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.

Obviously we keep them away from little ones but my DS (then aged 2) nearly ate one during a weekend away with my DH's family. I popped them high up on a shelf out of DS's reach but as we were clearing up the villa to leave his sister put them back again under the sink (on an open shelf) and he popped one in his mouth. Cue mummy fishing it out with her fingers and trying to make him sick! He was fine and I was furious!

I may be wrong BBear, but I thought that the advice was to NOT try to make someone who has ingested a hazardous substance vomit, as the chemicals can do damage again on their way back up...?

Bbear that was an unbelievably Stupid thing to do. You would have caused double the damage if he had been sick. Hx

"If I am reading this right then the op is saying there should be a warning on the packaging."

OP here! I posted to spread the story - I thought Liquitabs would be about the same level of hazard as washing powder, not a seriously dangerous corrosive.

The calls for action are from the doctors who want:

a) better awareness of the level of danger
b) better knowledge that this is a medical emergency (go straight to A&E)
c) clearer/bigger warnings and childproof lids on the clear plastic tubs (rejected by manufacturers, though one might be offering an opaque box).

these things are dreadfull i camnt even use them to wash my knickers without getting problems and dont get me started on how easy they break. taking shopping home on a hot day = half the capsules melting so would no longer buy them.

in the last few days ive been surprised at bad reactions to things lots of people wouldnt even imagine take disposable nappies how many of you wouldnt even think these could be an issue but a mag recently had a article about a little girl whose nappy split getting chemical burns the photo was dreadfull.

the smugness on here is pretty intolerable.

well done OP for posting this... i agree with whoever said that the 'but these people is fick' response is clearly a defence mechanism borne of their own insecurity.

whilst we are on about cleaning products and safety ect,can anybody explain to me why its often concidered perfectly acceptable for parents of lo's to not bother with safety gates or locks ect and this is put across as them being somehow better parents and in a smug way?

cos i dont get it.

Smug, yes of course because atleast i make the effort to look out for my childs safety ie stairgates, playpens, locks and high cupboards!!

and the minute they get out of this highly-protected environment, look out!

aitch surely you would combine the use of safety stuff and putting chemicals out of reach with education?

pumpkin - do you use plug socket covers?

Apparently they are positively dangerous - a huge con. Because in the UK, sockets are made to be safe - the live wire or whatever it is that is dangerous is shut off until a plug is put into the socket. Putting a fake plastic plug in the socket opens up that mechanism - if a child pulls it out, and puts it back in the wrong way up, it leaves the hole containing the live wire open and active.

They are appropriate for other countries where sockets are not as safe, but are A Bad Thing in the UK.

of course i would, but nor am i the sort of person who comes on here preening about safety gates and the like because they can't face the uncertainty of life and what it throws at you. that sort of person, i tend to think, is probably overly anxious and helicoptery and imho presenting a danger to their child by being such a snotty freak.

did you think i was preening about safety equipment? if you did i wasnt i was just asking why some people see not using anything like that as a badge of honor because i dont understand it.

im most certainly not overly anxious i dont have the time to be i have shed loads of children inc a set of triplets and a set of twins born with in a year of each other and 5 of my kids have sn

i asked the question about combining gates ect with education because your previous comment came across a bit like your kids never learn if you use these.

actually no, i didn't think you were preening much, but a bit. others definitely more so. however broadly speaking your comment was just the inversion, it seemed to me, of the accusation you were making.

there is a truth somewhere in between, as ever. that would include accepting that sometimes a parent can do everything right and a shit thing still happens. and if a manufacturer can use its noodle and not make its products look like sweetie jewels, then that would really help.

having said that... i didn't really use any safety equipment, though, aside from one door latch on the cleaning cupboard. they do have to live here.

thing is i would have known to keep them out the way but yes i would let my toddler and other children put them in the washing machine, my elder two will put on a load of laundry and i had NO idea they could burst so easily or that if they did they could cause so much damage!

i would have thought they would be an 'irritant' and would wash the affected area but i wouldnt have thought it was a straight to a&e emergency. taht is what needs to be highlighted.

i made an accusation??? where?

i said i wouldnt buy liqitabs due to a knicker area reaction and them melting in the heat, made a comment about a recent mag article involving chemical burns.

then asked why some parents appear to be very anti anytype of safety equipment and it often comes across as they think they are better parents than people who do use them. i asked because i dont understand it.

i personally think that if mary poppins was a mum even she would get everything perfect.we all occasionally drop the ball or get stuff wrong it dosnt make you rubbish as a iparent it makes you normal sometimes when we drop the ball accident happen, christ even if we dont drop the ball they happen thats why they are called accidents

mary poppins wouldnt she wouldnt

yep, the accusation that parents who don't use safety equipment think they're better than others. i know you said you 'don't get it', but actually i don't go along with your line of thinking in the first place. there will be some who are neglectful, and some parents who are overly anxious.

perhaps assertion is a better word. i don't buy it, anyway.

Well OP you have helped me bacuse really I had no idea how dangerous they could be. i mean I wouldn;t let DD play with them etc but often she helps by putting the tab in.

have bought liquid today adn wont be lettingher touch it

Cheers

ofcourse there will be some at both ends of each extream but there are many who are neither.

and ofcourse i dont mean everyone who wont use certain equipment i mean the ones who say stuff like "oh we never needed to use stairgates as little rosie knew from birth not to touch anything that could hurt her" or "in my day we didnt use those we watched our kids more closely" and often add a very smug look. in rl i know a few people who are like this one lives round the corner from me and gets rather weird every time i strap any of my dc's into car seats, incidently she also thinks autisum is made up and is a cow but hey ho

i'm honestly not sure why you're taking what i said so personally, tbh. if it doesn't apply to you, it doesn't apply to you.

but i find the smugness on here regarding this thread not containing information relevant to anyone but the downright negligent or stupid, well, it's just absolutely insufferable and imo dangerously blinkered.

Agree with Aitch re. the smugness on this thread.

Mary Poppins would make mistakes if she had her own children. My sister was a fantastic and supremely confident and competent nanny, coping with four children including baby twins and a four year old with SN. And their mother travelled for work so my sister often had them for stretches of 48 to 72 hours.

I thought when my sister had her own child she would be hugely competent and put the rest of us to shame. In fact she finds it just as challenging and just as easy to fuck up as the rest of us - it really is different when they are your own!

ohhhhhh i get it now.i thought you were saying i was smug because i asked about why some people refuse to use certain stuff. now i understand what you ment. and i agree compleatly.

obviously you wouldnt let a child put the tabs into there mouth but so few people would think twice about letting a child help doing laundry and if you think about it most of us may forget that its not the same as liquid detergent that we wouldnt think twice about sticking our own hands in when hand washing laundry. so we get lulled into thinking these tabs are just full of the same stuff and wouldnt cause chemical burns.

how many of us (who dont work with this stuff or in a medical enviroment) would know that if its over skin or splash in mouth/eyes its a go to a&e do not stop and do not pass go suituation?

its like the chemicals in disposable nappies,i would never have known untill a few weeks ago that if they come into direct contact with skin they have been known to cause burns. and look at some of the toys and fabrics that end up in legit places that fail standereds due to toxins. its not unusual for all our safety standereds ect to lull you into thinking things that arnt safe should be or things that you know arnt safe but dont know just how bad they are.

and to be honest i think anybody who thinks 'ohhh only fuck wits wouldnt know that' are quite possibly over confident and should there dc have an accident would end up in bits blaiming themselves probally to the point of significant mental harm.