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Detergent Pods: Convenient for Parents; Dangerous for Inquisitive Toddlers

Since 2011, there has been a growth in the popularity of laundry detergent pods. Their popularity is rooted in the convenience they offer; there’s no measuring, you just pop one into your washing machine and you’re good to go. Unfortunately, the pods are also becoming popular with small children, who are popping them into their mouths at an alarming rate.
 

In 2012 alone, poison control centers across the nation reported more than 7,000 pod-related exposures to children under the age of 5. This year, in the Pediatric Emergency Department of Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center, we’ve had upwards of 10 to 15 children arrive with exposures to the concentrated detergent in these pods. That’s about two exposures a month!
  

How Does This Happen?

Pod design and packaging are partly to blame. Most of these pods are brightly colored and the size and shape of a piece of candy. The gel-like texture of the pods is an enticement to the inquiring hands of a toddler as well. What’s more, these pods are often packaged in clear containers that resemble fish or candy bowls, or in bags that can be opened easily by a child.
 

Here’s a common exposure scenario. You’re about to do the laundry so you place an individual pod on top of the clothes in your laundry basket. Your toddler comes along, sees the pod, thinks it is candy and pops it into his mouth. The pod’s membrane is water-soluble so it dissolves in the child’s mouth immediately, releasing the highly-concentrated detergent. The detergent then goes down the child’s throat, into the stomach or the respiratory system.
 

Serious Complications

The most common signs of an accidental ingestion are vomiting, coughing and choking. Eye irritation is another common symptom that occurs when the child squeezes the pod until it bursts. More serious ingestions cause either respiratory or gastrointestinal (GI) complications. In worst-case scenarios, deaths have occurred due to laundry pod exposure poisonings.
 

There can be a lot of excretions that pool in the respiratory tract during an exposure so when children come to the Pediatric Emergency Department at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital after an ingestion, we sometimes have to put the child on respiratory support to help him or her breathe. If the contents of the pod have traveled down the GI tract it can burn the esophagus to the point where the child will need a feeding tube or feeding regimens so the GI tract has an opportunity to heal.
 
CLICK NEXT TO FIND OUT WHAT PARENTS CAN DO

What Can Parents Do?

A simple step to avoid exposure would be to not use the pods if you have young children at home. If you do decide to use the laundry pods, I recommend storing the pods in childproof containers in cabinets that are locked or out of a child’s reach. When you’re ready to do your laundry, make sure there are no young children around and transfer the pod directly from the container to the washing machine. Don’t leave the pod on top of the basket or somewhere easily accessible.
 

If you see your child with one of these pods, immediately try to remove what’s in the child’s hand or mouth. Take the child to a sink and rinse off any present liquid. We do not encourage parents to use agents that induce vomiting.
 

Eye exposure is also common, so immediately rinse off your child’s face and hands and remove any clothing that might have detergent residue. If your child starts to display any of the exposure symptoms outlined earlier, call 911or get the child to an emergency department immediately.
 

These pods are convenient for many families. However, if they end up in the wrong hands, they can be dangerous. We need to be vigilant about keeping them out of the reach of children, especially toddlers between the ages of 2 and 3. That’s when their inquisitive nature can get them into trouble.

 
Darshan Patel, M.D. is Chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center, the children’s hospital for Westchester, the Hudson Valley and Fairfield County, Conn.

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