laundry Liquitabs safety warning - please read if you don't know the dangers to toddlers

[EdithWeston]

article here.

Linked in case there are other peole who are unaware of their dangers: there has been a spate of admissions to hospital for toddlers with various very serious injuries. The contents of the tab are alkali and strong enough to cause burns/swelling to eyes if spattered and thread (leading to need to ventilate).

These injuries typically follow small children getting hold of the tabs and playing with them leading to their splitting.

The packaging, according to the article, does not have safety warnings. But they need to be kept out of the reach of children at all times.

Does anyone remember the awful incident in the news last year where a toddler drank plant food? You have to have eyes in the back of your head in others houses. It's not with the risk.

Worth...

Sorry, what isn't worth the risk. Going to other people's houses ?

Don't be ridiculous. Mn is full of people with chips on their shoulder at the moment.

I don't have a chip. I just genuinely don't understand your comment. What isn't worth the risk?

Being laisse faire about safety and expecting companies like proctor and gamble to make "safe" products. There are so many dangers, no point complaining about washing tabs and I would think the powder is just as bad... They are all chemicals. This is a typical daily mail story. A child can choke on a deflated balloon at a kids party... These things are everywhere. Vigilance is the only way to prevent accidents.

Oh yes, fair enough. I agree with that. You said it straight after 'you have to have eyes in the back of your head in other people's houses' so I misunderstood you as linking it to that. I still think it's helpful to know magnitude of issue though. Yes, at other houses I am watching my kids, but it's helpful to know that some things fall into 'bleach watching' not 'bar of soap' and I genuinely would not have understood where liquitabs fell on that spectrum.

Reading some of these comments makes me very grateful our experience with these wasn't worse - and it wasn't in our house, but at our childminder's. Picked my DC up one day to be told that my older DD's tights were 'fragrant' as she had got hold of one of these liquitabs, it had split and she had been padding around in it. Not sure how long the liquid had been in contact with her skin, but when the tights came off at home the skin was already red. Cue a call to NHS Direct because I wasn't sure whether it was alkali or acid, and didn't want to use soap to get it off and cause a worse reaction. Lots of water later and she was fine. We have now changed our child care arrangements, as I wasn't at all happy that she'd got hold of one in the first place, and that the childminder's first reaction wasn't to strip off the tights and wash it off. I think a lot of people don't realise how caustic these things are - despite the hazard warning on the box. Reading all this, it makes me think we got off very lightly.

Exactly, I wouldn't have known that liquitabs were a 'do not pass go, head straight to A&E' potential emergency before I read this thread. I might have thought it was a and a 'right, let's wash your eyes out'.

dh once took ds to the science museum for the day. Ace play area there where there are all sorts of things for kids to do. ds and dh stayed until closing time, got all the way across London on the tube, and all the way out of London on the train... it was only when they turned up at home that ds announced 'um, I've got something in my eye... ' and we realised he had a bead stuck.

It was a bit like a plastic lentil, flat on one side, raised on the other, so impossible to coax out of his eye with a tissue. Tried rinsing his eyes out, tried (very very carefully) tweezers, nothing worked. Ended up spending several hours in A&E, with a harassed nurse occasionally breaking stride as he walked past us and asking 'have you got it out yet?'

Eventually they were about to breach the four hour waiting time target and decided to try to clear all the 'not immediately life-threatening' stuff. I was kind of relieved that it took the nurse several different implements and many, many, many goes to fish the dratted thing out - at least it showed dh and I weren't completely incompetent (although I did tease dh that he deserved a neglectful parent prize for not noticing at any point on the two-hour-long journey home... to be fair it may well have been one of those things that hides behind your eyelid and pops out later).

I like to think we aren't completely crap, and I had thought the science museum play area was a fairly safe place... we got caught out, I don't see why there's so much smugness on this thread about parents being caught out by not realising how dangerous liquitabs can be.

I don't use Liquitabs (and if I did they would be on the high shelf in my futility room along with anything else not child-friendly) but I am sure some friends/family do use them and may not have them suitably out of reach of small curious hands.

As others have said, this was worth warning about simply because while I realised Liquitabs and the like were potentially harmful and should be kept away from kids, I hadn't really realised they were the rush off to hospital kind of harmful. So thank you for drawing attention to this.

I think you'll find vigilance doesn't always prevent accidents. Trying to be vigilant about everything just leads to, well, anxiety and mental health concerns. It's good to raise awareness and I am grateful that people share this info but you can't wrap kids up in cotton wool. Trust me, I've tried. It doesn't end well

The problem with common sense is that it is not that common.

Kids shouldn't have to pay the price for their parents being a bit daft if it can be easily avoided but someone else pointing it out.

Who knows, this thread could have made the difference between a kid being hurt and a kid not being hurt, with hardly any effort at all...

My two pence worth is that i had a CLIMBER lol he could get to blummin anything and would very often use the dog to get up onto the kitchen units. Last week i had washing powder filled shoes the week before that it was nescafe in the white wash..

He's 3.. I have a long way to go!

the tabs blimmin well EXPLODE in your hands if they go, it's absolutely ludicrous, it's happened to me and i applied no pressure to speak of.

tbh what i think mostly happens is that at some point a damp, laundry-doing hand (adult) goes into the box and of course any moisture on those tabs starts to degrade the little sealed package. that, after all, is how they work in the machine, dissolving as quickly as possible in as little water as possible.

so the next time a hand goes in and grabs one... POP. i'm convinced that's what happened to me, and yes, some did get on my specs so had i not been wearing them (doesn't everyone wear science lab spex for laundry day, just in case?) then it would have been in my eye.

anyhoo. the liquid turned the my freshly-painted white door an indelible bright green, so i never bought the tabs again.

I am almost shaking at the memory. My ds at 11 months (now 2.1) bit into a capsule. It exploded in his eyes. He sustained serious burns. I can't go into detail, but had it been you and I, we would have sustained serious permanent damage. Because of the rejuvenating qualities of babies cells, my boy sustained no permanent damage.

The most terrifying experience of my life.

I put a load in the washing, and then I stupidly stupidly left the room for a few mins to get more washing. Heard a strange noise, ran back in, and saw my boy's face covered in detergent. Stupid careless stupid. If he had not been all fine, I can't imagine the guilt.

In the cold light of day, when we returned from the hospital, I immediately went to throw the box away. It was covered in Winnie the pooh pictures, how daft is that? In themselves the capsules are very enticing to children, but actually it would be better for your eyes tompour nail varnish remover into them, that is what the consultant told us.

And to the person who thought they might not have gone to a and e had it not been for now knowing about the dangerous qualities of the capsules.... Trust me when I say that I had no idea, but seeing your child's face covered in detergent, and their eyes going very red, almost translucent and squinty... You would go to a and e!

If you/your child does burst a liquitab (or spill similar chemical on skin), DON'T just "scoop and run" to A&E, scoop and run to the nearest bath/shower, strip and rinse off as much as possible, without rubbing the skin (ie use a shower head if available).

That can prevent burns... then go to a&e. Horrified at a PP saying A&E didn't even look at her child for 2hrs!.

Scotchandwry...bang on correct

But you need to go to a and e for a full litre saline rince. This experience in itself is horrific as we had to hold our son down and his eyes apart. The solution comes out a drop at a time

Absolutely BB, quick "first aid" at home is just that, first aid, then seek medical help.

I had no idea that liquitabs were so toxic. I didn't know till quite recently that soap powder was horrilbe stuff too. I appreciate the warning. Thank you OP! There are always things we don't know, so none of us can be smug.

Thanks OP for posting. And thanks all for sharing stories. We all need reminders.

Oh BB, god love you, that is horrible. I am so glad he was okay.

BB,that sounds truly horrible. I am glad to hear he is ok. I guess when I said I wouldn't have known it was straight to a&e issue I meant splashes, not a full face of liquid and the eyes already suffering . And yes, I would rinse before I went - much like a burn.