Mom Gets Terrifying Toxicology Results After Daughter Was ‘Slobbering at the Mouth’ at Day Care

Hispanolistic/iStock

Watching little children is tricky. You want them to be free to explore and learn on their own. Still, their logic and understanding of danger and consequences is a long way off. So if you don’t watch them intently, they can end up seriously hurting themselves — or worse. Yet, that is the job of child care providers.

When you drop your children off for the day, the very least you expect is that they will not be in any physical or psychological danger during your absence. Sadly, this wasn’t the case for Mary and Albert Singleton. The Alabama couple went from day care pickup straight to the emergency room. 

Mary Singleton told WALA that two minutes before classes were dismissed, she picked her 4-year-old daughter up from her school, a part of the Mobile County Public Schools system, she learned that her daughter was ill. She went to the school nurse’s office to retrieve her and found her daughter limp. Mary said her child “was slobbering at the mouth” and “heavy.” “The teacher handed her to me saying we probably needed to take her to the ER.”

Mary heeded the advice. At the hospital, medical professionals ran a toxicology report. The tests revealed that the toddler had a blood alcohol content level of 0.29, Fox 10 reported. A BAC level of 0.02% is considered illegal in the state of Alabama for anyone under the age of 21, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. For 21-year-olds, the limit is 0.08%. The level in Mary’s daughter was extremely dangerous. The alcohol in her system, ethyl or ethanol, is often found in products like hand sanitizer, food packaging, and beauty products. 

The girl remained in the ICU for two days. Now, her parents are left with questions. Mary and Albert still don’t know what their daughter ingested or how much. Law and Crime asked for a comment, but they have yet to respond. However, an investigation into the incident is underway.

Meanwhile, the Singletons wait. “It’s hard to deal with when you see your child walking into school and being carried out, you know, and you don’t have any idea what’s going on,” said Albert Singleton, the child’s father. 

Pritchard Police have said that they may turn the case over to the Child Advocacy Center. They claim to have seen cases similar to this one before, Fox 8 reported. They advise adults to keep these ethanol and ethyl-containing products out of reach of young children.

According to a study published in medical journal StatPearls, signs of alcohol toxicity for BAC levels between 0.02% and 0.04% can range from nausea, vomiting to hypothermia and amnesia. Blood alcohol levels over 0.04% can result in respiratory depression, coma, and even death.