Anyone with Children or Grandchildren, Please Read

[Delbert]

I received this in my e-mail today and thought I'd pass it on.
Google does make reference to it.
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Subject: Anyone with Children or Grandchildren, Please Read



Check this out - I have these in my cupboard and a 5 year old.
AND I don't care if the pictures don't turn out.
you all need to read this anyway. These pictures are of burn marks on a child.









Ok, I'm forwarding this to everyone so they don't make the same mistake.
These burns were caused by a Magic Eraser sponge.
The mom in this case let her kids erase their crayon marks off the walls and never even
thought the sponges would have this kind of chemical in them that would
cause this kind of burn or even hurt them. Learn from her mistake. Pass this along to anyone
who has kids or grandchildren.

The photo is of Kolby - 24 hours after being burned by a Magic Eraser sponge.
It was much worse the day before.

Here is the email we received -
One of my five year old's favorite chores around the house is cleaning scuff marks
off the walls, doors, and baseboards with either an Easy Eraser pad,
or the real deal, a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. I remember reading the box, wondering what the
"Magic" component was that cleaned crayon off my walls with ease.
No ingredients were listed and absolutely no warnings were on the box, other than "Do not ingest."

My package of the Scotchbrite Easy Erasers didn't have a warning either; and since
my child knew not to eat the sponges and keep them out of reach of
his little brother and sister, it was a chore I happily let him do.

If I had known that both brands (and others like them)
contain a harmful alkaline or "base" chemical (opposite of acid on the pH scale)
that can burn your skin, I never would have let my little boy handle them.
As you can see from the picture, when the Scotchbrite Easy Eraser was rubbed against his
face and chin, he received severe chemical burns.

At first, I thought he was being dramatic. I picked him up, put him on the counter top
and washed his face with soap and water. He was screaming in pain.
I put some lotion on his face - more agony. I had used a Magic Eraser to remove magic marker
from my own knuckles a while back and I couldn't understand why
he was suddenly in pain. Then, almost immediately, the large, shiny, blistering red marks
started to spread across his cheeks and chin.

I quickly searched Google.com for "Magic Eraser Burn" and turned up several results.
I was shocked. These completely innocent looking white foam sponges can burn you?

I called our pediatrician, and of course got sent to voice mail. I hung up and
called the hospital and spoke to an emergency room nurse.
She told me to call Poison Control. The woman at Poison Control said she was surprised
nobody had sued these companies yet and walked me through the process of
neutralizing the alkaline to stop my son's face from continually burning more every second.


I had already, during my frantic phone calling, tried patting some numbing
antibiotic cream on his cheeks, and later some Aloe Vera gel - both resulted in screams
of pain. The Poison Control tech had me fill a bathtub with warm water, lay my son into it,
cover him with a towel to keep him warm and then use a soft washcloth to rinse
his face and chin with cool water for a continuous 20 minutes.
My son calmed down immediately. He told me how good it felt. I gave him a dose of
Tylenol and after the twenty minutes was up, he got dressed in his
Emergency Room doctor Halloween costume and off we went to the hospital.
They needed to make sure the chemical burn had stopped burning, and examine his face
to determine if the burn would need to be debrided (from my fuzzy recollection of
hospital work, this means removing loose tissue from a burn location).
My son was pretty happy at the hospital, they were very nice and called him "Doctor"
and let him examine some of their equipment.
The water had successfully stopped the burning and helped soothe a lot of the pain.
I'm sure Tylenol was helping too.

They sent us home with more Aloe Vera gel, Polysporin antibiotic cream,
and some other numbing creams. By the time we got home, my son was crying again.
I tried applying some of the creams but he cried out in pain.
Water seemed to be what worked the best.

After a rough night, I took the above photo in the morning. He was swollen
and wouldn't move his lips very much. The skin on his cheeks was taut.

Today he is doing much better. The burns have started to scab over,
and in place of red, raw, angry, skin we have a deeper red, rough healing layer.
I can touch his skin now, without it stinging.

If you are a parent or grandparent,
this post is meant to save your loved ones from the horror these parents went through.
Please share it with other parents,
grandparents, babysitters, aunts and uncles ~ anyone you know who spends time with kids.

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Here is a news report from (WCCO) I found on Google.
Note it was dated Oct. 26, 2007.

(WCCO)VIDEO NEWS REPORT Oct 26, 2007 < CLICK ON NAME