Just for Parents and those around children on any kind of basis

[Dar~]

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 hold her own head up and when he looked into her eyes, she couldn'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 matter what age. I just want people to know the dangers of this.

So I checked on Snopes and this is what they had to say.
Hand Sanitizer

So watch out, God, that is so scary.

 

[starrkers]

Good old bar soap's always been enough for me.

 

[Belegon]

I always have some in my briefcase. This is a good warning, if overblown in the email. Scopes explanation that follows it at their page is better.

according to that explanation, some of these products are 62% ethyl alcohol. Makes the rest fairly obvious, eh?

 

[jomar]

I don't know. This has a whiff of urban legend (Snopes, know). I couldn't find any truly confirming information. and doesn't alcohol evaporate quickly? Anyway, aside from that I think that Consumer Reports said that the sanitizers aren't really effective.

 

[Dar~]

I don't know. This has a whiff of urban legend (Snopes, know). I couldn't find any truly confirming information. and doesn't alcohol evaporate quickly? Anyway, aside from that I think that Consumer Reports said that the sanitizers aren't really effective.

I checked snopes and I asked my mom who is a CNA...she said that it is plausible. She's never heard of it happening.
My thought is this, until the sanitizer is rubbed in, the alcohol hasn't evaporated. if the daycare provider squirts it into the little ones hands and they just eat it...which little ones do...then it could be dangerous. read the bottles it's true that there are high amounts of alcohol in them.
Aside from that, why risk it being true? Is it really worth it? If you want to use sanitizer on kiddos, make sure you help them rub it in.

 

[starrkers]

I don't know. This has a whiff of urban legend (Snopes, know). I couldn't find any truly confirming information. and doesn't alcohol evaporate quickly? Anyway, aside from that I think that Consumer Reports said that the sanitizers aren't really effective.

It doesn't evaporate that quickly, Jomar. If it did we'd be drinking from the bottle as soon as the cork came out
I'm inclined to think a kid would need to do more than lick it off their fingers - they'd need to take a pretty damn good swig of the stuff, but stranger things have happened.

 

[Boxlicker101]

It doesn't evaporate that quickly, Jomar. If it did we'd be drinking from the bottle as soon as the cork came out
I'm inclined to think a kid would need to do more than lick it off their fingers - they'd need to take a pretty damn good swig of the stuff, but stranger things have happened.

Maybe she cupped her hand and sprayed some into there, and licked it out. That could do it.

85% blood alcohol level is impossible. She would have to have drunk a fifth of vodka to reach that. Maybe .85% or .085%,which is just over the legal limit for DUI, at least around here.

 

[starrkers]

Maybe she cupped her hand and sprayed some into there, and licked it out. That could do it.

85% blood alcohol level is impossible. She would have to have drunk a fifth of vodka to reach that. Maybe .85% or .085%,which is just over the legal limit for DUI, at least around here.

Not to mention it would've killed her outright. There's a touch of exaggeration in the email Dar quoted. The Snopes report points that out, but verifies the possibility/probability of the incident, if not the figures quoted.

 

[Weird Harold]

according to that explanation, some of these products are 62% ethyl alcohol. Makes the rest fairly obvious, eh?

I'm inclined to think a kid would need to do more than lick it off their fingers - they'd need to take a pretty damn good swig of the stuff, but stranger things have happened.

I think part of the reason it only takes a lick or two to make a child sick is that they contain "rubbing" alcohol, AKA "Denatured Alcohol," rather than the simple Ethyl Alcohol found in Whiskey, Rum or Vodka. The kids aren' getting drunk, they're being poisoned.

 

[scheherazade_79]

I used to use hand sanitizer, but hated the way it dried out my hands and, of course, the incriminating cloud of alcohol fumes that hovers around you after.

I did some research, and the most effective way of killing bugs on your hands is by rubbing them vigorously. Soap or hand sanitizer are useful in decreasing the friction, but the actual rubbing or scrubbing motion kills off way more bugs.

 

[BanditIRA]

A very scary thing to be sure, but I question if this is not just another chain letter? I mean I get tons of these things from my friends for some reason I can't read another single one. They all have the basic elements that the one above does though. Kinda like the dad whose son just got aids from some needle in the playground ceder chips. Might have really happened, but seems to be a good chain letter.

 

[Just-Legal]

A very scary thing to be sure, but I question if this is not just another chain letter? I mean I get tons of these things from my friends for some reason I can't read another single one. They all have the basic elements that the one above does though. Kinda like the dad whose son just got aids from some needle in the playground ceder chips. Might have really happened, but seems to be a good chain letter.

Thats why there was the Snopes link posted, its a good way to check out the legitimacy of things like this

 

[Dar~]

Thats why there was the Snopes link posted, its a good way to check out the legitimacy of things like this

Yup, what she said uh huh! *nods*

 

[Guest]

Another thing to consider.

There has been a huge increase in children's allergies in the last generation or two, with one theory is that children live in very clean, sanitized homes, and are not exposed to the range of allergens/etc. that children of previous generations were, and therefore their immune systems can't/don't develop defenses against them. Now the docs are saying that the use of sanitizers are promoting the spread of "superbugs" as the viruses are mutating to survive/become immune/stronger.

Moral: Being too clean is likely to kill you. Eat more dirt!

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Moral: Being too clean is likely to kill you. Eat more dirt!

A-freaking-men!

 

[skittles_lm]

So I checked on Snopes and this is what they had to say.
Hand Sanitizer

So watch out, God, that is so scary.

Jesus. i am so glad I hate that stuff and never use it! How scary!

thanks for keeping us informed. you're a hero

 

[Just-Legal]

Yup, what she said uh huh! *nods*

I am occasionally useful

 

[Boxlicker101]

Our daughter and son-in-law use this stuff, or something similar around their toddler, our youngest grandchild. I emailed the link to her. She is in the medical field, and should be aware of it, but it doesn't hurt to be cautious.

 

[Jubal_Harshaw]

...her blood alcohol level was 85% and this was 6 hours after we first took her.

Sorry, but I have to call bullshit on this one. If her blood alcohol level was 85% she would not have lived long enough to get to the hospital. Even at 0.85% she would have been dead in less than an hour.

 

[Dar~]

Sorry, but I have to call bullshit on this one. If her blood alcohol level was 85% she would not have lived long enough to get to the hospital. Even at 0.85% she would have been dead in less than an hour.

read the rest of the article befor eyou get self righteous.
a panicking mother wrote that. Even the article from Snopes mentioned it was an exaggeration. I am sure she meant that her blood alcohol content was .085 or something. I know I wouldn't be able to type real well after something like that...adn BTW it did happen...snopes and all.

 

[Just-Legal]

read the rest of the article befor eyou get self righteous.
a panicking mother wrote that. Even the article from Snopes mentioned it was an exaggeration. I am sure she meant that her blood alcohol content was .085 or something. I know I wouldn't be able to type real well after something like that...adn BTW it did happen...snopes and all.

Thanks Dar, I was about to write something similar but it would have come out bitcher >.<

 

[Dar~]

Thanks Dar, I was about to write something similar but it would have come out bitcher >.<

well, you know me, always the diplomat...*snerk*

 

[Just-Legal]

well, you know me, always the diplomat...*snerk*

*grin* And I'm the whiny bitchy... err, bitch. Ish.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Sorry, but I have to call bullshit on this one. If her blood alcohol level was 85% she would not have lived long enough to get to the hospital. Even at 0.85% she would have been dead in less than an hour.

That was obvoiusly a typo. Even an adult could never have a level that high. Anybody would be dead from alcohol poisoning long before it got even close to that level. It would mean chugalugging over a gallon of 100 proof.