The salt and ice challenge: Don't let your teen get burned

Jul 05, 2012 4:50 PM by Sherri Kuhn

Posted in Parenting / Age by Age / Tweens, Teens & College

The videos are all over YouTube — teens and even younger children challenging each other to a test of pain tolerance. It seems innocent enough, until you see the injuries many of them suffer.

What is the salt and ice challenge?

The challenge involves nothing more than a handful of salt and some ice cubes. Participants pour the salt into their hand and then add the ice cubes. Some simply close their fist and see how long they can hold it closed — others actually have friends press the salt/ice mixture onto their skin and hold it. The object is to see who has the higher pain tolerance and can withstand the burning pain the longest.

Part of the lure for teens is the possibility of becoming an internet superstar by posting a video on YouTube and sharing it with friends. The popularity of these videos makes it harder to stop teens from trying the challenge themselves, especially when they watch video footage of someone who isn’t badly injured.

Check out this party game that can kill >>

Why it burns

Tell your kids: The mixture of salt and ice cubes can cause third-degree burns because adding salt to ice or ice water makes it colder.

Think back to your basic chemistry class in high school, or the last time you made homemade ice cream. Adding salt to ice or ice water actually lowers the temperature and makes it colder than the regular freezing temperature for water, 32 degrees F. The mixture soaks up heat from the surrounding skin cells, causing a second- or third-degree burn similar to frostbite. Anyone who has ever had extended contact with ice or very cold water knows how uncomfortable it feels on your skin.

A 12-year-old Pittsburgh boy is recovering from second-degree burns after he participated in the challenge. Dr. Ariel Aballay, director at the West Penn Burn Center where the boy was treated, discussed the case and showed startling images of the boy’s burns. His parents, who chose to remain anonymous, released a statement: “We want teenagers and the general public to know that the ‘salt and ice challenge’ is extremely dangerous. Videos on YouTube, Facebook and other social media do not accurately show the terrible injuries that can result. We are grateful that our son is recovering and hope that sharing his story will stop other young people from attempting this stunt.”

Read about the dangers of the "choking game" >>

Talk

Take a few minutes to talk to your kids about this challenge, and share some of the horrible images of burns. What seems like a harmless game can leave scars for a lifetime.

More parenting teens

Tags: teen behavior

Comments

Comments on "The salt and ice challenge: Don't let your teen get burned"

On may 8th I had been dared to complete this challenge I had never heard about it until a little after I had ice n salt on my arm . I had the worst pain going through my arm and there was no pressure being put on it. The person then proceeded to show me a YouTube video about it all the way till the end . I hurried up and swiped the salt and ice off of my arm. My skin was hard and cold , it hurt really really bad.. My advice when someone says I dare you to do the salt and ice challenge say no and walk away its not worth it.

I did this Yesterday early in the morning .. my arm is now BLACK it turning into A burn and its really painful.. idk i decided too watch youtube videos.. i thought it. Will be cool i didnt kno it will be this way i have a second degree burn I feel stupid :(

Hey guys i did the salt and ice challenge and my advice to anyone that wants to do it DON'T its very painfull and looks horrible. I am a teen as well and I can admit that I did something stupid!! My friends told me that it Wud only get red... thats a bunch of bs... It's not fun wen u do it or the day after I have wat looks like a third degree burn and trust me you guys don't want that. I hope this helps people my age not to do this stupid "challenge"! Thanks for reading! :-P

My daughter just tried this experiment in Minnesota. Her arms have several ugly burns on them, she says she learned lesson ,& I believe her but look at the consequences possibly permanant scaring on the formost parts of her arms ... Before you try these stunts look them up on the web & see the testimonies of others who've made the mistakes for you & save yourself a world of hurt ....

Terribly dangerous. Good thing you and the hypocritical Daily Mail didn't post enough information between you to explain the nature and rules of the game to millions of people who would otherwise not have heard of it. Oh, you did? Well done. This is journalism is it?

I just recently did this with my friends and i dont know about others but we didnt know about the dangers this can cause. We have burns ut they dont seem too bad they dont hurt that much and we told our parnets after we did it and they just gave us some medician. its not that bad i mean were just kids so baack off about how were trying to self harm ourselves and realize that not everyone knows th dangers of it!

My daughter & her boyfriend did the salt & ice challenge on Friday night. They both have bad burns.

As a teen myself it is all peer presher ive done this my self .I now should know by know but as i said it is all peer presher and its hard to say no

Honestly, I myself am a teenager, and I can't stand those people these days... I mean, I know it apparently is normal to do daft things at this age, but, seriously. I just CAN'T UNDERSTAND what's going on the mind of the other people of my age, even people older than me do this kind of stuff, it's like they don't understand what can this bring to themselves, they think the adults say them to not do it to prevent themselves from the fun.

When I was in middle school and high school, proving manliness wasn't the ice game. We would just beat the out of each other for fun. Because, hey, fighting is fun. Or swing a heavy book bag at each other. You'd brace yourself and get hit in the head. Show no fear. Show no emotion. Learn the hard way to be a man and how stupid your teenage definition of it is. THAT is the boy's mentality.

My boy has just done this. I had to take him to hospital with 3rd degree burns equivalent to frosebite! My lad was apparently never told what could happen and he is now on antibiotics as it got infected. We didnt know he had done it until he felt so much pain that it kept him awake. This is a stupid craze and one that needs to be explained and nipped in the bud. Yes, we all did daft things at school, but we never self harmed ourselves.

Kids will be kids. Let them learn the hard way. Remember when you were a teen? Yeah. That's what I thought. I did this before on my thigh, & ended up with a cute little heart.

Oh my goodness, kids these days. I never understood why anyone would want to intentionally inflict pain on themselves. That's kids though. I think it's so important to talk to them about this and tell them why they should not participate. Hopefully, my kid will be the one getting others NOT to do it as well.