Bug (my daughter) is notorious for having her fingers in her mouth or something else. I feel like I am constantly reminding her to take things out of her mouth. Can we say, YUCK!!! I feel like at the age of 4, we’ve should have grown out of this “stage”. What I am now learning is, apparently I am not alone in my frustration. Several mothers I have talked to say their older children still place random objects or their fingers in their mouths.

Since Bug still puts random things in her mouth, I have to make sure certain things are still locked up (Cleaning products, medicine, etc.). The last thing I want is for Bug to mistakenly eat something harmful. Unfortunately, sometimes locking things up isn’t enough and curiosity gets the best of kids. This seems to be the case with the new laundry detergent pods that are out.

In early May, I remember hearing about kids eating laundry detergent pods. Children were mistaking the bright colored pods as candy (they do look like candy)! In May, The Poison Control reported, about 200 cases of children ingesting these laundry pods. Just this past week, The Poison Control reported about 1200 poisoning cases. Oh my goodness!!! What a jump. The increase averages out to about 10 reported cases a day. Thankfully no one has died from eating these pods, but children who eat them often experience vomiting, wheezing, and gasping for air. Several children have also been placed on ventilators.

In response to this increase, Proctor and Gamble is redesigning the storage containers with a double latch system. Plus, they are adding new warning labels. I kind of laughed at the warning label because most kids that are eating these can’t read! In all seriousness though, these pods are becoming a huge problem. So if you have them in your house, you might want to think twice about where you store them.

So how do you keep your cleaning products, medicine, etc. out of reach of your children? Do you lock them up or just place them out of their reach? We lock our items up, but we also try to emphasize to Bug that these things are dangerous and that she should not eat them! I just hope she is listening!!!

Has your child ever ingested something dangerous? I hope I never need the Poison Control number, but you just never know!!! Here is the national Poison Control number just in case, 1-800-222-1222.