Toddler plunged into coma after inhaling cake decorating dust

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]Yep, you're helping with stuff.

[00:00:02]Better than me.

[00:00:04]Why is that better?

[00:00:06]It's so hard to see my little boy like that and I don't want anyone to have to go through what we've gone [music] through.

[00:00:15]A mom has issued an urgent plea to parents after a split second of curiosity led to her son being placed into an induced coma. 18-month-old Dusty had been playing while his mother Katie decorated a Bluey cake nearby when he reached into the drawer. He pulled out an unused tube of luster dust, [music] an ingredient used by bakers to add sparkle to their cakes.

[00:00:37]>> Yeah, he found the little powder in one of the drawers there and within seconds had just, you know, pulled it off with his teeth, the cap, [music] and just inhaled it and ingested it at the same time. Then from there onwards he was just choking and getting upset and you [music] could tell that he was starting to struggle to breathe. So, I got on the phone to 13HEALTH and my partner [music] was trying to force some water down his throat and see what we could do to help him. And they got an ambulance out and in the time it took [music] for the ambulance to get there, he was not breathing well. He was grunting really low grunt and then trying to take a quick sharp breath in. He was getting all floppy, his body was flopping around and his eyes were rolling in his head and he was just getting unresponsive.

[00:01:17]Like I was trying [music] to like slap his cheeks, call out his name, and yeah, he just wasn't opening his eyes. [music] >> Upon arrival to the hospital, Katie had to watch on helplessly while doctors provided [music] care and rushed her baby into surgery.

[00:01:31]>> There was a team waiting for us. They started [music] getting hooking him up to everything, getting tubes in, and it was all very chaotic. They took him straight [music] into surgery and did a flush out of his lungs. So, I think it's like a saline solution and flush it all out and see what they could get out. They could see that it was a lot of the shimmery sort of powder that came out in the liquid [music] and it was sitting on top of the liquid so you could tell that it wasn't going to be dissolved in water, which obviously means as well that it's not going to be dissolved in blood. So, that was where the issues came up because they weren't sure how the body was going to expel this, and they didn't actually know what it was at that point.

[00:02:10]>> Katie's [music] quick thinking meant that she remembered to grab the bottle that Dusty had gotten into before leaving for the hospital, meaning that doctors were able to test [music] it only to find it had contained copper.

[00:02:22]They have said that there could be possible complications with his possibly [music] having a sort of like asthma.

[00:02:28]Because this is such a rare case, they're really not sure. It's It's just [music] an educated guess, and we just have to kind of wait and see. To not know what what the future holds for all of us is really really quite scary, [music] and you know, whether I can even go back to work or if he can go back to daycare, and >> [music] >> if I might have to just be with him at home to to make sure that he's okay.

[00:02:48]Katie wants to see these products removed from shelves, and she wants [music] parents to be aware of the dangers. Basically, I just I just want it to get out there [music] that there's these products are out there, and they shouldn't be anywhere even remotely close to to food items. There is a whole range of luster dusts that are edible, and obviously there is a whole range that are not. So, I just think that [music] we should be taking off the shelf all of the ones that are not edible, even if they're they're advertised as [music] only to be used on removable parts.

[00:03:20]People might not comprehend that, and >> [music] >> you know, if they're not savvy with baking things, they would just assume that anything that's related to a cake should be edible. I just have this driving me now that I just feel like I need to get this out there, you know? I just It's so hard to see my little boy like that, and I don't want anyone to >> [laughter] >> have to go through what we've gone through. Right now, little Dusty remains in hospital [music] surrounded by the love of his family as he works to try breathing on his own again. A GoFundMe has been started [music] to help raise funds for the parents who work as sole traders with the road ahead remaining uncertain.