Mom Shares Grave Warning After Pair of Shoes Leaves Toddler's Feet with Third-Degree Burns
WARNING: The following contains images with graphic content and links to graphic content that some viewers will find disturbing.
As parents, we do our best to warn our children about various dangers. We make sure to keep them away from sharp objects.
We tell them to hold our hands in the parking lot and stay away from busy streets. And we especially keep them away from heat sources and open flames, particularly when they are little.
But have you ever stopped to think that not every burn comes from fire? One Houston, Texas, mother got a terrible reminder of that fact after indulging her young daughter with a new pair of sandals.
According to a post she shared on Facebook, Felicia Hillman didn’t think anything about buying her daughter a pair of new shoes — and why would she? What was the worst that could happen?
“So a few weeks ago, I bought Rosie those jelly sandals from Walmart,” she wrote. If you aren’t familiar with “jellies,” understand that they’re a trend that was originally popular during the ‘90s and has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years.
Brightly colored, crafted out of PVC plastic, and stippled with holes to allow airflow, they’re inexpensive and cute. It’s no wonder little girls often find themselves drawn to them.
But like many cute pieces of clothing, they aren’t exactly comfortable to wear. Alysse Dalessandro of Bustle penned an article in 2015 entitled “How To Break In Jelly Shoes — I Wore Jelly Sandals For A Week And Lived To Write About It.”
She wrote, “My biggest association with the jellies I wore growing up was sweat followed closely with blisters caused by the heat and friction. I also remember having clear jellies that would steam up like glasses in the shower.”
Commenting on the shoes’ resurgent popularity, MTV News highlighted how they were slippery and smelled terrible due to foot sweat. “Whether your heel gets irritated from the strap or your toes are squished and rubbed into raw, li’l nubs, you’ll wear these bad boys once and then think about laying off for a while (or forever),” the website stated.
That’s put in a tongue-in-cheek way, but there was nothing whimsical about what happened to little Rosie when she first wore her jellies. Hillman said that her daughter developed blisters after a single day in the shoes.
“After one day in them she came home from daycare with blisters,” Hillman wrote. “ONLY ONE DAY WAS SHE IN THEM.”
But the initial blisters weren’t the worst of it, as they got progressively worse, leaving her with wounds that were essentially third-degree burns. It grew so concerning that Hillman rushed her to the ER.
“After countless antibiotics and creams finally we have some relief,” she stated. “Thank God this steroid cream is working. … We have to see a plastic surgeon to make sure she won’t need skin grafts to make up for the skin she lost.
“My poor Rosie girl has been a trooper. From blisters to horrific skin peeling and bleeding.”
Hillman also told Yahoo Lifestyle, “She is healing slowly, and we are going to see a specialist soon.” She added, “I have had so many nasty messages and threats sent to me saying that I did that to her myself.
“It was too much negative and unwanted attention from nasty people. I just wanted to share what had happened to my child and that was it.”
Mission accomplished: If you did not know the havoc these kinds of shoes could wreak before, you have now been warned. Cute and trendy doesn’t mean safe, and these shoes prove that.
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