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Social media challenge gives kids severe burns

Posted at 11:25 PM, Apr 29, 2016
and last updated 2016-04-30 02:35:55-04
A viral social media challenge is causing children in the valley to hurt themselves.
 
The latest social media craze making a comeback is called the "ice-salt challenge."
 
Kids are pouring salt on their hands or forearms then seeing who can hold an ice cube on it the longest.
 
Kathryn Hall's eight-year-old daughter gave herself second-degree burns completing the challenge.
 
"It wasn't until I saw her in class in tears trying to write with that hand that I realized that she was in pain," Hall said.
 
The girl held the ice on for three minutes at a sleepover with friends, and four days later, there were blisters all over her hand.
 
She says it didn't hurt while she was doing it. It just felt like holding normal ice.
 
What happens is the salt lowers the ice's temperature down to the point where it's like putting dry ice directly on the skin.
 
That creates a cold burn and can leave scarring.
 
Hall's daughter is recovering, but she's worried for any kids who might see this on the internet and be tempted to copycat.
 
"They don't know better, they're children, and we don't know better because we're not looking up the same things that a child would look up," she said.
 
Hall is making all the girls at the sleepover chip in for the doctor's bills she's incurred.