Mother, 23, recalls horrifying moment her one-year-old daughter was left with burns on her face after knocking over scalding cup of coffee

A mother has recalled the horrifying moment she heard her one-year-old baby’s screams after being burned by a scalding cup of coffee.

Simona Belcheva’s daughter Alayla Janjua was just one year and one day old when she threw a mug of hot coffee on her own face.

After hearing their daughter’s screams, Simona, 23, and her partner Daniel, 22, rushed her to Luton and Dunstable University Hospital in Bedfordshire, where they were told she had 7% mixed depth burns on her body.

Eight months after the accident and with Alayla recovering, Simona recalls how she and Daniel watched their daughter in agony while wrapped in bandages in a burns unit in Chelmsford.

The mother said: ‘She had somehow managed to knock over the coffee and it fell on her face. At the hospital she was bandaged so that all her burns were covered.

‘We just celebrated her birthday and she looked like a Teletubby. It was shocking to see her like that.”

Simona added that it was the “worst feeling” of not being able to help Alayla as doctors changed the bandages every three days.

She said: ‘She screamed when they did that. It was the worst feeling: I couldn’t help her.

‘At one point it became so swollen that she could no longer open her eyes.’

Simona also said that despite everything, Alayla “always smiled,” but the mother struggled with strangers who called her a “bad mother” and claimed that she “burned her.”

She said: ‘People say I’m a bad mother, I don’t let it affect me.’

Sue Boasman, a senior nurse at St Andrew’s Burns Service, was among those who cared for Alayla.

Sharing some tips for parents to treat burns and keep their children safe, she said: ‘If your child sustains a burn, immediately place the affected area under cold running water for at least 20 minutes.

Simona remembers how she and Daniel watched their daughter in agony as she was wrapped in bandages in a burns unit in Chelmsford.

Simona, operations manager, said: ‘Although it felt like things got worse before they got better, I couldn’t have asked for better care for my child during her recovery journey’

‘Then cover the area with cling film if possible and seek help if necessary. Avoid using ice or very cold water as this can deepen the burn and make the patient very cold.”

Simona, operations manager, said: ‘Although it felt like things got worse before they got better, I couldn’t have asked for better care for my child during her recovery journey.

‘Every staff member was so kind, passionate and caring in everything they did.’

She now has 42,000 followers on TikTok and posts videos of Alayla’s recovery, highlighting their childhood burn ordeal

The mother has taken a number of steps to child-proof her home and has started an awareness campaign on social media to help hundreds of other parents.

She now has 42,000 followers on TikTok and posts videos of Alayla’s recovery, highlighting their childhood burn ordeal.

Simona told at the time how she heard a loud bang and her child screamed when she was just ten steps away.