Mother issues a warning: "Don't allow children to eat these foods in the sun"

When you have a small child you have to be careful of everything around them and avoid putting them in "dangerous" situations. Especially when a child is only a few months old, their senses aren't developed and they doesn't understand the world like us adults - so it's necessary to have eyes in the back of your head. Yet sometimes, not even these are enough to safeguard our babies.

And this is exactly what happened in the story we are about to tell you about here. In this case, a celery stalk was the culprit.

via Good Morning America

Reanna Bendzak/Facebook

The story was told by Reanna Bendzak, a woman from Kamloops in British Columbia, Canada, on Facebook. After an unfortunate episode involving her 7-month-old baby, this mother wanted to share the experience to put other parents on guard

In a long post, the woman said her young daughter was chewing on a celery stalk to ease the pain in her gums caused by teething, when something completely unexpected happened. The little girl was with her mother and the rest of the family outside having a  barbecue: "It wasn't hot, but it was sunny, so we covered my baby from head to toes and she also had a hat on her head. We were sure that she was protected enough," said Reanna. But this was not the case...

Reanna's baby kept the celery in her mouth for only 5 or 10 minutes, but this was long enough for the celery's juices to interact with the sun's rays and the little girl suffered severe burns around her mouth. The reaction, scientifically known as phytophotodermatitis, is caused by some compounds present in plants such as celery, parsley or even lime being exposed to the sun's UV rays.

Reanna Bendzak/Facebook

The photo shows what happened to the 7-month-old baby girl, who only showed the first signs of these burns the morning after exposure. "We had cleaned her mouth with napkins, but in retrospect, we should have washed her face with soap and water," Reanna said.

To check the burns were really caused by celery (exposed to sunlight), Reanna did a test on her arm and got the same result. "Her burns are healing, but you have to wait a while for the blisters to dry out and fade completely. With the warmer days approaching, please be careful what snacks or drinks you and your children consume while outside in open air," Reanna cautioned.

A tough learning experience, for sure, but a lesson well taken.  Did you know that certain foods can cause reactions like this?