People have been warned to check the age of their hot water bottles to avoid horrific injuries.
As temperatures continue to drop and the price of energy spirals, many are turning to alternative methods of keeping warm.
Consumer expert Alice Beer told This Morning viewers that she was contacted on Instagram by a parent whose child suffered third-degree burns after her hot water bottle had burst.
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Alice explained how this had become a common issue, with a London hospital seeing people suffering hot water bottle burns at least once a week.
She said: "Half of hot water bottle injuries need skin grafts and surgeries.
"These are not surface burns, these go really deep."
She added that a regular hot water bottle should last up to three years before people should consider finding a replacement.
Alice also advised anyone with a hot water bottle to check its date of manufacture to see how long they've had it.
Alice demonstrated how to find the date of manufacture through a hidden code on the product.
She said: "You don't know about it because this is a brand new hot water bottle in a fluffy cover. Why would you ever take it off unless it got dirty. I'm sorry, but I think this is the worst system for printing a date because it's so confusing."
She continued: "Inside you have got a daisy wheel date. It's got 12 segments and in the middle of this one you have got a 22. This one was made in 2022. Then you have 12 segments around the outside and those are the months.
"You can tell the month it was manufactured from when the dots end. It's got dots in eight segments so it was made in August."
The number of dots on a hot water bottle indicates the week it was made. Alice also highlighted that people should not pour boiling water into their bottle and should remove the cover when filling it up so you can accurately check the condition it's in.
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