A man who is alleged to have dipped the feet of his girlfriend’s 18-month-old son in a pot of boiling water was charged Thursday with second-degree child assault in Snohomish County Superior Court.

Zachary Matthew-Tyler Wilson, 18, of Everett, is being held on $250,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday.

According to charging documents, Wilson was caring for his new girlfriend’s toddler while she was at work on Saturday when he dipped the boy’s feet into a pot of boiling water.

The child sustained second-degree burns and had to be transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Wilson is alleged to have told medical personnel and police conflicting stories about the child’s injuries, according to charging documents. He said that the boy knocked a pot of scalding water onto himself and later that the child sustained the burns from turning on the hot water while in the bathtub.

Police said that neither explanation was consistent with the child’s burns. Police and prosecutors said in charging documents that the child’s burned feet looked as if he “had stood very still in a pan of red paint … then stepped out with a bright red pair of socks.”

The child’s mother had been previously referred to Child Protective Services for alleged neglect, according to the Department of Social and Health Services, but had moved from the Wenatchee area before caseworkers were able to follow up.

Wilson, according to prosecutors, has had three assault convictions since 2006.

A hospital spokeswoman said the child has been moved out of intensive care and is in satisfactory condition.