A shocking warning has been issued to parents of children who own dolls that can be 'fed', after a video began circulating of one toy crawling with maggots.
The shocking clip was shared by Alyssa Abston, 18, who posted it to Facebook and wrote: 'So for anyone who's kid has a baby alive or a baby doll that can be "fed" please please make sure you wash it with hot water and soap after each use!'
https://www.facebook.com/alyssa.abston/posts/1330704000318173
Alyssa later clarified that the doll actually belonged to a family friend, and it was her six-year-old niece who found the infestation.
'She screamed really loud because she thought the baby had worms,' she told the Manchester Evening News.
'It [the video] shows just how gross it was and we threw it away right then. I think they had fed it baby formula.'
Alyssa's video has since been shared more than 62,000 comments, and received over 11,000 horrified comments from mums and dads around the world.
Baby Alive dolls, which retail for upwards of £35 on sites such as eBay and Amazon, and other similar toys of this nature allow children to feed their 'baby' items that are provided with the doll.
However, some commenters have stated that the dolls are not designed to consume real food, and that the instructions state that they should be cleaned after use.
'It comes with playdough, use the playdough it comes with instead of real food and you won't have this problem,' one wrote. 'If you insist on using real food, then yeah you'll have to clean it out.'
'Read the instructions, and they aren't supposed to get real food in the first place,' another added. 'I really feel this should be common sense that if you let food sit, it will eventually mold lol.'
'It's states in the instructions to take them apart and clean then after you've fed them and let them do there 'business' as does the baby born doll,' a third chimed in.
However, others were more sympathetic to the issue: 'My daughter has the same doll, it's only supposed to be playduh in it, not real food because of things like this could happen... very gross but very easily done with lil ones that don't know/understand any better,' empathised one.
'Just have to try and watch and clean each use!! Poor baby lol'
