It was like a warhead in the literal sense.
An Australian girl likely won’t look at candy the same way again after her snack of sour Warheads candies allegedly left her with a hole in her tongue.
The fiasco began after Willow Wright, 4, raided a cupboard filled with her older brother’s Warheads hard candies while her mother was upstairs working. The candy-craving tyke reportedly scarfed down 10 of the face-puckering sweets — which are billed as being “extremely sour” — when she experienced a severe burning sensation in her mouth.
“It felt like the skin was coming off,” said Willow, who ran crying to her mother following the confection calamity, according to Australia’s 9 News. Accompanying pics uploaded to social media show the girl’s tongue, which sports a veritable crater as if she doused it in the acid from “Alien.”
“I burst into tears because I was really worried; I had never seen this before,” her horrified mother, Kirsty Wright, told 9 News of the mouth-melting incident.
Kirsty immediately rushed her daughter to see a doctor; however, they reportedly said there was not much they could do for her blistered licker — only that the Warheads wound would heal on its own in a few days.
WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTO
Dentists have since warned that sour sweets can prove hazardous for young children due to their high acid content. Indeed, while seemingly innocuous, the corrosive candies contain four different kinds of acid: ascorbic, citric, lactic and malic — and have similar pH to hydrochloric acid, according to 9News.
“Products with this level of acid or pH can cause chemical burns to the cheeks and the tongue,” said Jonathan Teoh of the Australian Dental Association. “We do see a lot of trauma and a lot of damage that can be done to teeth and to gums from sour lollies.”
Meanwhile, Arkansas Family Dental included Warheads in a roundup of Halloween candies to avoid, as “their high acidic content can damage your tooth enamel faster than other types of candy.”
As such, Warheads packaging stipulates that children under 4 shouldn’t eat the sweets and that consuming multiple candies quickly can cause “temporary irritation to sensitive tongues and mouths.”
Kirsty is now using her daughter’s horrific injury as a cautionary tale to those with a sour tooth.
“I just wanted to make it aware to parents how dangerous these lollies actually are,” said the flustered mother, who, following the incident, said she threw out every Warhead in the house.
Impact Confections, the company that makes the tart treat, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post.
However, the Wisconsin manufacturer maintains that their sour ingredients “are included at levels at or below regulatory limits” stipulated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to their website.
“We produce only high-quality products that meet all US Federal guidelines for PH levels and ingredients, and when eaten normally, consumers enjoy them with no issues,” the candy company continued. “However, some people may have an increased sensitivity to these ingredients.”