11-month-old girl finds five-inch knife in new toy kit - and puts it in her mouth

A mother has described the terrifying moment her 11-month-old daughter pulled a five-inch knife from her new toy toolkit.

Mum-of-one Gina Barratt, 24, was in the kitchen preparing food when daughter Poppy pulled the metal knife from her new plastic toy set and put it straight into her mouth.

Luckily the tot's dad, Stewart Watts, 32, spotted her and immediately grabbed the stanley knife from his daughter's hand before she could injure herself.

Now the parents are blasting the manufacturers of the toy - and warning other parents to be on high alert while children open their new toys at Christmas.

Mum-of-one Gina, explained that her partner Stewart - a soldier with the Yorkshire Regiment based in Catterick, North Yorks - had bought the plastic tool set from Poundstrecher in the town.

Gina, who lives with daughter Poppy - who has Stewart's surname Watts - in Sheffield, South Yorks., explained: 'Stewart gave it to Poppy and he sat with her. He opened it but didn't see the knife and put it down for Poppy to play with. She took all the tools out and they were on the floor.

'She put the blade in her mouth and that's when Stewart saw the shiny blade. He grabbed it off her and she carried on playing. She didn't really know what had happened.

'I was cooking dinner when it happened and when I went in the room I was gobsmacked.

‘I was devastated - I just kept thinking what could have happened and what damage it could have caused to Poppy.'

Stewart bought the children's toy set, which contained contained plastic tools such as a drill and spanner and came packaged inside a train-case, for for £11.99 last week.

He opened the toy and gave it to Poppy but had not seen the knife inside until she lifted it to her mouth.

Gina said: 'The kit is in a train set and all the tools are inside and there is spaces for them all to fit in. It's a knife with a long blade with cardboard wrapped around part of it.

'I just think it's really scary and with Christmas coming up, other parents might buy the same toy. Nobody knows what could be inside it. My main concern is the safety of my child.'

Gina, who owns beauty salon G Boutique in Sheffield, called Poundstretcher several times to complain after making the discovery but did not feel the company were taking her seriously.

She said: 'We rang the store and they told me to ring head office. I rang customer services and nobody rand me back. I waited hours and it was a really serious incident. I rang back three times but I kept getting nowhere. I rang the next day and nobody was getting back to me.

Luckily Poppy did not get hurt, because Stewart was with her, but she is at the age where you can leave her to play with things. She's alwavs putting things in her mouth.

'The toy was all sealed up when he bought it. We looked on the cardboard on the back of the toy to check that all the tools were in it.

'It disgusts me how customer services have treated me.'

Poundstretcher said an investigation had been launched into the ‘unfortunate incident’.

A company spokesman said: 'We would like to apologise to Gina and her family. Our products are rigorously tested by the manufacturers and we are investigating how this unfortunate incident happened.'

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