Internet Challenges Sending Kids to EDs

​Social media influences nearly every part of our lives—how we communicate, teach, and protest. It is powerful because it allows people around the world to connect instantaneously. One of those ways is the social media phenomenon popular since the early 2000s: internet challenges. These challenges range from funny, like the mannequin challenge, to charitable, such as the ice-water bucket challenge, to dangerous, like the blue whale challenge. Several of these can cause injury by ingestion or topical application.​The Tide Pod ChallengeConcerns of safety arose shortly after laundry pods were introduced in 2012 when unintentional pediatric exposures were reported. Young children developed significant toxicity, including caustic injuries, respiratory distress, altered mental status, and even death. Those prompted efforts to make this household item safer. Some of the changes included making the packaging opaque, making the containers child-safe, and adding a bittering agent to the outer film. More recently, the Tide Pod Challenge has promoted the ingestion of laundry pods. Teenagers would record themselves chewing and gagging on these pods and then daring others to do it.Austin Kirk​The Cinnamon ChallengeThe challenge here was to eat a spoonful of cinnamon in 60 seconds without drinking anything to wash it down. Cinnamon is a caustic irritant composed of cellulose fibers that may cause a hypersensitivity reaction and pulmonary inflammation. Symptoms include coughing, ...
Source: The Tox Cave - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs