A Question About Those Colorful Laundry "Pods"

This is kind of ridiculous to me. My kids knew to stay out of the cabinet under the sink, and until they were old enough to help with the laundry, detergents were kept on the top shelf in the laundry room. Now we use the Tide Pods and they are on top of the dryer so all 3 kids can reach them when they are starting their laundry.

Parents and caregivers need to pay more attention to what their kids are doing...I personally don't see how a Tide Pod resembles candy in the least.

Why are these things where a child can get them should be the more pressing question. In my house, laundry soap stays outside, in the garage where the machines are on a shelf above the machines.
Dish soap stays under the sink in the cupboard with a child safety lock.
Liquid hand soap refills stay under a bathroom counter, again with a child safety lock.
Never, when my kids were of an age to try putting something in their mouth like that, was anything left in their reach. We keep it out of reach of the cats as well. We buy pods for the dishwasher. They have never been left where a child can get to them.
Even going to a laundry mat, it's not that hard to keep the tub closed and out of reach of a little one that comes with you.

I won't buy pods for my laundry because I am allergic to the dyes. I agree with you on wondering why they have to dye it all these pretty colors. It's not actually good for you. There is no reason why they can not be dye free, which means that it is clear. I don't get the scents/fragrance either, another thing I'm allergic to. Somehow companies have convinced us that it isn't clean unless it smells like perfume and comes in bright colors.

The blue is actually a bluing agent that has been used for generations to whiten laundry. That bright color actually has a practical purpose.

My question isn't about why it's so brightly colored but rather why parents have lost common sense to put poisonous chemicals out of reach of small children, as has been advised and practiced for decades. And let's face it, I'm quite sure there are plenty of people who actually purchase those things BECAUSE they look pretty. I don't see why it's so hard just to measure out the necessary amount. But then again, I make my own detergent.

The coloring is to catch your eye on the shelf at the store. You won't buy what you don't see, so everyone wants their product to be brighter and more visually arresting than everyone else's.
As for kids, it's the parents' responsibility to keep poisonous items out of the reach of littluns. Put them under lock and key if necessary. But don't blame the manufacturer if your kid eats something toxic because you failed to put it where he couldn't get to it.

http://jezebel.com/laundry-detergent-pods-have-sent-hundr...#

I noticed that Costco now has a solid colored container to at least hide what is inside.

Last night a young mom was asked about her child that was rushed to the hospital after chewing on a laundry pod.

She was asked "how did your child get a hold of one of these pods?"

This young mom said that "actually, one of the grandmothers mistakenly gave it to the child, "she thought it was teether".

The pod was in a cabinet in the kitchen, So the grandmother thought it was a teether? WTH? Who goes under the kitchen sink and takes a pod out of a laundry detergent bottle and thinks it is a teether?
Sounded shifty to me.

I think that some people just are so clueless there is just no hope.

"Accidental" poisoning has been going on since there have been babies and toddlers.

The best safety is based on the adults in charge of the children. Keep anything dangerous locked and up high. What is so hard and complicated about it?

Ummm let's not blame the company. Where were the parents? Why did kids have access to these chemicals!!!

Back in my day we kept poisons out of the reach of our kids until they knew better than to eat them.

Plus regardless of what is inside they are covered with that dissoluble coating that is quite shiny. Pretty sure the inside could be poop brown and kids would still be drawn to them. Pea green, still drawn to them. I mean what color would you think would look unappealing? Clear looks like sugar..

Just be a parent and keep them out of reach of children

Are you old enough to remember the Mr. Yuk stickers?
Because kids were eating cleaning chemicals?
Same thing.
If the pods were white powder, kids would think it's sugar/candy.
I think the REAL issue is why the heck the ADULTS don't treat these "colorful pods" like the cleaning chemicals they are!

What's bugging me?? Are the parents who are more interested in being their kids friend, than being their parent!!

It's called NOT parenting your child. Not setting boundaries or off-limits zones.

What's wrong with telling your child NO???

What's wrong with telling your child - The items in here can hurt you. DO NOT TOUCH???

My kids KNEW not to get into the cabinets. Period.

In our laundry room? The storage cabinet is ABOVE the washer...and there is no ladder or step stool for my kids to climb on to get to the stuff.

If you honestly believe that your child won't listen to you? LOCK the cabinets - as we all know that kids can move fast. But really? PARENT your child. SAY NO...it won't hurt them.

I've seen some interesting-- and some alarmingly glib-- answers here.

What it boils down to for me is Freedom of Choice. (Thank you, Devo.)
I have the choice to make an informed decision as to which products are relatively safe for my family. Just as there are a variety of distractions out there which I would find rather toxic for my family to be exposed to (think Kardashian, JackAss, etc) there are also lots of other options (National Geographic, PBS) that I have access to.

Same for cleaning supplies. The onus is not on the manufacturer to alter their product to my needs, the onus is on me to do research and choose products which work for the safety needs of my household. If it isn't child-safe, the onus is then on me to secure those unsafe items. Statistics (pish!) won't protect my son. A sticker won't protect him. A lock will. When a child is cognitively old enough to thwart a well-placed lock or deterrent, usually then it's up to the parent to have INFORMED the child many, many times of the dangers of medications, chemicals and cleansers.

My son recently took it into his cute little head to eat some cinnamon, by itself. He'd had some earlier that night for a cold, mixed with honey, and didn't realize that cinnamon alone is a whole other ball game. This was BOTH of our faults; mine for not going into detail with him that cinnamon solo was a no-no and his for ignoring my usual "don't eat anything in the kitchen without asking" warnings.

Should I suggest that cinnamon be less appealing? Is it the fault of the manufacturers that it didn't come with a child-proof cap? Or is it my responsibility-- and my son's-- to have communicated with each other in regard to possible hazards/his intentions?

Google "non toxic dishwasher detergent" and several choices pop up. We use the BioKleen brand for traditional dishwashing (we don't have a machine) and it's a non-toxic one. Ingest? Just drink a lot of water.

I'd encourage people to look to themselves for the solutions to their own problems. Shiny and bright sell. People need to think about what they do, examine their own beliefs and practices about keeping their kids safe. Don't rely on manufacturers to do it for us. They are just churning out what sells.

People are tremendously gullible. However, your question is nonsensical and our gullibility is not related to the issue at hand.

We ALL choose the pretty things over the less pretty things. That's simply human nature. We believe that pretty is safer and we will be pretty by having and using pretty things. We are instinctually predisposed to choose pretty over not.

The real question to be addressed is: Why are parents not placing poisonous chemicals away from their small children anymore? Like OnePerfectOne said, what happened to Mr. Yuk? What happened to a very high shelf or a lock on the cleaning cabinet for homes with very small children? And why are children being allowed to be unsupervised long enough to get into the laundry detergent cupboard or shelf, open the container, and eat the dang things? If a child is to be left unsupervised, oughtn't access to these areas be restricted?

This isn't about "pretty." We all like pretty. Nothing wrong with that. This is about poor supervision and planning.

I agree with the posters who fault the parents for not keeping the cleaning supplies out of reach of children. And yes, I'm preaching to myself because years ago in a houseful of boxes during a move into a new house, my kids got into a box in the kitchen while my mom and I were in the bathroom unpacking, found a Costco size bottle of children's vitamins and proceded to eat half of a full bottle. I realized that they were being very quiet (bad sign with little kids) and caught them in the act. AT LEAST I never bought vitamins with extra iron, which can be lethal. Poison Control had me give them sypup of ipecac. (If I had not figured out what they had done, they would have ended up pooping it out with a lot of bellyaches...) They did learn a big lesson, but it also helped me remember how important it is to put stuff up.

That's what's the most important - put stuff up. There are ways to lock cabinets, and people with little kids should be doing that. Companies are competing with other companies to get people to see their product (not everyone can get the best point of sale spot - it's just an impossibility).

i hear ya. i don't think it's either/or, but a good ponder-point for both sides. i myself don't use the pods, as i sometimes run small loads and like to be able to tailor the amount of laundry or dishwasher detergent i use. the 2 seconds i'd save by grabbing a pod instead of squeezing or scooping the correct amount of white powder is irrelevant to me.
i do think it's the parents' responsibility to keep ALL chemicals out of reach of kids, and am so very over our litiginous society that thinks it's somebody else's job to think for us. and yet i also don't think it's outrageous to eye askance chemical companies who seem to pander to the 'ooo, sparkly!' reaction in little kids AND big kids.
yet marketing research proves again and again that it's not just kids who are drawn to brightly and artificially colored products.
khairete
S.

Why is it that when some kid does something stupid (that most often) the parent could have avoided it is the manufacturers fault?

It's sad that a small child would even have access to laundry or dish detergents (or any chemicals). They make so many child proofing items that this shouldn't even be an issue. Parents can also put cleaning items up on higher shelves so the little ones cant reach them.

I am getting tired of people getting hurt and suing because they have little or no common sense. Maybe because I grew up in a time when there were not that many warnings and restrictions and people actually used their brains.

Marketing research and practical application prove that attractive products sell better both in quantity and price point. People that really don't care and are not influenced by the visuals are a minority.

The law requires warning labels like 'Keep out of reach of children.' and that is also a CYA for the manufacturer. There shouldn't have to be warnings like 'Do not use in the shower.' on a hairdryer, but without them there would be lawsuits.

Someone mentioned Mr Yuk - they still exist! You can request a free sheet stickers by mail with a SASE, or you can order them and other products.

http://chp.edu/CHP/mryuk

I just want to clarify that most brands of commercial laundry soaps have been blue since they were made by corporations. They have added a bluing agent (used to be called Bluette I think) to help whiten whites. It is not a marketing ploy. It actually helps clean. Homemakers can still purchase this bluing agent and add to homemade laundry soaps, or white soaps that don't add it.

In essence, the bright color is not a waste.

And children have been breaking into open cabinets and locked cabinets and high cabinets since cabinets were invented. The only way to keep children safely away from toxic chemicals is to parent them, and teach them to stay away.

On a very sad note, I'm positive I have told this story here before, I have a dear friend who's child accidentally ingested liquid Drano. He and his wife worked opposite day/night shifts, he had worked the night shift, came home took over the care of their inquisitive toddler, he fell asleep on the couch next to his toddler, watching cartoons and awoke to horrid screaming. The little guy had pushed a chair up to the kitchen counter, climbed up on the counter and successfully opened a locked cabinet where the toxic chemicals were stored. He then opened the most toxic of the chemicals and took a swig. The liquid Drano disintegrated his esophagus and the boy died in his father's arms in the ambulance.

My friend nodded off for just a few minutes and the end result was a dead child and a marriage that did not survive this tragedy.

On this particular topic, I do not blame the laundry soap makers for making their pods colorful and thereby attracting toddlers to it. That's just not logical.

My husband and I discussed this matter the other night. While we know “pretty” products sell, it certainly doesn't help children in the least. In fact it puts them at risk because these products are visually appealing. With a toddler and preschooler in my house I am constantly reminded of two things. One the darnedest things catch their eyes and two for a long time children use all five senses to explore their world. Children may in fact put items in their mouths well after the baby phase. None of it has to make sense to us adults. These are facts of the universe and one parents live with and should safeguard against. My husband and I use these stories as reminders to keep our guard up. After the stories came out on the news we went home that night and re-assessed our home safety. I had one cabinet that was not child proofed but it contained dish soaps and such. Shame on me. I promptly moved all of those items to a high cabinet. It’s easy to get lax even if you know better.

It’s easy to blame parents but there’s more to it than poor or lazy parenting. Not everyone wants to sue and why shouldn’t the village take collective steps to ensure the safety of our children? The dangers in my home are not the same as the dangers in my elder mother’s home for instance. My mother has medicines galore and all of them don’t have child proof lids. If they did, she wouldn’t be able to open any of them. She keeps her medicines down low because if she didn’t, she could not access them. She uses pain patches which are a completely unknown hazard in my house. A pain patch, particularly a discarded one in the trash, looks like a sticker. What child doesn’t like a sticker? I can keep going but the point is at her home we are even more careful than usual. My children listen and know the rules but that doesn’t make them automatically immune to poor decision making. My own experiences as a child shape my choices as a parent. I distinctly remember looking through my grandmother’s bathroom drawers around the age of 6. I knew I wasn’t supposed to but I did anyway because I was curious about her makeup. The exploration of her makeup soon turned into a general rummage. I wound up taking I don’t remember how many pretty little pink pills. I knew I wasn’t supposed to do that either. I knew if I got caught, my hide would be tanned. However, none of that knowledge stopped me. I was a curious small child without adult supervision making poor decisions. I remember feeling dog sick but not saying a word out of fear of getting in big trouble. I remember telling myself over and over again I knew better and was a bad little girl. Curiosity is a very, very powerful motivator for children. If as an "obedient" child I made those choices, then I need to have realistic expectations of my own children, of the children who come into my home and of the homes my family visits. An ounce of caution is worth a pound of cure. I don’t expect manufacturers to do my job as a parent but it sure would be nice if they could give me an assist every now and again.

With all the childproofing gadgets we've had for years, it would seem that prevention would be fairly simple.

I guess I question why manufacturers think we need pretty colors - and if we do, what does that say about us?

We have a small family and don't always run a full load of wash, so we use as little water as possible. A pre-measured pod makes no sense for us. Our dishwasher is a single size, of course, but with the new divided dishwashers that allow you to run off a single "drawer", the pre-measured pods make no sense.

Besides, it seems to me that, the more "handling" a manufacturer has to do or the more steps they have to take (such as wrapping detergent in a plastic pouch), the more the price-per-use is going to go up. I won't do that. I really don't think it takes that much effort to pour a little detergent in a cap based on the amount of water and the amount of dirt on the clothes.

It also reminds me of the toothpaste commercials that show a big glob of toothpaste on the toothbrush, when about 1/3 of that is necessary, or the shampoo instructions that say "lather, rinse, REPEAT" - the point is to get you to buy more than you real need.

So I always look at the profit motive behind the marketing and packaging.

I have some fancy looking ones for my dishwasher, and a toddler in the house. I free-range parent, so she wanders a lot without me.

I'm not worried about it. She knows to not go under the sink. The risk of me losing her to suicide is higher than this risk.

It's obviously all about marketing. I have bought the pods, because when we vacation I like to have as much as I need before we go, so I'd buy these because they travel well to do our laundry on vacation. After the first time using them, I LOVED them.

However, like any cleaning product they need to be kept out of the reach of kids. I've heard of a toddler spraying stain remover in his newborn sisters eyes because he got his hands on it.
Bright colors due lure us as consumers. It's just the way it is. Again, it's marketing. if the pods were black or a nasty green, we wouldn't buy them. Its just how we've been programmed sadly.

I often let my girls help pick out laundry detergent and will spend 5mins or so smelling them all sometimes; but they are stored on a very high shelf where even my wife and I need a chair to reach.

I think color sells whether is food or other things...that's why so much of our food has artificial food dye- every google how what artifical dye is made of?

FWIW - I starting buying the All sensitive detergent pods and they are completely clear and a lot less expensive then tide.