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Arkansas daycare mistakes wiper fluid for Kool-Aid
March 16th, 2009 by Kurt Niland
A day care near the town of Scott, Arkansas, served ten children between 2 and 7 years old windshield wiper fluid late last Thursday afternoon, an Associated Press article reported. According to authorities, a school worker bought the windshield wiper fluid, along with many other items, during a recent shopping trip. Later, the owner-operator of the daycare apparently mistook the toxic fluid for Kool-Aid. “This product was mistakenly grabbed and thought to be Kool-Aid and put in the refrigerator,” Laura James, a pediatric pharmacologist and toxicologist, told the AP.
Doctors treating the children estimate that they drank about an ounce of the fluid before noticing that there was something wrong with the flavor. All but one of the children were released from the hospital. According to the AP, the remaining child’s tests showed significant amounts of methanol in the blood. Ingestion of methanol can lead to a number of adverse events including coma and blindness.
The day care’s operator surrendered her license, which allowed her to care for up to 10 children in her home, to state officials after an interview with child welfare investigators. Julie Munsell, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, said that the day care operator had no previous complaints or compliance issues against her, and that the incident appeared to be a “horrible mistake.” According to the AP report, the day care owner was distraught about the incident and extremely worried about the children’s health.
James told the AP that windshield wiper fluid and antifreeze are brightly colored and easily mistaken for fruit drinks.
“I think the take-home message is not to have these products in the kitchen or where you’re doing any kind of food preparation,” she told the AP.
