The beautiful and innocent face of a baby girl seems to have been scalded for life after a cup of hot tea poured on her.
Libbie Patterson
A toddler has been left with horrific facial burns after grabbing her mum's scalding cup of tea and accidentally pouring it over herself.
Libbie Patterson was left screaming in agony as the boiling hot drink splashed over her face, shoulders and back after she grabbed it from the kitchen counter.
The 16-month-old girl was raced to hospital by her frantic mum Emma where medics spent three nights treating her for burns. But medics hope Libbie's face - which has been left disfigured following the incident - will not be permanently scarred.
Now Emma has released a picture of Libbie's injuries to warn other parents about the dangers of hot drinks. The 24-year-old said: "The cup was close to the edge of the work surface and she reached up and grabbed it.
It went over her face, shoulders, stomach and back. It is amazing how making a cup of tea can have such devastating consequences. I want to make parents aware of how easily things like this can happen. We didn't have a child gate on the kitchen but I do now. I've learned all the lessons."
Scalds from hot drinks are the most common cause of burn injury for children aged under five and it takes only a second to cause a deep burn from hot water at 70 degrees Celsius.