Sick New Teen Trend: Salt and Ice Body Burns

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Yes, Table Salt and Ice Cubes Caused That Second-Degree Burn You See at Left

Ingesting spoonfuls of cinnamon, soaking gummy bears in rum and shoving vodka-soaked tampons up their tooters … those are butt, er, but a few of the disturbing teen trends we've learned about so far this year.

But the latest teen trend is far more disturbing: a 12-year-old Pittsburgh boy suffered second-degree burns in the shape of a cross on his back last week, thanks to a new trend referred to as the "salt and ice challenge," reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.com.

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The challenge involves teens covering their skin with salt, then placing ice cubes on top of it and having other people apply pressure on the area. That causes intense pain, and the object of the challenge is to see how long the person can stand the pain.

Unfortunately, it also leads to severe burns, like the ones the boy in the photo suffered after his brother and a friend helped him perform the stunt. The boys learned about the challenge on Facebook and YouTube, and decided to try it during a sleepover last weekend.

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The victim ended up at a Pittsburgh burn center, and the director of the facility held a press conference on Friday to alert parents to the salt and ice challenge and the severe injuries that can result from it.

"The injury is similar to frostbite that can result in mild cold injury but it also could increase in severity based on the time the ice is applied," Dr. Ariel Aballay said. "The longer (the challenge goes on), the more serious the injury. This patient went for a few minutes, but there have been cases that went for six or seven minutes that resulted in third-degree injuries."

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The 12-year-old whose injuries sparked Aballay's press conference participated for 20 minutes, according to his mother. He has severe blistering and required drug treatment via a lotion that must be applied four times a day for months, the Post-Gazette.com reports. He also can't swim or go outside without a shirt for the rest of the summer.

"I want parents to go to Facebook and YouTube to be aware of it and all the other Internet challenges," the boy's mother said. "Kids are so impressionable and you can tell them no until you are blue in the face."