Warning about Hand sanitizer

[blupits04]

(I know you nurses probably already know this, but…..just in case)
Please forward to anyone that has kids.
Ok. I don ' t know where to begin because the last 2 days of my life have been such a blur. Yesterday, My youngest daughter Halle who is 4, was rushed to the emergency room by her father for being severely lethargic and incoherent. He was called to her school by the school secretary for being "very VERY sick." He told me that when he arrived that Halle was barely sitting in the chair. She couldn't ' t hold her own head up and when he lo oked into her eyes, she couldn't ' t focus them.
He immediately called me after he scooped her up and rushed her to the ER. When we 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. The ER doctor told us that he had done everything that he could do so he was sending her to Saint Francis for further test.
Right when we were leaving in the ambulance, her teacher had come to the ER and after questioning Halle ' s classmates, we found out that she had licked hand sanitizer off her hand. Hand sanitizer, of all things. But it makes sense. These days they have all kinds of different scents and when you have a curious child, they are going to put all kinds of things in their mouths.
When we arrived at Saint Francis, we told the ER doctor there to check her blood alcohol level, which, yes we did get weird looks from it but they did it. The results were her blood alcohol level was 85% and this was 6 hours after we first took her. There ' s no telling what it would have been if we would have tested it at the first ER.
Since then, her school and a few surrounding schools have taken this out of the classrooms of all the lower grade classes but what ' s to stop middle and high schoolers too? After doing research off the internet, we have found out that it only takes 3 squirts of the stuff to be fatal in a toddler. For her blood alcohol level to be so high was to compare someone her size to drinking something 120 proof. So please PLEASE don ' t disregard this because I don ' t ever want anyone to go thru what my family and I have gone thru. Today was a little better but not much. Please send this to everyone you know that has children or are having children. It doesn't ' t matter what age. I just want people to know the dangers of this.

[Toomey]

That's gotta be the worst thing for a parent when their kid is in trouble. 

[IXIswamperIXI]

WOW I hope she is ok!

[foreman1]

Who would've suspected handsanitizer being the cause of this.

Hope your daughter ok and thank you so much for sharing .

[blupits04]

Thankfully it wasn't my daughter it was an email I got from my aunt. Amazingly enough this isn't the first child to be taken into the ER after using, licking, or swallowing the sanitizer. There is another one on Snopes. It's surprising they can't find something else that will kill bacteria other than alcohol.

[#32YammiMan]

wowoah  danng hopes isssssssssa    llllll righhhtt sooorttuyy to heaere bisaout thhatt

[IXIswamperIXI]

wowoah  danng hopes isssssssssa    llllll righhhtt sooorttuyy to heaere bisaout thhatt

What?  LOL

[foreman1]

wowoah  danng hopes isssssssssa    llllll righhhtt sooorttuyy to heaere bisaout thhatt

WWWWhhhhaattt ya' say?? 
Stop lickin' handsanitizer son ,causes speech impediments.

[2strokinIt]

thats pretty scary....i have some green apple sanitizer in the truck and i could see how someone would want to eat it...it smells delicious

on the same topic....i was watching Lockup, documentary on msnbc about prisons....and all the guys inside were talking about drinking the sanitizer for the alcohol and getting drunk? could it be the same stuff?

[#32YammiMan]

wowoah  danng hopes isssssssssa    llllll righhhtt sooorttuyy to heaere bisaout thhatt

What?  LOL

sorry, i was drunk off purple peach hand sanitizer, mmmmmm soo gooood!!!

[Bigscrb15]

i imagine that could happen if the child ate/licked enough of the stuff, but the 85% level is very exagerated, a person will go into coma at around 0.4%. I am guessing they mean .085 which would be legally drunk.

[Ida_Mann]

I've never cared for the stuff,,,,,,I'm kinda along the lines of thinking that George Carlin is about the "sanitization" stuff,,,,,,some germs are good,,,,we all need to learn how to fight them off or we are gonna be worse off later in life.

I went to my daughter's school once for a Thanksgiving lunch and when all the kids were done eating the teach lined them up and squirted the stuff in each of their hands,,,I asked her why they didn't just go wash their hands and her response was that washing wasn't as effective as the squirt,,,,BS in my opinion.


oh well.

Id@

[2strokinIt]

i keep it in the center console and use it after i touch money or gas pumps if a paper towel isnt available....but i heard somewhere that  if you use it a few times in a short time..it doesnt have an effect? which doesnt seem right cause alcohol should kill germs on your hands anytime right?

all i know is my girlfriend cant stand when i use it and hates the smell
so i use some more..lol

[Da_Mtg_Man]

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/sanitizer.asp

[Bigscrb15]

im addicted to the stuff. i have it in the bathroom, kitchen, wifes suv, my truck, in the quad and toyhauler.

[cheropride]

Wow that's must of scared you half to death.  Thank God she is okay.  It's amazing stuff we use to try to stop from getting sick, and that stuff is deadly.  I too have this thing about clean hands.  Don't get me wrong, I mess with dirt and mud all day long.  But some of these places, like the grocey store, schools, and play areas, ahhhhh nasty germs.  I use traditional soap and water when available, but at times we do use this. 

My pet peave is this.  You ever notice when you go into say McDonalds, Burger King, or some other place like that.  How many people go to the rest room and wash their hands first.  You know it may be one thing if say you just came from your house, but say you have been at the grocery store or something, man that's gross if you stop and think about it.  I didn't used to be so bad, until I had my son, now it's like clean clean clean.....  ah...... 

And like I said, it's funny though, dirt/mud don't gross me out at all, love the stuff.  Other peoples germs.... Oh and don't even get me started on hotel rooms.... double ah.....

[Loven It]

Thankfully it wasn't my daughter it was an email I got from my aunt. Amazingly enough this isn't the first child to be taken into the ER after using, licking, or swallowing the sanitizer. There is another one on Snopes. It's surprising they can't find something else that will kill bacteria other than alcohol.

There are several kinds out there that do not use alcohol. You just have to read the labels and see whats in the product.

http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=Alcohol+free+Hand+Sanitizer&form=QBRE&go.x=19&go.y=8

Most of the ones I have bought state KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN.

I used to use this stuff on my kid as well, that is until the hand washing became an issue. All he wanted to use was the sanitizer...that was not promoting good hygiene.