A mom has issued a warning to fellow parents about a little-known condition after her son ended up in the hospital.
As reported by ABC.net.au, an eight-year-old boy named Otis Kerr was squeezing limes picked from a tree outside his home at Ocean Shores, north of Byron Bay in Australia.
Unfortunately, a few days later he was sent to the hospital after his mother, Catherine Kerr, spotted enormous blisters on his tiny arms.
"They were asking me if he'd had contact with anything unusual, and I just did not think to say limes," Catherine said, as cited by the publication. "I felt quite silly not realizing."
Read the mother's post below:Otis was initially taken to the Tweed Heads Hospital and was diagnosed with contact dermatitis - which is an itchy rash caused by direct contact with a substance or an allergic reaction to it, per Mayo Clinic.
The young boy was sent home after his medical appointment but a few days later, he found that the blisters continued to spread on his arm. He was soon rushed to Byron Central Hospital.
"It was a nurse there that had seen a case, I think the week before, and she was able to tell straight away that it was what's called margarita burns," the mother explained. "I just had no idea that limes and exposure to sunlight was capable of doing something like that."
Byron Bay dermatologist Hsien Herbert-Chan spoke about the incident and said that the condition - which is known as margarita burns - appears after chemicals discovered in certain fruits and vegetables strongly respond to the sun's rays.
"Limes contain chemicals called furocoumarins, which, when exposed to UV - particularly UV-A radiation - will damage the skin," the dermatologist shared, per the outlet.
"So people can be exposed to limes indoors and they won't get a reaction, but if they do go outside they will develop a phototoxic reaction," he added.
Dr. Herbert-Chan also revealed that he noticed that some patients at the hospital experienced the same infection after making homemade bleach with citrus.
"It can be a very painful condition," he remarked. "Blisters start forming pretty quickly, within minutes of exposure to radiation, but the maximum number of blisters takes about two days."
The doctor cautioned that the sore reaction could easily be dodged by washing your hands after touching the chemicals or by staying indoors.
Furthermore, Catherine disclosed that Otis is on the road to a full recovery after his devastating incident and said that he is coping with the blisters "well".
"He's dealing with it really well, I think he's most upset about missing his nippers and swimming carnival," she said. "But he was obviously in quite a bit of pain when we had to spend the night in hospital."
However, the mother also wants her son's story to serve as a reminder for other parents to be careful if their children are playing with limes - especially outdoors.
