Maybe you’ve seen posts comparing travel-sized Tide packages to juice boxes, tips on making Tide Pod pizza, or a snapshot of the ravioli-like detergent packets garnished with herbs. It would be funny if kids all over the country — including Portland and Seattle — weren’t ending up hospitalized (or dead) after consuming detergent.What started as a stupid internet joke is now serious enough to prompt the American Association of Poison Control Centers to issue an official High Alert for intentional exposures to detergent packets among 13 to 19 year olds. And YouTube is scrambling to delete any videos related to the Tide Pod Challenge.The worst part is that if teens are messing with them, Tide Pods are more likely to end up in toddler’s hands. Last year, there were 10,570 reports of kids under the age of 5 coming in contact with the packets. Risks of ingestion include seizure, pulmonary edema, respiratory arrest, coma, and death. “Substances in laundry detergent can cause excruciating burns that penetrate and perforate the tissue of the throat and esophagus,” says Dr. Mark Banks, Lead Pediatrician at ZOOM+Care. “These pods have caused fatalities in small children, so it’s a big deal.”WHAT TO DO NOW:
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------ZOOM+Care For all your care.Same-day. No-wait Visits for Pediatrics, Primary Care, Urgent Care, and Specialty Care.Schedule now[caption id="attachment_872" align="alignnone" width="372"]
Lead Pediatrician, Mark Banks, MD[/caption]