OT... but important

The following just came to me in my email... I checked it out and it is true (I hadn't heard of it before, but some of you may have). Just wanted to let you know in case you hadn't heard of it before.

*hugs* Gemini

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This story was verified at:

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my youngest daughter, Halle, who is 4, was rushedto the emergency room by her father for being severely lethargicand incoherent. He was called to her school by the school secretaryfor being 'very VERY sick.' He told me that when he arrived,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. Heimmediately scooped her up and rushed her to the ER, and thencalled me. When we got there, they ran blood test after blood testand did x-rays, every test imaginable. Her white blood cell countwas normal, nothing was out of the ordinary. The ER doctor told usthat he had done everything that he could do so he was sending herto Saint Francis for further tests. Right when we were leaving inthe ambulance, her teacher came to the ER and, after questioningHalle's classmates, we found out that she had licked hand sanitizeroff 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 into their mouths.When we arrived at Saint Francis, we told the ER doctor there to check her blood alcohol level, and yes we did get weird looks, but they did it. The results showed her blood alcohol level was 85% -- six hours after we first took her. There's no telling what it would have been if we would have requested 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 from ingesting the stuff? After doing research on 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 else to go through what my family and I have gone through. Please send this to everyone you know who has children or are going to be having children. It doesn't matter what age.

Reply to
Not Likely
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Thanks Donna

Reply to
DAB

I tend to avoid them anyhow, Gem, unless I have a sneezing kind of cold. They are not good for your skin - very drying. As long as you wash your hands regularly, you shouldn't need them.

Higs, Katherine

Reply to
Katherine

This has been going around for a while. Snopes.com gives it a TRUE status but I'm skeptical.

The quantity of hand sanitizer even a small child would have to suck down to achieve "alcohol poisoning" is quite large, IMO. A kid who licks her hands after using the stuff most likely won't ingest enough to more than cause an upset stomach or maybe produce vomiting. Quite frankly I've tasted it and it's nasty - even the scented hand sanitizers are foul on the tongue. Show me a preschooler who will intentionally consume something that doesn't taste good and I'll eat this sweater I'm knitting.

Then there are the studies showing that a brisk rub under running water - even without soap, mind - removes more germs than hand sanitizer gel...

Reply to
Guy.A.Regular

So am I..

Quite.

I wish I could ... :-)

But running water isn't always available to visitors in a ward - at least not the ones I've been in. Alcohol gel is fitted to ever bed's locker - but I've only seen me and doctors using it.

Mary

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Reply to
Mary Fisher

I am also extremely skeptical of this story. Yes, as Snopes.com says, ingesting the hand sanitizer can be dangerous to children. But the child would have to drink/eat the gel before it evaporates. It evaporates pretty quickly once it is rubbed on the hands. I very much doubt that a child could get enough of the gel in them by licking almost dry or dry hands to cause that degree of illness. Also, a blood alcohol level of 85% would be impossible. For example, a blood alcohol level of .10 (Which is the standard way of stating it) is 1/10th of 1%. It can happen, but it is unusual for an ER to transfer an unstable patient to another ER. Anyway- considering the problems it can cause, I would hope that a teacher closely supervises a young child anytime a hand gel is used. Gemini, Thank you for bringing the problem to our attention. I will pass the warning on to family members with young children. Marilyn

Reply to
Marilyn

Matthew and I were just talking the other day about a pet store that I like to drop in to visit from time to time... gotta see little baby puppies once in a while, you know, even though my Casper makes my heart smile. :o) Anyway, they don't want people touching the puppies anymore. They used to have a bottle of the hand sanitizer stuff right beside the cages with a sign that asked people to use the stuff before touching the puppies so they wouldn't get sick from any germs you might bring in with you. I was wondering if perhaps the puppies started getting sick from people actually using the stuff, considering that most baby puppies are teething and love to chew on fingers. *shrug* Just a thought.

*hugs* Gem
Reply to
Not Likely

*shrug* Sorry, just passing along what I thought might be important. I have no idea of how much or little someone would have to ingest, nor do I have any idea how horrid the stuff tastes... I'll take your (both of you) word for it though. :o) *hugs* Gemini
Reply to
Not Likely

Yes, you would think that anything a child could potentially put in their mouths that *might* have problems with it, would be supervised carefully by teachers. I can remember a couple of kids I went to school with eating paste (that thick white stuff) and the teachers telling them to stop. I had a *tiny* bit on my fingers one day (when I was little I *hated* getting anything on my hands and had to wash them off (actually I *still* hate having my hands sticky)... my Mom used to put a pan of water outside for me while I was making mudpies. LOL) and touched it to my tongue to see what the attraction was... it was pretty gross as I remember, so I have no idea why some kids liked eating the stuff. :op~~

You're welcome! :o) That's what I was thinking... anyone with little children would like to know about it for sure. Whether it tastes gross or not, some children still find attaction to putting some things in their mouths that do not belong there.

*hugs* Gemini
Reply to
Not Likely

According to Snopes a young child would have to ingest one to two ounces to have a serious reaction to the alcohol. That's a lot of hand sanitizer. It's a lot more than what a child would have left on the hands after washing. The Snopes article said that the teacher mentioned in the email squirted the sanitizer on the child's hand and left the child to rub her hands, but she ate the stuff instead. First, the teacher obviously squirted way too much. Second, she should have supervised the cleaning process instead of leaving it up to the child.

The lesson is to use a small quantity of product and to supervise the child until all the alcohol has evaporated or been rubbed into the skin. The Snopes article also says that an independent study has shown that families with children who regularly used hand sanitizer had 59% fewer gastrointestinal infections that families who were just advised to wash frequently with soap and water. I never use hand sanitizer except occasionally when I'm on a trip and don't have easy access to soap and water. However, my daughter uses it. I'll tell her to be careful with it, but I wouldn't suggest that she stop using it. Lots of other cosmetic products have alcohol in them as well.

Reply to
B Vaugha

I'm skeptical as well. We use it with ourkids because it's so handy. It goes in the car, the diaper bag, etc. and is better than nothing when water isn't available. Although I'm still not sure why it's needed in the classroom.

Reply to
Shawn

Reply to
Marilyn

Wet a towel or two , put in a nylon bag and it is useful to wipe hands faces etc,,,, mirjam

Reply to
Mirjam Bruck-Cohen

That's what I usually do on a trip, but on a *long* trip, the wet towel can get somewhat yucky. When I go to visit one of my daughters, the trip can take over 24 hours from start to finish. I often, but not always, bring along some non-rinse hand sanitizer, or else some of those moist foil-wrapped tissues.

Reply to
B Vaugha

That could be.

Higs, Katherine

Reply to
Katherine

I use wet wipes in the car.

Higs, Katherine

Reply to
Katherine

I actually prefer the damp wipes (which I know also have alcohol in/on them), or even just a damp face cloth taken along in a plastic bag, to the sanitizer.... but that is just my own personal preference. I will use the sanitizer when necessary though.

Gemini

Reply to
Not Likely

A daughter once took a grandson, when a toddler, to a college concert where his auntie was playing. I didn't think it was a good idea and it wasn't, he became fidgety and noisy. I took him over and gave him a wet wipe to play with, in the absence of aything else. He sat happily chewing it for the rest of the performance - but didn't show any ill-effects.

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

Because it was wintergreen-flavored! If they didn't want kids to eat it, they shouldn't have packaged it with a candy flavor. Personally I ate tons of it in first & second grade. ;)

Reply to
spampot

spampot spun a FINE 'yarn':

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Reply to
YarnWright

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