Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Danger in the Laundry Room

Photo Credit
Usually when I am blogging, I am also nursing and have the television on in the background (I know, media overload, but when I am home alone all day, it somehow makes me feel like others are around). So the other day the news was on when I heard a story about the dangers of the new Tide Pods for babies and children. My ears perked up because I know a lot of people that have started to use these for washing their cloth diapers. 

The new Tide Pods were released in February of 2012, and only a few months later, the Poison Control Centers started to make the correlation between the the ingestion of these pods by toddlers and some dangerous side effects. During the early part of May 2012, the first cases started to flood into Poison Control Centers and within 20 days, there were nearly 180 calls that linked the pods to severe health problems in toddlers.

As you can see from the picture above, these Tide Pods come in a very colorful and almost "candy-like" package. This "candy-like" packaging can pose a big problem for little ones who get them into their hands. There have been multiple reports of the Pods bursting in the mouths of these young children! The bursting of the Pod can produce a myriad of problematic symptoms and effects. These symptoms can be much more severe than your typical laundry detergent ingestion (not that it is typical by any means).

In fact, ABC News reports:

There are multiple reports of toddlers who, within minutes of swallowing or biting into one of the packets, developed vomiting, wheezing and gasping. Some of them became non-responsive or had to be put on ventilators or intubated.

Toxicologists aren’t sure exactly what in the product is making the kids sick. Other laundry detergents cause only mild stomach upset or even no symptoms at all. But the pods cause severe symptoms rapidly.

This is just plain SCARY! I know that some of the responsibility falls on the parents who leave these pods in the reach of their children, but parents are human and can forget. All it takes is one memory lapse (or brain fart as I like to say) or one really smart/curious child for an accident to happen!

The GOOD news is that because of all of the problems, Tide has decided to change its original packaging and will release child proof containers this summer!

While I know that the convenient and even "cute" packaging of this product may be appealing to many small children (and even us busy adults) it is important to be aware of the dangers that lurk. Sometimes as parents, we have so much going on that we forget to put things out of reach.  My hope with this post is that it will serve as a reminder for us as parents to be mindful of where we store these potentially harmful substances.

Have you heard about the dangers of the Tide Pods before?

Do use Tide Pods yourself?

Where do you store your laundry detergent?

5 comments:

  1. This is so scary! I don't like the pods because I'm cynical and have a thing for my boring old powder, but I've seen them on TV and NEVER thought about them looking like candy to a child! I keep my detergents and other "nasties" up on a shelf that's over/behind my washer/dryer. Until my son can climb the machines and get into those shelves and cupboards, he should be safe from that particular hazard. Since he's coming up on 2.5 and still hasn't even tried to climb our machines, I think we might be in the clear with him. He's definitely understanding the difference between food and dangerous things more and more now.

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    1. Glad he is learning the difference between food and dangerous things! That's important!

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  2. I've never even heard of these, but I rarely buy detergent in a regular store.
    I can tell by the pic my toddler would try to eat them!

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