PARENTS are being warned of the danger of a ‘safety device’ used at bath time to stop babies from drowning.

While most parents know never to leave their baby alone in the bath, some may think it’s okay as long as they’re sat in a bath seat.

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However, new data from the Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK) has revealed that seven in every ten infants under one who drowned in the bath during the last four years were using a bath seat.

If unsupervised, young children can tip over in a bath seat and become trapped underneath.

Babies and young children should never be left unattended in a bath, public health officials advise.

Each year in the UK, about 13 children younger than five die from drowning.

One in four of these deaths occurs in a bath.

Matt Croxall, Charity Director at RLSS UK, said: “We find it heartbreaking to learn that child drownings in the bath are continuing to take place.

“It is concerning to learn that in many of these instances, there was a bath seat involved.

He added: “Regardless of whether you are using a bath seat during bathtime, we always advise parents and carers to keep young children within arm’s reach in water.

“And if you do need to leave the bathroom at all, take the child with you.”

Katrina Phillips, of the Child Accident Prevention Trust, previously warned babies could drown in just a few centimetres of water, very quickly and with no noise or struggle.

She said “They can’t recognise danger and don’t have the strength to try to reach the surface.

“This means you need to stay with your baby all the time near water.”

In 2022, seven-month-old Charlie Goodall was found unresponsive in a bath after his mum left him alone in a bath seat.

The mum, Danielle Massey, pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of her son at Sheffield Crown Court in July 2024.

The 31-year-old also admitted possession of cannabis on the day little Charlie died.

Martin Sharpe, defending, told the court Danielle accepted it was “her fault the seat was not properly affixed to the bath”.

He added: “She should have affixed it to a flat bath, hers is concave, and the suction pad wouldn’t properly work.

“This caused her child to tip over and then drown.”

Other bathroom hazards

Bath time is an essential part of caring for a child and is often part of the daily routine. However, there are a number of bathroom hazards, including risk of drowning, risk of scalds, electrical appliances and potential poisons.

• Close the toilet lid after use and install a toilet lid lock to prevent toddlers playing with it
• Keep medicines in original containers, preferably with child-resistant caps, and locked away in a cabinet out of reach (at least 1.5 m high)
• Unplug electrical appliances and put them away when your child is having a bath
• If you don’t already have one in your home, have an electrician install a safety switch that can reduce the likelihood of electrical injury if an appliance does fall into the sink or bathwater

Source: The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne

A MUM has shared photos of her young daughter who lost an eye after a vape exploded.

Ruby Grainger, seven, had gone to buy an ice cream and while walking home past a bonfire a battery exploded, shooting acid into her face and right eye.

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The youngster was rushed to Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, by ambulance before being transferred to the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital on October 5.

Her family was told that doctors had removed her eye during an emergency operation.

Ruby’s mum Ciara, 32, told the Mirror: “She was walking across to the van and when she was coming back bang, something exploded in her face.

“All I hear is screaming, she was hysterical, when she got to the house I could have collapsed.

“The blood was rushing all down her face, I put her to my chest and rang the ambulance, I was frantic.”

Ciara added: “Doctors said that this is the first case of this kind of damage from a fire, they have seen explosions but to lose her whole eye, the socket, everything.

”I do not think it has properly hit me that the child has no eye now.

”For a split second her whole life changed, and mine too, when she lost her eye I lost mine.

“If I could give her mine I would. I would give everything for her, she is only seven, and this never should have happened to her. I cannot believe it.”

The mum-of-four said medics believe the damage was caused by battery acid as ”the eyeball was like mashed potato”.

Ruby did not feel anything hit her eye and reports say the type of damage done would not be caused by a physical object.

Following the accident, a member of the family checked where the fire was and found remnants of several burnt-out vapes.

Ciara has now set up a fundraiser for Ruby, who needs to have a prosthetic eye fitted.

The mum wrote on the GoFundMe page: “Ruby now has to get a prosthetic eye which is going to be hard to get used to for a 7 year old.

“Ruby is going to have to experience very big changes in life for a child her age.

“Some of which are, Ruby will have to change schools because of losing her right eye she will have to go to a vision impaired school, Ruby will also never be able to go to play like she used to, Ruby also has to learn to balance again due to having a blind side, and the biggest one is Ruby is no longer able to see out of her right eye.”

Doctors are hopeful her eye socket will have healed enough in six weeks so she can undergo the operation.

WATCH as a man has a giant lump in his forehead “squeezed out” in a life-changing operation.

Clyde, 57, had an enormous bump growing out of the middle of his forehead for 30 years, after he was hit by a cricket ball at close range.

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The lump appeared a couple years after Clyde was thwacked in the forehead and showed no signs of budging.

The 57-year-old even tried to have the lump removed in Turkey – only to be told it was impossible.

“It’s quite an unusual thing. I know it’s not going to go away,” Clyde said.

“Sometimes I’ve laid in bed and just thought ‘why have I got this?’”

Over the years, Clyde became more and more self conscious of the lump protruding from the top of his forehead.

“Plus my dog, she wakes me up in the morning and is licking the lump on my head.

“I say Cheers Bonnie, you’re reminding me the lump’s there,” he quipped.

Clyde finally decided to visit consultant dermatologist Dr Emma Craythorne, in hope that he could finally have the 30-year-old bump removed.

The life-changing op that saw the lump being squeezed out of an incision in Clyde’s forehead was documented in the brand-new seventh series of The Bad Skin Clinic.

The second episode will air on Really at 9pm tonight.

Clyde was joined by his wife Caroline for his appointment with Dr Craythorne.

He explained that he was hit in the head at short range by a cricket ball, but that the lump actually didn’t appear until two years later.

Clyde already made a visit to Turkey to try and have the lump removed, but doctors weren’t able to help him.

“I’m in this hospital and they tried to remove it, but unfortunately they couldn’t do it. I came home with a scar and a lump,” he told Dr Craythorne.

“I’ve never known Clyde without it,” Caroline chimed in.

“He had it when we met, but I have noticed over the last few years Clyde’s got more conscious about it.”

After inspecting the bump, Dr Craythorne was immediately able to identify the bump as a lipoma.

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She explained to Clyde:”‘Lipo’ means fat and ‘oma’ is a benign tumour.

“The only way to get rid of this is to have it surgically removed.”

The dermatologist explained that she’d have to work around in the incisions previously made by doctors in Turkey.

“What’s interesting about Clyde’s lipoma is that he’s previously had an attempted excision on this.

“That sometimes can mean that these lipomas are a little bit more complicated.”

“Usually I would have done the incision [horizontally], but because you’ve already got a [vertical] incision, I think it makes sense just to carry that on up and over.

“I’ll then pop it out, then it will be a nice flat area,” she added.

‘SPEECHLESS’

After the consultation, it was time for Clyde to head into theatre with Dr Craythorne for the surgery.

The dermatologist started by making initial incisions in to Clyde’s scalp, slicing through the fascial layer of skin tissue to get the lipoma – a pulpy orange mass.

“So what we’ve now got to try and do is get this lipoma out of this little hole that we’ve made,” Dr Craythorne explained.

“You just have to ease it out,” she added, before gently applying pressure to both sides.

“Let’s see if we can squeeze it out.”

After pressing on either side of the lump, Dr Craythorne managed to pull it out of the wound.

Though she removed the bulk of the lipoma from Clyde’s forehead, the derm wasn’t completely convinced that it was all out.

It’s going to totally change the way I feel about myself

Clyde

She told her assistant: “There’s something here, can you see this move?

“I think it’s just scar tissue where they went in before at the front.

“But because it’s moving a bit I’m just trying to wiggle my way around here to see if there’s anything at all that they maybe disrupted.”

“There is definitely something there… I think it’s a little bit of lipoma!”

With further searching and prodding with her surgical tools, Dr Craythorne pulled out another, smaller piece of lipoma that was trapped behind scar tissue that had been created by Clyde’s previous surgery in Turkey.

“Yabba dabba doo!” Clyde exclaimed as Dr Craythorne announced that all the lipoma was now out.

She stitched Clyde’s forehead wound back up and showed him his brand-new, lump-less forehead in the mirror.

“Oh my god! I’m speechless. It’s round!” a delighted Clyde said, examining the new shape of his head.

“Caroline isn’t going to recognise me. It’s going to totally change the way I feel about myself,” a visibly emotional Clyde went on.

He was grinning from ear to ear as his wife walked in, saying: “Ta daa!”

Caroline exclaimed: “Oh my god, you look so different! Your face, you look so happy.”

“I do, I feel a million dollars,” Clyde responded.

“So what shall we do tonight then, take a few selfies?” he joked, as the couple left the clinic.

“Look in the mirror?” Caroline laughed.

In a previous episode of The Bad Skin Clinic, a nurse had a giant skin growth protruding from her neck removed.

Episode two of the seventh series of The Bad Skin Clinic airs on Really on Tuesday October 15 at 9pm and will be available to stream on discovery+.

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