Single-use laundry packets spur safety concerns

Sales of single-use laundry detergent packs are rising, but so have safety concerns. Some children can mistake the brightly colored packs for candy.

More than 20,000 calls to poison control centers have been logged since the packets went mainstream a few years ago, according to Consumer Reports.

Alex Rohde was one of those calls. Nine months ago, he bit into a Tide detergent pod from a package that had just been brought home from the store.

"He had so much diarrhea and so much throw-up coming out of his mouth. It was horrible. It was bad," his mother Michelle Rohde said. "When he turned blue, I would say, was probably the scariest part, except for the part when he quit breathing."

His mother says Alex got the pod after the lid of the package popped open and spilled all of them on the floor. One packet rolled under some furniture.

Alex was airlifted to the hospital and ended up on a ventilator for seven days.

Consumer Reports says the candy-colored packets contain highly-concentrated detergent that is toxic to ingest.

"One big issue here is with the packaging. Now when these products first came out, some of the biggest manufacturers used clear containers that resembled snack jars," Dan DiClerico, a senior editor at Consumer Reports.

Some lids were flimsy and not designed to deter children.

Since then, Costco made the switch to an opaque container for its Kirkland detergent and has improved the lids. Procter and Gamble, the maker of Tide, has also introduced an opaque container with a child-resistant lid.

"Another important change we think manufacturers should make: redesign the packets themselves so that they don't look like candy," DiClerico said.

At home, the most important precaution is to keep the containers closed and out of the reach of children. If you think your child has been injured, call the poison control hotline immediately.

Another reason to think twice about single-use detergent packs?

None are recommended in Consumer Reports' latest ratings, in part because they didn't do as well as some other detergents in its new cool water test.