Dangerous new trend leaves boy with 2nd degree burns

NEW HOPE, P.a. (WTXF) - A local mom has a warning for parents after she says her son was burned when his friends played a dangerous game.

"We heard some screams and crying and my husband come running down to see what had happened," the mother told Fox 29.

Nichole Smolarski got a terrifying wakeup call this past weekend from her 12-year-old son. She says he had just been burned by scalding hot water.

"Within minutes you could see his skin just falling right off. Just was bubbling and was kind of hanging," Nichole explained.

She says her son was having a sleep over at their Buckingham Township home when two of the boys used a hot water dispenser to fill up a cup and dump it on her son as he slept. She says they did it twice.

"Finally the two boys that did it confessed to doing it and then they proceeded to tell me about this Hot Water Challenge," says Nichole.

This disturbing trend with kids across America is often captured in videos on YouTube.

Nichole says her son had to be rushed to Doylestown Hospital with 2nd degree burns and has been out of school for the whole week, but will go back Monday.

Nichole has a message to parents, "Please be sure that they watch what their kids are watching on the internet. This is crazy with all these challenges. This is dangerous. Thank God he didn't turn around cause it could have been his face."