Mum's warning as four-year-old boy left in agony after making 'friend' outside

A mum has warned parents after her four-year-old was left in agony from playing in their garden. Caroline Gel's son, Oliver, developed a stinging sensation accompanied by a severe rash all over his face and body.

He was playing outside on Tuesday (May 17), when he decided to befriend a caterpillar. Half an hour later, the young boy was complaining about a painful "stinging" sensation on his face and mouth - and woke up the next day with painful hives and rashes all over his body.

Carol is now hoping to share what happened to her son to warn others of the dangers that can come with touching these seemingly innocent critters. The 43-year-old from Oxfordshire said: "Oliver was learning about caterpillars at school as his class were reading the whole hungry caterpillar story.

Read more: Healthy boy given 'life sentence' after waking up one morning in horrific pain

"So he went outside to play last week and took a caterpillar down off a tree. He even made a little house for it. Then around half an hour later, he was complaining about a sting on his face and mouth - my husband had recently cut the grass, so I thought it might have been a grass allergy or something".

The next morning, Oliver woke up covered in a severe rash all over his body. Caroline said it was particularly bad around his face and mouth, reports the ECHO. She continued: "We took him to the doctors and they said they were unsure of the cause but suggested it might have been hives so gave him antihistamines to help with the inflammation."

The mum-of-three then decided to google the caterpillar Oliver was playing with - and discovered it was a brown tail moth caterpillar. This particular species has urticating hairs that cause an irritant effect - when they