Magic Erasers - Watch Out!

Moms, A friend passed this onto me & I wanted to share serious news with you!

Anyone with Children or Grandchildren, Please Read
Ok, I'm forwarding this to everyone so they don't make the same
mistake. These burns were caused by a Magic Eraser sponge. The mom
in this case let her kids erase their crayon marks off the walls and
never even thought the sponges would have this kind of chemical in
them that would cause this kind of burn or even hurt them. Learn
from her mistake. Pass this along to anyone who has kids or
grandchildren. The photo is of Kolby - 24 hours after being burned
by a Magic Eraser sponge. It was much worse the day before. Here is
the email we received -
One of my five year old's favorite chores around the
house is cleaning scuff marks off the walls, doors, and baseboards
with either an Easy Eraser pad, or the real deal, a Mr. Clean Magic
Eraser. I remember reading the box, wondering what the 'Magic'
component was that cleaned crayon off my walls with ease. No
ingredients were listed and absolutely no warnings were on the box,
other than 'Do not ingest.' My package of the Scotchbrite Easy
Erasers didn't have a warning either; and since my child knew not to
eat the sponges and keep them out of reach of his little brother and
sister, it was a chore I happily let him do. If I had known that
both brands (and others like them) contain a harmful alkaline or
'base' chemical (opposite of acid on the pH scale) that can burn
your skin, I never would have let my little boy handle them. As you
can see from the picture, when the Scotchbrite Easy Eraser was
rubbed against his face and chin, he received severe chemical burns.

At first, I thought he was being dramatic. I picked him up, put
him on the counter top and washed his face with soap and water. He
was screaming in pain. I put some lotion on his face - more agony. I
had used a Magic Eraser to remove ma gic marker from my own knuckles
a while back and I couldn't understand why he was suddenly in pain.
Then, almost immediately, the large, shiny, blistering red marks
started to spread across his cheeks and chin.

I quickly searched Google.com <http://google.com/&gt; for 'Magic
Eraser Burn' and turned up several results. I was shocked. These
completely innocent looking white foam sponges can burn you?

I called our pediatrician, and of course got sent to voice
mail. I hung up and called the hospital and spoke to an emergency
room nurse. She told me to call Poison Control. The woman at Poison
Control said she was surprised nobody had sued these companies yet
and walked me through the process of neutralizing the alkaline to
stop my son's face from continually burning more every second.

I had already, during my frantic phone calling, tried patting
some numbing antibiotic cream on his cheeks, and later some Aloe
Vera gel - both resulted in screams of pain. The Poison Control tech
had me fill a bathtub with warm water, lay my son into it, cover him
with a towel to keep him warm and then use a soft washcloth to rinse
his face and chin with cool water for a continuous 20 minutes. My
son calmed down immediately. He told me how good it felt. I gave him
a dose of Tylenol and after the twenty minutes was up, he got
dressed in his Emergency Room doctor Halloween costume and off we
went to the hospital. They needed to make sure the chemical burn
had stopped burning, and examine his face to determine if the burn
would need to be debri ded (from my fuzzy recollection of hospital
work, this means removing loose tissue from a burn location). My son
was pretty happy at the hospital, they were very nice and called him
'Doctor' and let him examine some of their equipment. The water had
successfully stopped the burning and helped soothe a lot of the
pain. I'm sure Tylenol was helping too.

They sent us home with more Aloe Vera gel, Polysporin
antibiotic cream, and some other numbing creams. By the time we got
home, my son was crying again. I tried applying some of the creams
but he cried out in pain. Water seemed to be what worked the best.

After a rough night, I took the above photo in the morning. He
was swollen and wouldn't move his lips very much. The skin on his
cheeks was taut.

Today he is doing much better. The burns have started to scab
over, and in place of red, raw, angry, skin we have a deeper red,
rough healing layer. I can touch his skin now, without it stinging.

If you are a parent or grandparent, this post is meant to
save your loved ones from the horror these parents went through.
Please share it with other parents, grandparents, babysitters,
aunts and uncles ~ anyone you know who spends time with kids.