Last week we spoke about health hazards for young children who may, in their curiosity, taste common household products such as lotions, mouthwash, and hand-sanitizers. These products, so common to our culture, are said to be safe "when used as directed". The risk lies in unsupervised their unsupervised use and the young child's drive to learn through their senses. Babies and toddlers taste almost anything they can put their tongues on!
Aside from keeping these products, medicines, and cleaning products out of reach of young children, (For the two to three year old climber, this means also assuring that they will not be able to get into medicine cabinets by crawling onto the bathroom sink.) there are a few more things parents and care-givers need to consider.
A child poisoned from the alcohol contained in hand sanitizer was giving a squirt of sanitizer in his hand. The well-intentioned adult assumed the child would rub the sanitizer around his hands and prevent the spread of germs. The child did not do that. Instead he brought his hand to his mouth and licked the squirt of sanitizer off of his hand. "YUK," you say, "Why would children do that?"
The question of why is not as important as knowing that it can and does happen. If you choose to use hand sanitizers, medicinal creams, or hand lotions with children, you need to be responsible for making sure the child "uses as directed". You can read the labels on products you feel you need and choose products that do not contain alcohol or other ingredients that should not be ingested.
With that in mind, I searched for all natural hand sanitizers with no alcohol, wondering if such a product could be found. Viola! I found two on the web: Zogics alcohol-free hand sanitizer and CleanWell all natural hand sanitizer. I haven't seen either of these in our stores, but if you find them, let me know!
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