Parents may need to have a sit-down talk with their young kids about safely using a classroom staple - hand sanitizer.
According to CNN, kids are drinking the liquid found in almost every classroom, home and mother's purse.
One 6-year-old said she swallowed three or four squirts of the liquid while at school. She said it tasted good, like strawberry, CNN reported.
It also sent her to the emergency room, slurring her words, unable to walk because she was dangerously drunk.
And it is becoming a bigger problem than originally thought.
Since 2010, poison control centers in the U.S. have seen an almost 400 percent increase in calls of kids 12 and under ingesting hand sanitizer, the Georgia Poison Center recently released.
In 2010, the center had 3,266 cases of kids ingesting hand sanitizer. In 2014, it increased to 16,117.
The amount of alcohol in hand sanitizer is between 45 percent and 95 percent, and even small amounts can cause alcohol poisoning, CNN reported.
So what can be done?
Dr. Gaylord Lopez, director of the Georgia Poison Center, said parents and teachers should keep the bottles out of reach of kids and monitor the use. Lopez also suggested using non-alcohol-based products or wipes.
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