A Gold Coast couple has spoken publicly for the first time about the terrifying moment their 14-month-old son stopped breathing after inhaling a metallic cake decorating powder they say was poorly labelled and sold alongside edible baking products.

Dustin “Dusty” Wildman remains in intensive care at Queensland Children’s Hospital after the accident unfolded while his mother, baker Katie Robinson, was making a Bluey birthday cake for a friend’s child last Friday.

Robinson said she and Dusty’s father Chris Wildman were both in her home cake studio when the toddler found a small container of metallic decorating powder.

“Dusty was just pottering around like he normally does,” Robinson said.

“Sometimes he just grabs a few things and plays with them.

“But he just found this little canister of metallic lustre dust and before we knew it he’d bitten the top off it and inhaled and ingested some of that powder.”

Within moments, the toddler’s condition rapidly deteriorated and he began struggling to breathe.

“He was coughing and getting really distressed and then he sort of became a bit more unresponsive,” Robinson said.

“His eyes were rolling in his head and he couldn’t breathe properly.”

Robinson said she called 13 Health before paramedics were dispatched, while the couple desperately tried to keep Dusty awake.

“We couldn’t rouse him,” she said.

“He was getting all floppy and his head was dropping and we were trying to keep him upright so that he could breathe properly, but he was really struggling to breathe.

“It was terrifying to watch.”

As Robinson spoke to emergency operators, Wildman cradled the toddler while desperately trying to stop him from losing consciousness.

“Just trying to keep him awake,” he said. “I just felt so helpless.”

Dusty was rushed to rushed to the Children’s Hospital in Brisbane and placed into an induced coma after undergoing emergency surgery to clear his lungs.

“At the moment he’s still in an induced coma with the breathing tube in, but they are allowing him to breathe a little bit on his own,” Robinson said.

“He’s really trying to get that going by himself, which is great.”

Doctors later discovered the decorative powder contained copper and zinc compounds after sending the product for testing.

“His lungs are very inflamed,” Robinson said.

“His stomach is also a bit inflamed, so we’re just trying to work on getting that inflammation down and expelling the copper that’s inside of him, because the product was made from copper, which is the worst part.”

A GoFundMe launched by family friend Rochelle Evrard, whose son was due to receive the Bluey cake, is helping the couple remain by Dusty’s bedside in Brisbane as they face mounting accommodation and living costs while unable to work.

“This weekend, for my beautiful boy’s 1st birthday, she had offered to make him a Bluey cake — and sadly, while she was making his cake, her little man Dusty got hold of a ‘gold dust powder’ and inhaled it,” she wrote.

“When the dust is mixed with water, it turns to paste — so it immediately blocked Dusty’s lungs.

“He’s had to have surgery already to clear his lungs and is now in an induced coma (like truly WTF!!).”

Now, Dusty’s parents are urging Australians to check their cupboards and throw away any decorative powders that are not clearly labelled edible.

Robinson said the product involved did not state it was non-edible or potentially dangerous if inhaled or consumed.

“The packaging is quite vague,” she said.

“It doesn’t say anything about it not being edible or it being toxic or anything like that.”

Wildman said even he initially believed the product was harmless.

“To the untrained eye, to me, I had no idea,” he said.

“I thought it was glitter, like an edible glitter like she always uses.”

While many cake decorating powders and glitters are labelled edible and safe to consume, some metallic lustre dust products are intended for decorative use only, including on removable cake toppers and non-edible decorations.

Robinson said the decorative dust was sold alongside food-safe products and should never have been near edible baking supplies.

“The problem is that there’s so many products out there that are similar that are edible,” she said.

“So most people that are using these products would assume that they are able to be ingested and able to be used on cakes.

“These products shouldn’t be anywhere near any food items whatsoever.

“Everything that’s a lustre dust or anything like that should always be edible.”

The mother said the label did not clearly explain what was inside the product.

“It doesn’t say edible or non-edible on the label,” Robinson said.

“It doesn’t say anything about it being toxic for human consumption.”

Wildman added: “It’s got no ingredients list at all, so you’ve got no idea what it is.”

The supplier has since removed the product from sale and contacted stockists requesting it be destroyed.

Robinson said the company owner had been supportive throughout the ordeal.

“She has contacted all of her stockists and gotten them to take it off the shelf and destroy it,” Robinson said.

“So not just put it away, but it’s going to be gone.”

Doctors remain uncertain whether Dusty will suffer long-term complications because of the rarity of the case.

“There may be some lasting damage on his lungs,” Robinson said.

“They’ve said there could be some sort of asthma situation afterwards that we will have to manage.”