Have you heard about hand sanitizer being dangerous for kids??

I just received this from a friend:

Subject: HAND SANITIZER AND YOUNG CHILDREN

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.
Thank you

Re: Have you heard about hand sanitizer being dangerous for kids??

Wow that is crazy!!!!! Who would have ever thought that something like that can happen..


Thanks for posting!!!

Message edited 6/4/2007 4:17:08 PM.

Re: Have you heard about hand sanitizer being dangerous for kids??

i got this in my email twice today!

Re: Have you heard about hand sanitizer being dangerous for kids??

Isn't that scary? I know it has alcohol, but wow..

Re: Have you heard about hand sanitizer being dangerous for kids??

According to snopes.com it is TRUE

Re: Have you heard about hand sanitizer being dangerous for kids??

I could definitely see it being true. Hand sanitizers are all alcohol - that is why they dry you skin out really bad if you overuse them.

Re: Have you heard about hand sanitizer being dangerous for kids??

But if someone rubs them onto their hands before handling the baby, is it dangerous? Personally, I don't think it does a lot to prevent illness but I think I want people to clean their hands if they hold my baby in the early weeks. Old fashioned soap and water may be best.

Re: Have you heard about hand sanitizer being dangerous for kids??

Re: Have you heard about hand sanitizer being dangerous for kids??

Huh. Good to know about this--I don't think I would have thought about it at all to be honest.

Re: Have you heard about hand sanitizer being dangerous for kids??

I posted on the other post also about hand sanitizer.

When I taught pre-school a few years ago (we had children ages 18 mo. -4 yrs.) we were told to use plain old sop and water. The antibacterial creams and lotions that people use that you do not rinse off with water can be harmful to children. There are a lot of harsch chemicals that can cause children to have a reaction.