Kids Swallowing Laundry Packs

The more convenient it is the more consumers gravitate to it, especially with busy lives we all live. And that convenience for consumers can lead to dangers when children are involved.

That's why poison control officials have issued a warning to parents about the new brightly colored little packets that combine laundry detergent with other cleaning agents.

It's a new convenience for consumers, and now new danger for kids. Nearly 250 people have called poison centers in a past couple of months after small children swallowed or bit into the packets, the Associated Press reports.

And some of the kids have gotten very sick much sicker than kids usually get when they swallow a little detergent, says an alert from The American Association of Poison Control Centers.

For example:
-- A 15-month-old child developed "profuse vomiting" and had to be put on a ventilator at a hospital to keep breathing.
-- A 17-month-old child developed nausea and vomiting and also inhaled some of the product. That child also needed a ventilator.

"The rapid onset of significant symptoms is pretty scary," says Michael Beuhler, medical director of the Carolinas Poison Center. He says he's not sure what's making kids so sick.

Then there's the question of why toddlers are biting into cleaning products in the first place. One possibility: They look like candy, some parents and kids say. One blogging pediatrician says they look like toys -- and that the product is "engineered to dissolve rapidly in water so will do the same in a child's mouth."

The poison centers' warning does not name particular products, but one new brand on the market is Tide Pods, made by Procter and Gamble. The company says consumers should keep the product -- like all cleaning products -- out of the reach of children. And a Tide representative told ABC News that the packets will start coming in child-proof containers this summer.

BY: USA Today and Digtriad

Missed Naps Could Put Toddlers at Risk for Mood Disorders

Toddlers who miss daytime naps may be at increased risk for mood disorders later in life, a new study indicates.

Researchers looked at toddlers aged 30 months to 36 months and found that depriving them of a single daily nap resulted in more anxiety, lower levels of joy and interest, and reduced problem-solving abilities.

"Many young children today are not getting enough sleep, and for toddlers, daytime naps are one way of making sure their 'sleep tanks' are set to full each day," study leader Monique LeBourgeois, an assistant professor in the integrative physiology department at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said in a university news release.

"This study shows insufficient sleep in the form of missing a nap taxes the way toddlers express different feelings, and, over time, may shape their developing emotional brains and put them at risk for lifelong, mood-related problems," she explained.

The researchers videotaped the emotional expressions of toddlers while they worked on solvable and unsolvable picture puzzles on two different days. One day, the test was conducted an hour after the toddlers had their normal 90-minute daytime nap. On another day, the toddlers were deprived of their naps and tested an hour after their normal nap time.

When they were nap-deprived, the toddlers had a 34 percent decrease in positive emotional responses after completing the solvable puzzles, a 31 percent increase in negative emotional responses when they were unable to complete the unsolvable puzzles, and a 39 percent decrease in the expression of confusion when they tried to complete the unsolvable puzzles.

"Confusion is not bad - it's a complex emotion showing a child knows something does not add up," LeBourgeois noted. "When well-slept toddlers experience confusion, they are more likely to elicit help from others, which is a positive, adaptive response indicating they are cognitively engaged with their world."

Overall, according to the release, the study shows that missing a daytime nap may make it more difficult for toddlers to take full advantage of exciting and interesting experiences and to adapt to new frustrations.

"Just like good nutrition, adequate sleep is a basic need that gives children the best chance of getting what is most important from the people and things they experience each day.