Young mum goes viral on TikTok for video warning why you should wash balloons before you blow them up

A young mum has gone viral on TikTok for revealing the disgusting reason why people should wash their balloons before they blow them up for a party.

Every parent or carer will be familiar with the task of having to blow up balloons for their child’s birthday - usually late at night the day before when they are in bed - so the house can be adorned with decorations to mark their special day.

It’s usually a race against time to get as many blown up as quickly as possible, partly so you can get to bed yourself and also party in case they wake up and need attention. But, now one mum has shared a video showing why you really should take some extra time to wash your balloons before you blow them up.

Danielle Beardon, who has almost 80,000 followers on her TikTok account @DanielleBeardon, often shares snippets of her family life with her fans. Recently, she shared videos dedicated to her daughter as she prepared for the little girl’s first birthday celebrations.

But, it wasn’t the cute black and white montage of clips of the youngster growing up which captured the attention of her followers. It was the video which showed her washing the balloons she was going to blow up for her celebration.

‘New fear unlocked’

The video, which has received 20,000 likes, shows Beardon washing numerous pink, purple and white balloons in very soapy water. The video is overlaid with the text: “This is your sign to wash your balloons before you put them in your mouth to blow them up." This statement is also accompanied with lots of sick face emojis - and the emoji use is very much justified.

When she moves the balloons and the soap suds out of the way, the reason why is revealed - the water is filthy and looks absolutely gross. The video is also captioned “there’s no way”.

The video has received hundreds of comments from users who are horrified by what they have seen. One person said: “oh my god, and imagine we inhale all that”. Another said: “New fear unlocked”. One person simply declared: “never blowing up balloons again.”

Some people did, however, question Beardon’s methods. One asked “but all the dirty water is going in the balloon, surely?” Another person claimed that by washing the balloons, Beardon was “washing off the powder that allows friction and them to blow up without popping.” Many also questioned why Beardon hadn’t used a pump to blow up the balloons. She replied to the comments to reveal that she had used a pump in the end, and also that she had only gone to wash the balloons because they smelled.

Others seemed less bothered by the dirty revelation. One said: “oh well, builds the immune system.” Another joked: “washing of the flavour and good nutrients.” Another person said: “I’m not this scared of germs.” One unconvinced user said that they were “still alive”, although they had blown balloons up with their mouth without washing them first.