A seven-year-old girl was left in a deep unconscious state after a popular squishy toy burst open, its contents seriously injuring her skin after she’d microwaved it.

Scarlett Selby, from Festus, Mo., was playing with a NeeDoh squishy cube — a gelatinous, squeezable toy — after placing it in the freezer overnight.

“The next day she showed me it was rock solid and she was playing with it,” Scarlett’s father, Josh Selby, told. “She put it in the microwave. I was watching her and saw her touch it to check it wasn’t too hot when she pulled it out.”

Scarlett was reportedly copying videos she’d seen online to make the toy more pliable. Selby said that he heard Scarlett scream and ran over to help his daughter, who was now covered in the sticky substance from inside the toy.

A representative for Schylling, the manufacturer of NeeDoh, told PEOPLE:

“Ensuring the safety of our consumers is fundamental for Schylling. We were disappointed to see there had been a trend on social media demonstrating improper use of our NeeDoh® brand. Using a NeeDoh product in ways such as microwaving, heating, or freezing is dangerous and may cause harm.”

The company continued:

“Schylling has partnered with social media companies, such as TikTok, to remove influential content containing NeeDoh product misuse. Additionally, Schylling has added a product warning to NeeDoh packaging and our website to help reduce misuse. Schylling has made the Consumer Product Safety Commission aware and will continue to cooperate with them.”

Selby recalled trying to help his daughter after the toy burst. “Whenever I touched her, my hand stuck to her,” he said, sharing that he had to remove her shirt because it was covered in the hot substance.

NeeDoh’s website explains most of its stress toys are filled with “polyvinyl alcohol (PVA),” which is also used as a coating in pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements. However, Selby said his daughter was playing with a “cube.” The company’s “Nice Cube” is filled with “100% maltose, similar to melted sugar,” according to the website.

Selby and Scarlett’s mother, Amanda Blankenship, drove to St. Louis Children’s Hospital, with Scarlett crying intensely from discomfort.

“It was terrible how scared she was and how much it affected her,” said Blankenship.

Doctors were concerned about the possibility that the injuries around Scarlett’s mouth could swell and affect her breathing, so she was placed in a medically supported unconscious state for three days. Her lips were so badly affected that she was given a feeding tube for a week, the outlet reports.

These days, Blankenship says she’ll often catch her daughter crying while looking in the mirror because of her visible marks.

“She gets very self-conscious, and I’ll see her trying to cover the mark with her shirt when we’re out in public sometimes, or she’ll come home from school and say another kid asked her about it,” Blankenship said. “I tell her she doesn’t need to be embarrassed about it. She went through a lot and it was a terrible accident.”

Skin grafts may be considered when she’s older, Blankenship explained, sharing that “after consulting with the doctors we’re going to give her a couple of years, maybe until she’s around 12, to see how her body grows and whether the mark changes as she grows.”

In the meantime, they’re treating the affected areas daily with creams and ointments, but as her mom described, “They’re very noticeable marks that rise above her skin.”

This isn’t the first reported incident of a child experiencing harm after microwaving a stress toy. An 8-year-old girl was left with facial marks when a NeeDoh toy burst after she put it in the microwave, as Inside Edition previously reported.