Easy Bake Oven blamed for family’s poisoning: ‘Shortness of breath, chills and nausea’
Easy Bake Illness.
Stephanie Murphy, who runs @steph_murphy on TikTok, alleged an Easy Bake Oven nearly poisoned her family after using the device for the first time.
“My husband, eight-year-old daughter and myself all got admitted to the ER on Saturday because of an Easy Bake Oven,” she captioned the viral video with over 7.6 million views.
“Difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, chills, and nausea. Nothing on Google showed anything similar, so was this a one-off or have there been others?”
In the 5-minute and 30-second clip posted on Feb. 20, Murphy explained her husband Ryan and daughter Nora used the toy oven to make a two-layer Red Velvet cake.
However, as soon as they plugged the device in, Nora noticed an odd smell, which she alerted her dad about, but he dismissed the concern since the smell went away.
“My husband just assumed it’s a toy it probably smelled like plastic,” Murphy noted. “But he also has not had no smell or taste for three years because he had COVID.”
Ryan and Nora continued to prep the dessert and placed one cake tray at a time. While they waited for the cake to bake, the pastry duo went to the living room to hang with Murphy.
Around “16 to 20 minutes later they took it out of the Easy Bake Oven and realized it still was not cooked fully,” Murphy said. “They figured this is trash. We don’t even want to make the second layer and unplugged it.”
The family packed up their baking materials and called it quits.
“Nobody ate it, we threw it away,” she confessed.
About 45 minutes later, Nora started “complaining of chest pains,” so her parents monitored her to see if the condition worsened.
Shortly, the 8-year-old expressed she had trouble breathing, and her mom used a pulse oximeter to check her vital signs.
“I checked her oxygen and [it] was 89 which is very low so we went straight to the ER,” she continued. “On the way to the ER my husband was like ‘Actually, I’m been having difficulty breathing as well.'”
Murphy then admitted she had abnormal breathing too.
The family of three was seen by doctors who alleged their condition was from “carbon monoxide poisoning” since their symptoms happened within an hour.
Murphy revealed that Ryan and Nora had “compromised lungs” since the pair were using the Easy Bake Oven in the kitchen while she was in another room during the activity.
“At Hasbro, we take all product safety concerns seriously. We hold ourselves to the highest standards, and the Easy Bake Oven is designed to meet or exceed those standards,” Hasbro spokesperson Crystal Flynn told The Post. “We are confident that there is nothing in the design of the Easy Bake Oven or Easy Bake mixes that could cause the symptoms described. Regardless of circumstances, the wellbeing of our customers is our foremost concern, and we wish those involved a speedy recovery.”
Murphy had a fast recovery since she didn’t have direct contact with the device. Her husband’s condition improved as well, but Nora had to be transferred to Boston’s Children’s Hospital.
“Once we got there she was improving, she no longer needed oxygen support and they did a repeat chest X-ray,” she added.
The family was able to go home with their daughter on Sunday.
“My husband and daughter are both on a five-day steroid [and have to use] an inhaler every four hours,” Murphy said.
To ensure the house was safe for the family, the fire department went to the home to test for lead, carbon monoxide and mold. However, the results came back negative since it was eight hours since the device was unplugged.
“All signs point back to the Easy Bake Oven,” Murphy claimed. “There was some kind of poison that got emitted from that machine when we plugged it in.”
The Post reached out to Murphy for additional comment.
Murphy’s story time alarmed many parents online about the alleged dangers of an Easy Bake Oven.
“Please keep the Easy Bake Oven and hire a lawyer….. fast! Your lawyer will likely pay someone to test the oven in a laboratory setting,” commented a watcher.
“This is the second easy bake oven incident I’ve seen on here today! so scary. Glad y’all are ok,” added another.
Another mother shared a similar experience with Murphy’s family.
“Omg I was right then my daughter and I got so sick when we used her easy bake oven headache, nausea, vertigo. We never used it after that, it’s still in my garage,” they declared.
“That’s crazy and scary!! I would contact the easy bake oven people,” advised one woman.
Murphy responded, “I absolutely am going to.”
