Company takes steps to protect children from eating detergent

One major company is responding to concerns about a new danger from laundry detergent.

Last week. we told you about children getting sick after putting tiny single-use detergent packets into their mouths. Nearly 250 cases have been reported to poison control centers this year.

Doctors are trying to determine why the reactions have been much more severe than the reaction to regular detergent. Almost all of the cases so far have been reported since March, when several companies began to market the packets. A handful of children have been hospitalized for several days, but no deaths have been reported.

Now, Proctor and Gamble, which manufactures Tide Pods, is planning to create a new double-latch lid to keep children from getting their hands on the packets. Company spokesman Paul Fox said the Cincinnati-based company plans to create a new lid on tubs of Tide Pods "in the next couple of weeks."

According to the Associated Press: Spokesmen for Purex, All and Arm & Hammer did not immediately return requests for comment about whether their companies also planned changes. Kathryn Corbally, a spokeswoman for Sun Products Corp., said the company is evaluating its packaging.

Protecting Your Children

Ruth to the Rescue recently spoke with Dr. Cynthia Aaron, Medical Director of the Poison Center at Children's Hospital.

"There's been a few recent publications and reports of children getting into these, and then having trouble breathing, becoming unresponsive, and need to be on a ventilator for about 24 hours," she said.

She also told Ruth to the Rescue, "Like with anything else that's potentially hazardous to a child, should be kept out of the reach of children, locked up, and remember children can climb and get into things. They should be very careful about where they keep their household products." 

That's advice Detroit mother Kristen Kennard hoped parents would take to heart, "Put 'em on a high shelf, if you're going to purchase them, that's what I would do, somewhere that they wouldn't be able to get to them." 

So far, none of these serious reaction have been reported in Michigan. If you think your child has ingested laundry detergent- call the Poison Center right away.

That number is 800-222-1222. If a person stops breathing, collapses, or has a seizure, call 911.