. After Violet's injury, they looked into the product and found that it was manufactured in China under the name Smooshos for distribution in Australia by MDI, a toy supplier. The package didn't list ingredients. It included a warning that "microwaving may cause injury to yourself and others," but that doesn't stop young children from encountering social media trends that promote microwaving them.

Our reporting found that some serious injuries happened even when the toys were used as intended, without being heated or frozen — a concern that cropped up in the CPSC complaints, the lawsuits, and in our interviews with parents of injured children.

Jodanna Bevan, a 39-year-old mom of four who lives in Wales, bought discounted dumpling-shaped squishies from Shein. In late July, her son Hudson was squeezing one of them in his playroom when it suddenly popped, spraying a thick, white, sandy substance into the 4-year-old's face. Bevan and her husband quickly washed out his eyes. When Hudson woke up at 6 a.m. the next day, they were so swollen he couldn't open them.

"He was screaming and so scared," Bevan told Business Insider.

At the hospital, Hudson had to be sedated as staff repeatedly rinsed his eyes. "It's like a torture treatment for a child," she added. While his vision doesn't seem to be affected, the experience was emotionally fraught for the family.

"You feel so guilty then as a parent, seeing them go through that," Bevan said.

Bevan threw the toy away before checking for ingredients. She doesn't think it would have helped. "Where you buy the toys in these different corner shops and whatnot, it doesn't say anything on there about what could be in them," she said.

Shein, which has since pulled the product, would not disclose the ingredients. A Shein spokesperson told Business Insider the company requires all third-party sellers to comply with local laws and its product safety standards. The spokesperson also said Shein works with multiple international testing and inspection agencies "to identify and address non-compliant products."

After the BBC covered Bevan's story, Shein emailed Bevan an apology and offered her a full refund for the squishy toys — £10.12 (a little under $14) for four, two-piece sets — plus £20 ($27) in Shein store credit.

The CPSC told Business Insider that the commission and US Customs have intercepted 96 shipments of squishy toys so far this year, preventing more than 640,000 items from entering the country because they violated various safety regulations.

"That's probably just the tip of the iceberg," said Courtney Griffin, director of consumer product safety at the Consumer Federation of America, a research and advocacy nonprofit.

The rise of online marketplaces, where international third parties sell directly to customers in the US and elsewhere, has further complicated regulators' and consumers' ability to know exactly what is in the products.

Trying to catch risky products is like playing whack-a-mole, but the feds have gotten some off the market. In early September, CPSC recalled a brand of squishy dumplings that contained water beads and posed a choking hazard if the toy ruptured. The dumplings, made in China, were distributed via Amazon. In May, the agency recalled a squishy monkey called Orb Funkee — made in China, distributed by a Canadian wholesaler — after tests revealed it may contain asbestos.

"If you are pushing for kids to just buy more, more, more of these, that certainly lends itself to the rise of dupes and counterfeits, fakes, and other unsafe things," Griffin said.

It's back-to-squishy season

Parents are braced for more squishies to enter their homes with the start of the school year. It's become a meme on TikTok — parents picking up random toys, wondering where they came from. Friends? Grandparents? Birthday party gift bags?

But for a small number of families, the fun ends in the emergency room.

"Everything's fine one instant to everything is 100% not fine the next," Kelly McElligott, a burn outreach coordinator at Loyola Medical Center in Illinois, said. "That it is all very overwhelming on top of your kid being hurt and you not knowing what the long-term prognosis is."

McElligott, who's seen around six cases this year, monitors patients for up to two years to make sure they're healing properly, physically and emotionally. Even if the surface skin looks OK, scar tissue can form beneath or cause functional issues if the scarring tightens over joints, she said.

Most squishies don't cause injuries, even when they pop. America's Poison Centers said 85% of exposure cases had no documented signs or symptoms, and 94% of those cases were managed at home or outside a healthcare facility.

The stories of children who have been injured have created a dilemma for parents whose kids are obsessed with them.

Summiah Hafeez's 8-year-old daughter has about 10 to 15 squishies. Two dumplings and a stick of butter are her prized possessions. Initially, Hafeez bought a couple as a reward for reading more books, but soon squishies were turning up everywhere.

"Whenever any other kid comes over, that's what she wants to show them," Hafeez, 31, who lives in Dallas, told Business Insider. "It's definitely a big thing among all kids right now."

Hafeez keeps them out of the car; the Texas heat can easily top 100 degrees in the warmer months. She's taught her daughter to store the toys on a shelf in her room, away from her 2-year-old sister, who Hafeez worries might eat them. She also doesn't allow her daughter to use the microwave for any reason.

Those who've experienced burns are taking a harder line. Bevan has purged all the squishies in the house and is trying to spread the word about their potential dangers. "All our friends have had them for their children," she said. "You've got to be aware that there could actually be some dangerous chemicals in there."

As for Violet, her mom shudders at the memory of rushing her into the shower, letting a stream of cold water run over her face and body. Zerbst said her daughter sat in the shower for 40 minutes, waiting for an ambulance to arrive. The paramedics congratulated Zerbst for her quick thinking in administering first aid.

"It was terrifying to hear Violet whimpering, but she was pretty calm and collected on the whole," the mom said. "I was just scared of any lasting damage from a cult squishy that seemed so harmless and fun."

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