GOOD GOD! 10 kids drink Winshield fluid at Daycare!

[sadangel]

10 kids drink Windshield Wiper fluid at a Daycare!

I'm sorry. How does this happen!! Why wasn't it in a properly marked container? Why wasn't it somewhere other than the fridge!

I don't get this kind of carelessness. That's what it is to me. Those kids could have died!

ETA: Figured I just quote the story here. I'm still shaking my head on this one!

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Ten children drank windshield wiper fluid after a staffer at an Arkansas day care mistakenly put the liquid in a refrigerator and served it, hospital officials said Friday.

Doctors estimate the children, ages 2 to 7, drank about an ounce of the blue fluid late Thursday afternoon before realizing it tasted wrong, said Laura James, a pediatric pharmacologist and toxicologist at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock.

Only one child remained hospitalized Friday morning, after blood samples showed "measurable levels" of methanol, a highly toxic alcohol that can induce comas and cause blindness, officials said. The day care also provided the fluid for testing.

"All we know was that the individual at the day care had recently shopped and had come back to the day care with a lot of different products," James told The Associated Press. "This product was mistakenly grabbed and thought to be Kool-Aid and put in the refrigerator."

Julie Munsell, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services, identified the day care operator as Carolyn Bynum in Scott, about 15 miles east of Little Rock. Bynum declined to comment Friday.

Bynum had a state license to care for 10 children in her home and had no found complaints or serious compliance issues in the past, Munsell said. Child welfare investigators planned to interview Bynum on Friday.

"They'll go out, they'll get an explanation and they'll try to sort (it) out preliminarily," Munsell said.

Munsell said a suspension or license revokation could be imposed pending an investigation.

The toxicologist warned that many antifreeze or windshield wiper solutions have bright colors, which can be mistaken for fruit drinks.

"I think the take-home message is not to have these products in the kitchen or where you're doing any kind of food preparation," she said.

 

[Vermilion]

I can't believe that anyone would give a child a drink that was that toxic blue colour, whether it was *meant* to be ingested or not! What's wrong with orange juice?

Jeezus.
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[Lee Chambers]

When I first saw the headline I waited to read it because, I figured, the kids must have gotten hold of a bottle and drank it before an adult caught them and stopped them. When I saw that they had been given this stuff as a drink, my jaw hit the fucking desk.

I'm surprised someone hasn't gotten shot over this yet.

 

[TE999]

Was this cretin illiterate or just stupid? All brands of windshield washer fluid have a huge label on the jug announcing that fact. I'd revoke her license so fast her head would spin.

 

[sadangel]

Was this cretin illiterate or just stupid? All brands of windshield washer fluid have a huge label on the jug announcing that fact. I'd revoke her license so fast her head would spin.

See Tom, that's my problem with this story. They DO have labels. How was this 'mistakenly' given to kids? </boggle> I don't get that part. And if it was in an umarked container, WHY??

 

[3113]

I can understand how it got poured once it was in the refrigerator--I mean, you might not glance at a drink bottle's label that's in the frige. You glance at the color, think it's Kool-aid by sight, hurriedly pour it out into the dixie cups for the rambunctious kids who you're looking over your shoulder at and yelling for them to sit down, and never think to look at the label. It's in the frige--how could it be anything else?

Of course...the smell might warn you. Maybe less smell if chilled? Hmmm.

I can even, kinda, see how someone harried and putting things away might accidently put it into the refrigerator, especially if they didn't do the buying, but geezus! The market usually doesn't put the chemical stuff in the same bag as food stuff, so if it was in a bag with cleaning products or non-food things, wouldn't that kinda hint to you that it wasn't a drink? Does Kool-aid even put out clear jugs of that color drink for sale?

 

[TE999]

See Tom, that's my problem with this story. They DO have labels. How was this 'mistakenly' given to kids? </boggle> I don't get that part. And if it was in an umarked container, WHY??

Exactly! If this bottle came directly from the store it had the label on it. If the contents were dispensed into another container for whatever the reason, that is crass stupidity; then placed in the refrigerator!??

The follow-up on this incident should be interesting. At least it wasnt anti-freeze.

 

[Vermilion]

windscreen fluid does have anti-freeze in

 

[Weird Harold]

I can't believe that anyone would give a child a drink that was that toxic blue colour, whether it was *meant* to be ingested or not! What's wrong with orange juice?

Jeezus.
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Orange Juice -- the real thing, and not "orange flavored juice drinks" -- runs about $3,50/Gal aroundhere.

The generic, blue, "berry flavored" drink runs 3 Gal/$1.00.

Day Care is abusiness and parents couldn't afford one that served "real juice."

 

[Selena_Kitt]

OMG.

I feel sick.

 

[GDesmond]

I noticed the story but haven't read it yet. Are any of the children in serious condition?

 

[Selena_Kitt]

I noticed the story but haven't read it yet. Are any of the children in serious condition?

Only one still hospitalized. Thank god.

Could have been SO much worse.

 

[GDesmond]

Sounds like a state of Illinois worker that lost their job, was rehired by this daycare, noticed either the blue or the peach colored liquid, thought it need to refrigerated...and once cold decided to give the kids a treat.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

The market usually doesn't put the chemical stuff in the same bag as food stuff, so if it was in a bag with cleaning products or non-food things, wouldn't that kinda hint to you that it wasn't a drink? Does Kool-aid even put out clear jugs of that color drink for sale?

If they were shopping in bulk (which many daycares do to save $$) at some place like Sam's or Costco, you pack their own stuff, so it was probably just in a box or bag in the back of the van or something with everything else.

 

[GDesmond]

That possible, but it's still no excuse.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

That possible, but it's still no excuse.

No it isn't. Just following 3113's logic path on the how it could have happened. Where it breaks down, I think, is the push and turn cap on windshield wiper fluid. There's a child safety cap on most (if not all?) containers of the stuff. THAT should have clued someone in...

 

[sutherngent985]

Not saying they dont sell Kool-Aid in gallon jugs, but I cant remember seeing one. That would be my first clue. And has been said, the label should have clued this 'adult' in that it wasnt a kids drink...dont they usually have bright, multi-colored labels that appeal to kids?

ETA-I know drinks like Sunny-D sell gallons I think but I would never give anything to a kid I wasnt sure of what it was.

 

[DesertPirate]

Sadly the shysters will once again be the only winners. That there will be legal action there is no doubt.

 

[Lady_Guenivere]

Jesus...you just can't fix stupid.

 

[3113]

If they were shopping in bulk (which many daycares do to save $$) at some place like Sam's or Costco, you pack their own stuff, so it was probably just in a box or bag in the back of the van or something with everything else.

AH! Okay. That makes sense.

Where it breaks down, I think, is the push and turn cap on windshield wiper fluid. There's a child safety cap on most (if not all?) containers of the stuff. THAT should have clued someone in...

Another good point. If one has to undo a child safety cap, it's probably not Kool-Aid.

As for the label, aren't labels on bulk items usually smaller and less flamboyant? Normal store items might have all kinds of bells and whistles to indicate a kid's drink or, conversely, cleaning fluid, but when you start getting that size, they don't, as I recall, usually bother much with flashy labels.

That said, I still don't get why someone didn't SMELL something wrong while pouring it out. Then again, I suppose daycare centers have a lot of smells that might confuse the nose....Not excusing it, just, as Selena said, going along the chain of events to see how it happened.

 

[Weird Harold]

That said, I still don't get why someone didn't SMELL something wrong while pouring it out.

The generic kind of blue, premixed windshield washer fluid I buy doesn't have much smell at all. The few times I've sampled generic 'Berry-Blue' kid's drink, it didn't have much smell either. You'd have to deliberately sniff either to identify it.

The washer fluid does usually come with a child-proof cap, but it's just as likely to come with a tamper-resistant seal. I actually had to go look at the bottle under my hood to see which it has. Push-to-turn type caps are so ubiquitous, that I open them without thinking what I'm doing or about why any particular product has one.

 

[PrincessErin]

.....

 

[Misty_Morning]

I can't believe that anyone would give a child a drink that was that toxic blue colour, whether it was *meant* to be ingested or not! What's wrong with orange juice?

Jeezus.
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Ya know, I gotta agree with you.

Plus I have a question.

When I started grade school, we would have all the arts and craft sessions. Lots of flour paste and that smelly "elementary school" paste.

It rings in my head to this day....my first grade teacher yelling out to some of the students...."Don't eat the paste!"

What? Huh?

WTF would ANYONE put that crap in their mouths?

My guess is that the kids eating the paste...were also boogger eaters.

Did you eat the paste?

I asked this question a couple of times before in my life. And wouldn't you know it....my ex-husband ate the paste.

figures....

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I think I tasted the paste back in kindergarten. It wasn't good enought to make me taste it again.

 

[slyc_willie]

Just read the article. I can only thank God that the little one has her own juice and food at the daycare. Although, ours is one of the better ones in the city and I'd like to think they're a bit more aware than the idiot in that daycare in the article. It had better be, since we're paying $170 a week for it.