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This horrified me, I had no idea.
Friday, 23 October 2009
This is being circulated as a warning, please read, people need to be aware. I have sent it to everyone I know on e-mail as it is not common knowledge.
Yesterday, my youngest daughter, Halle who is just 4 years old, was rushed to the ER by her father for being severely lethargic and incoherent in her classroom.
He was called to her school by the school secretary who said that she was 'VERY VERY SICK'! He told me that when he arrived at her classroom, Halle was barely sitting in the chair. She couldn't hold her own head up and when he looked into her eyes, she couldn't focus them. He immediately scooped her up and rushed her to the closest ER, and then called me.
When he got there, they ran blood test after blood test and did x-rays, every test imaginable. Her white blood cell count was normal, nothing was out of the ordinary.
When I arrived at the ER, the doctor there told us that he had done everything that he could do so he was transferring her to Saint Francis Hospital for further tests.
Right as we were leaving in the ambulance, her teacher arrived at the ER and told us that after questioning Halle 's classmates, She had found out that our little girl had licked liquid hand sanitizer off of her hands!!!
Hand sanitizer, of all things. But it makes sense. These days they have all kinds of different scents and flavors and when you have a curious child, they are going to put all kinds of things into their mouths. When we arrived at the Saint Francis' HospitalER, we told the ER Doctor there to check her blood alcohol level, and yes we did get weird looks, but they did it.
The results showed her blood alcohol level was 85% -- six hours after we first took her.. There's no telling what it would have been if we would have requested it at the first ER. Since then, her school and a few surrounding schools have taken the liquid hand sanitizers out of all the lower grade classes, but what's to stop middle and high schoolers from ingesting this stuff? After doing research on the Internet, we found out that it only takes about 3 squirts of the stuff ingested to be fatal to a toddler. For her blood alcohol level to be so high, it would be like someone her size drinking120 proof liquor. So PLEASE PLEASE don't disregard this because we don't everwant another family to go through what ours has gone through.
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/h/hand-sanitizer.htm http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/sanitizer.asp
23 October 2009 at 12:12
Thank you for this post - I too am horrified. When my daughter attended preschool the staff would obsessively clean the children's hands with these anti-bacterial alcohol-based sanitisers. I frequently objected because I believe they remove the beneficial bacteria from the skin as well as the bad (I have had dreadful eczema after using these cleansers). This is way more serious and there should surely be a return to sensible handwashing with ordinary soap and water.
23 October 2009 at 13:14
The public school I volunteer in has dispensers at every door of every classroom. I agree with CL that good old soap and water is the sensible thing to do!
23 October 2009 at 13:57
Sally, how shocking and how lucky to have discovered the cause before really serious damage was done to the child.
Another symptom of new technology but at what cost?
Hope you are well Sal:)xxx
23 October 2009 at 14:08
While the warning does make sense, something about the story doesn't. A blood alcohol level of 85% is literally impossible. .08% is legally drunk.
Another warning about this sanitizer stuff though: It is extremely flammable. Make sure if you are cooking and use it on your hands in the kitchen, that your hands are completely dry before going anywhere near the stove or other heat source.
23 October 2009 at 14:09
I've read this one before. How scary!!!
23 October 2009 at 14:17
Hey Sally - thanks for posting that. I've received this warming before and it made me very aware to not leave the sanitizer in reach of my 5 and 3 year olds. I keep sanitizer in the car for when the kids leave school or after being in the grocery store etc. With all the flu hysteria it makes me feel a bit better to have them clean with the sanitzer before we reach home and they have access to soap and water.
Hope you are doing well.
23 October 2009 at 14:49
We do use hand sanitizer from time to time, but I put it in my hand and rub it into their hands for them. And most of the time... it's soap and water for us.
23 October 2009 at 15:17
To help allay panic, I wanted to share this information. I spoke with several of my son's doctors and they've all said that the small bit a child might lick off his hands after a parent rubs some in won't hurt them. it's only if they are squirting large amounts into their hands and licking that off that it is dangerous.
That said, yes, the stuff is EVERYWHERE in schools! At my son's old school they used to have huge dispenser bottles sittin gon the counters where the preschool children could reach it as often as they wanted. YIKES!
23 October 2009 at 17:41
this is terrible.. and something def needs to be done..
26 October 2009 at 16:43
I received this or something similiar as an e-mail not too long ago. I was in complete shock just like you. It seems we have to be super careful of everything we use now.