Poison reminder: Keep cleaners out of tots' reach

LEHI — The plastic bottle of purple liquid was clearly marked as an all-purpose cleaner.

To a thirsty toddler, however, it probably looked a lot like grape Kool-Aid.

A 14-month-old Lehi boy gave his family a scare Wednesday afternoon when he drank about a half cup of Fabuloso, a cleaning product of Colgate-Palmolive Co.

Lehi police responded to a 911 call about 2 p.m. and found the child to be conscious and apparently in good condition. The boy was taken to American Fork Hospital as a precaution, said Lehi Police Sgt. Darren Paul.

The cleaning solution had been kept in a cupboard underneath the kitchen sink, which Utah County Health Department spokesman Lance Madigan said is a dangerous place to store household cleaners.

"So many chemicals and solutions actually have the same color as Kool-Aid or juice," Madigan said. "(Infants and toddlers) can't read labels, so they'll try and drink some, and that can have some very serious consequences."

Potential poisoning exposures are common, he said.

In 2004, the Utah Poison Control Center responded to more than 50,000 calls — the majority of them about potential poisoning and more than 60 percent involving children under 6.

Cleaners are among the five most common household items posing potential danger to young children, according to the control center. The others are analgesics (pain relievers), cosmetics or personal care products, cough and cold preparations and foreign bodies such as toys, batteries or coins.

The Hazardous Materials Identification System rates Fabuloso as having only a slight health risk. According to a Colgate-Palmolive Co. product data sheet, ingestion of the all-purpose cleaner "may be harmful if swallowed in large quantities."

Still, Madigan said parents shouldn't take any risks.

He encourages adults to lock up chemicals whenever possible and make sure all potentially dangerous substances are out of the reach of children.

Putting a child-safety lock on low cupboards often isn't enough, Madigan said.

"You can't completely trust those," he said of the child-proofing measures. "My 2-year-old daughter gets around those things faster than I do."

Madigan also suggests that parents crawl around on their hands and knees and explore their homes from a child's point of view.