Children on camera eating laundry detergent – what’s the trend? Details in "Alarm Button"

In TikTok, a dangerous challenge is gaining popularity: teenagers shoot videos where they eat laundry detergent with spoons. Judging by the lack of official reports from the Ministry of Health, children use sugar or powdered sugar to shoot such videos. But adults fear that one of them can actually swallow detergent, and then the tragedy cannot be avoided. Because the attempt to repeat the trick with real household chemistry - for the sake of likes - will necessarily end in resuscitation. If the child gets to the hospital. Details in "Alarm Button.".

Valeria Balobina, special correspondent: Another viral motif, a pack of washing powder in the frame and a tablespoon in your hands - here it is - a ready-made set for a trending video. Why? Jump into a new challenge, gaining dangerous momentum among teenagers. Where? Tick-Toke, of course. Young bloggers eat sugar, powdered sugar or flour in the frame (thank you for that too). Otherwise, they would count likes in a hospital bed. That's the kind of love she is today. Trends. With a taste of "life-threatening.".

Alexey Leoshko, Head of the Toxicology Department of the City Clinical Hospital of Emergency Medical Care in Minsk: Not everything you see in the videos is true. If we are talking about laundry detergent, as well as any home cleaning product, then we are talking primarily about the alkaline environment - this is one of the most aggressive environments that causes the most severe damage to human organs and tissues. First of all, when ingested, the mucosa of the oral cavity, oropharynx, esophagus and stomach suffers. Colliquational necrosis is developing. In addition to persistent severe pain syndrome.

Anna Sviridova, Deputy Head of the Department of Forensic Medical Examinations of UGKSE for Minsk: Chemical burns can cause very long processes of inflammation in the digestive tract, when normal human nutrition is impossible. Accordingly, multiple recovery operations are carried out. Passage of the digestive tract. Up to the fact that you have to put a tube through the stomach and a person will eat through a tube all his life. If it comes to a critical situation.

And then you can fly not in trends, but in intensive care, and instead of the coveted likes get disability. Well, the sad ending should not be excluded either.

Alexey Leoshko, Head of the Toxicology Department of the City Clinical Emergency Medical Hospital of Minsk: It is quite real and lethal outcome from the developed complications. Within an hour or two, we are already seeing symptoms. One of our first recommendations is to seek qualified medical care as quickly as possible, because the bill usually goes by minutes.

Fortunately, no such incidents have been recorded in our country. However, there are no guarantees that not today or tomorrow a student will decide to join the trend and, believing the authors of the videos, instead of flour or sugar, he will actually eat powder. And here is the question for a psychologist: why is it that almost every new adolescent trend is somehow associated with a real threat to life?

Olesya Lungu, neuropsychologist: A teenager eats not so much laundry detergent, he eats attention: likes, views, admiration for his courage. For him, it's an opportunity to say, "I'm trending too, I'm cool, I'm mine." Adolescents are especially sensitive to the opinion of peers, while the ability to stop and calculate the consequences they have only just formed – this is responsible for the prefrontal cortex of the brain, and it fully matures only on average about 20 years. A teenager may understand that this is dangerous, but the thought of “I will be noticed now” is stronger than the fear of what may happen next.

Add trivial curiosity and youthful maximalism. And here it is, a dangerous trend formula. Viral challenge with powder, unfortunately, is not the first case when the pursuit of hype turns into a threat to health. One of them is the trend to change eye color. When children apply paint to their corneas, trying to change the color of the iris or fill their eyes with sequins. For what? From teenage slang - "fan".

But some risk their health for the sake of new emotions or states. Using pharmacy drugs for Parkinson's disease, for example. This dangerous trend gained popularity in the spring among our neighbors. In Russia, these drugs are dispensed without a prescription. Worried before passing exams, teenagers began to share in social networks tips on how to quickly calm down and catch “Zen”.

Anna Sviridova, Deputy Head of the Department of Forensic Medical Examinations of UGKSE for Minsk: These pills, of course, aim to suppress certain receptors in the brain that cause Parkinson’s symptoms. But with improper use, abuse, at large dosages, they - especially in the child's delicate body - cause blocking of certain parts of the brain, in connection with which a person does not remember, that is, just the loss of some episodes from life, plus due to damage to certain structures, they can experience hallucinations and interact with some intangible objects that only seem to him. Well, in fact, probably for this reason they use it, forgetting that in this state he can confuse, for example, a window with a door and just go out the window. And by the way, there have been cases.

Or here's another - for the same reasons - teenagers are actively buying on marketplaces a veterinary drug for anxiety, pain and seizures in animals, which in people allegedly causes the effect of intoxication.