Nichola King had just finished breastfeeding her two-year-old baby when she heard a loud thud from the kitchen.
The 36-year-old began walking downstairs to investigate when she saw her son Cesar having a seizure on the kitchen floor.
Frantic, the mum-of-four called for her other children and began performing CPR on her 12-year-old while her eldest son Kaiden rang for the ambulance.
Cesar was rushed to hospital where he was placed in a medically induced coma for two days after suffering several seizures and going into cardiac arrest.
Nichola, who lives in Doncaster, was told by police that a can of Aldi Lacura anti-perspirant had been discovered near where Cesar had collapsed.
Horrified, the stay-at-home mum soon learnt Cesar had inhaled deodorant – otherwise known as ‘chroming’ – after being told about how to do the social media craze by an older boy.
Chroming is where someone inhales toxic chemicals such as paint, solvent, aerosol cans, cleaning products or petrol, which results in a short-term ‘high’.
The dangerous trend can result in slurred speech, dizziness, hallucinations, nausea and disorientation but can also cause a heart attack or suffocation.
Luckily, Cesar made a full recovery after eight days in hospital – but mum Nichola wants to warn other parents about the challenge that nearly cost her son his life.
Nichola said: “I heard like a moaning sound from downstairs and thought Cesar had broken a bone or something. I started going downstairs and saw Cesar lying on the floor and his eyes were rolling back into his head.
“It was terrifying. He was having a seizure. I ran upstairs to get my phone. I couldn’t even unlock my phone to ring an ambulance because my hands were shaking so much so my eldest rang 999.
“I thought he’d fallen over and hit his head. I had no idea what had happened. He went blue and stopped breathing. I thought he’d died.
“I was in complete shock. I’d watched my son die and watched the light go out of his eyes.”
While waiting for the paramedics to arrive, Nichola began performing CPR on her son to try and restore his breathing.
Cesar was then rushed to Doncaster Royal Infirmary where he suffered several seizures and went into cardiac arrest a number of times.
Nichola said: “I’d not heard of [chroming] before this. An older boy had showed him how to do it.
“When police told me what he’d inhaled, I thought he was going to die. I knew it said on the back of cans ‘solvent abuse kills instantly’.”
“I’d say to the kids, it’s not worth it. It might feel good but it definitely doesn’t when you’re in the hospital trying to breathe for yourself and the pain you cause to your parents.
“And I want to stress the importance of parents being first-aid trained. I think anyone with kids should attend a course as it could be the difference between life and death.”
Aldi declined to comment.
