LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Ten children at an Arkansas day-care center drank windshield wiper fluid after the owner served it from a container mistaken for Kool-Aid and placed in a refrigerator, authorities said Friday. The day-care owner voluntarily surrendered her state license Friday.

Doctors estimate the children, ages 2 to 7, drank about an ounce of the blue fluid late Thursday afternoon before realizing it tasted wrong, said Laura James, a pediatric pharmacologist and toxicologist at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock.

Only one child remained hospitalized Friday in good condition, after blood samples showed "measurable levels" of methanol, a highly toxic alcohol that can induce comas and cause blindness, officials said. In moderate cases, it can cause nausea, vomiting, staggering and sleepiness, James said.

The day care also provided the fluid for testing.

The owner bought the windshield wiper fluid with several other items on a recent shopping trip, James told The Associated Press. "This product was mistakenly grabbed and thought to be Kool-Aid and put in the refrigerator," she said.

The day care's owner, Carolyn Bynum, was interviewed Friday by child welfare investigators and gave up her license, said Julie Munsell, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services. Bynum declined to comment to the AP, but Munsell said she accepted "total responsibility" for the incident.

"She was so upset about what had occurred and she was definitely worried some of the children had been injured," Munsell said. "It was just a mistake, she says. She says it was just a horrible mistake."

Bynum's license had allowed her to care for 10 children in her home in Scott, about 15 miles east of Little Rock. Munsell said Bynum had no found complaints or serious compliance issues since receiving the license in 2002.

By surrendering her license, Bynum can no longer care for the children without reapplying. State law requires a license when someone cares for more than five children from more than one family at the same time in their home.

The toxicologist warned that many antifreeze or windshield wiper solutions have bright colors, which can be mistaken for fruit drinks.

"I think the take-home message is not to have these products in the kitchen or where you're doing any kind of food preparation," she said.

LINK

lol

I don't understand how she could have mistaken the two. First of all, doesn't kool-aid come in powdered form, only to turn to liquid when you get it home and mix it up with water?

And even if it did come in already liquid form, every store I have EVER been to keeps windshield wiper fluid and kool-aid in completely different areas.

You'd have to be a complete and total idiot to mistake the two at the store. And once you get home? If you're actually PAYING ATTENTION and know how to READ, this is still a stupid mistake to make.

IMO, she shouldn't have had the license in the first place. If she's THAT STUPID, it's a good thing she has to reapply. I hope they deny it to her this time.

Do you take the time to READ everything you pull out of the fridge? Or do you see what you want and pick it up? How often do you stop and READ everything you get out of your fridge? If I were a betting man, I'd bet my paycheck versus yours that 95% of the time you don't (and the 5% that you do is probably because you're looking for something that you don't know what it looks like). She madw a mistake, she took responsibility and did the right thing. The kids seem to be fine and it doesn't look like anybody is charging her with anything. What's the big deal? She's human. We all make mistakes, we all make errors.

[Her brain probably acted abnormally 30 seconds beforehand, so this was the result.]

I don't have to READ to know what I'm taking out of my REFRIGERATOR because I know that the things I have PUT in my refrigerator BELONGED THERE in the FIRST PLACE.

AND I don't pack toxic items in with my groceries in the first place, so I wouldn't have mistaken TOXIC FLUID for Kool-aid and put it in the refrigerator.

I totally agree with you.
Normally when I buy windshield fluid or anti-freeze, i go to the store specifically for it. It's not something I keep just lying around the house and pick up on an everyday trip.

And I'm sorry, but the anti-freeze and windshield fluids are in completely different types of bottles than any juice. At least around here.

Maybe so, but maybe she put it in there thinking it was koolaid because all she did was look at it and not actually read it, just as you do to things you take out of the fridge? Same concept, different time frame.

Even the toxicologist agreed that it would have been easy to mistake the two. And she's the one involved. I'll take her reassurance over your skeptical and cynical pessimism anyday.

You do that.

Already have. Thanks, though :)

I'm not sure about Arkansas but here in Minnesota bottles of windshield wiper fluid and coolant come with a 'childproof lid.' You know, one of the lids where you can't just screw the top off, you have to push down while turning it. Sometimes, even as an adult, it's a pain in the ass. So when she decided to pour the kids some freakin' 'kool aid' and she couldn't just unscrew the top she should have freakin' known. Why would there be a child proof lid on a child's product? Oh that's right. Because it was goddamn poison.

good point.

haha holy crap!

I personally don't see what's so funny about this, but okay.

What I don't understand is how people can mistake it for Kool-Aid. I GET that it looks like Kool-Aid but doesn't it come in a certain container that says Antifreeze....or something on it?

Oh my mistake, it's Windshield wiper fluid. Still I have to ask the same question....I mean, wouldn't one notice?

It's population control, IMO.

I should clarify before the impending wank that will cause.

Lady is stupid, almost killed a bunch of kids, leads me to believe she's actually an evil genius. Therefore, population control. Still lol-worthy.

Maybe she's not accustom to buying it so doesn't recognize it as that? Who knows?

Ahhhhhh. Gotcha....

Um yeah. Despite what they said I still do NOT understand how you could mistake the two. Like Missing Chaya Elaina said, why is it even in the FRIDGE in the first place? Everyone I know keeps that out in their garage where, oh I don't know...it's supposed to be? And with taking care of children she should have taken the precautions with something like that. Common sense to me at least. So no, maybe I'm not reading everything I'm taking out of my fridge but you can bet I know what I'm putting into it and usually I READ what I'm taking out anyway, so I really don't think of that as an excuse. I would think that one would be able to tell a difference between the two. But what do I know?

So I decided to go look up this stuff and see how similar they really are. By the way, Kool Aid doesn't come in a liquid form SO I used Hawaiian Punch:





Am I the only one that can tell a difference? Maybe I'm being a bitch about this but some of this common sense stuff really pisses me off especially when someone is taking care of CHILDREN.

EXACTLY! And since Kool-aid DOESN'T come in anything BUT powder form, there is NO WAY she could have mistaken it in the first place!!!

But obviously SOME PEOPLE don't have any common sense.

Thank you! I just re-read the article and she said she mistakenly grabbed it from the store I think it was and thought it was kool aid. Um yeah....like i JUST said, kool aid and windshield wiper fluid are in TOTALLLYYYY different places in the store.

She=a moron and she should feel bad. For even having that crap in the fridge in the first place.

I know people are going to say, "Oh wait until it happens to you." Right because I'm going to be putting that in my fridge. Sorry but my mom never even made that mistake.

Seriously, I'm raging right now lol. I think I'm pms'ing but the sheer stupidity of people baffles me sometimes!

"The owner bought the windshield wiper fluid with several other items on a recent shopping trip, James told The Associated Press. "This product was mistakenly grabbed and thought to be Kool-Aid and put in the refrigerator," she said."

Yep, she made the mistake at the grocery store.

Koolaid=powder form
Windshield wiper fluid=liquid form

Question 1: How do you mistake liquid for powder?

Koolaid=in the juice aisle
Windshield wiper fluid=in the automotive NON FOOD aisle

Question 2: How do you walk down an automotive aisle and THINK you are picking up a food item?

Oh but of course mistakes happen, right *insert eye roll here*?

That's an AWFULLY big mistake to make and I did read it right, I was worried I hadn't. Yeah, kool aid definitely isn't and never has been in liquid form.

That's my question. How does one do that? Seriously!

Oh some people.