Spring cleaning: A four-year-old boy drank a cleaning product

Although all of the household cleaning products at the Vogel-Levy home in Hermesh are stored in a closed cabinet, far out of their children's reach, their four-year-old son Leroy, mistakenly drank a cleaning product that was evidently diluted with water. His parents rushed him to the emergency room at Hillel Yaffe, where he was examined and hospitalized for observation.

His mother, Celine, said, “He poured himself water from a pitcher in the refrigerator. After taking a sip, he immediately said that the water tasted like soap. A minute later, he started crying and vomiting. I assumed some of a cleaning product had maybe remained in the pitcher, which hadn't been rinsed well with water and was then filled with water and put in the refrigerator, but to be on the safe side, we went to the emergency room to check and brought the cleaning product with us. As noted above, Leroy is in good condition, but as is standard in cases like this, he is will undergo additional tests to make sure that no damage was done to his esophagus.

Leroy and his mother, Celine, in the play area of the Department of Pediatrics at Hillel Yaffe

The Director of the Department of Pediatrics, Dr. Adi Klein said, “This time of year, everybody is busy with spring cleaning, and we have far more cleaning products out and around us than usual. Plus, the kids are on spring break, making the accessibility of the cleaning supplies even greater for them, increasing the risk of serious harm if they come into contact with them and especially if they drink them by accident, because they think that they are something else. The damage to the esophagus or to the trachea can be devastating. In Leroy's case, while his parents made sure to keep the cleaning products out of reach, some of the material remained in the container that was cleaned. It is important to be even more vigilant when cleaning and to ensure that cleaning product is fully removed from containers after they are cleaned.”