HOUSTON — From melatonin to THC, gummies are becoming more and more popular.
With the growth in popularity comes an increased danger risk to children.
Emergency rooms across the country have noted an uptick in visits from kids after they eat gummies containing melatonin, THC or other substances.
"This is alarming," Dr. Hilary Fairbrother said.
Fairbrother is an emergency physician with UTHealth Houston. She said she's seeing the trend unfold right in front of her eyes.
"When children find something that looks like candy, they don't know to eat only half of one, they just see a bag of candy in their house that they find," Fairbrother said.
The use of melatonin by adults in the United States has soared in the past two decades. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there was also a 420% increase in emergency room visits between 2009 and 2020 by infants and young children who accidentally ingested melatonin.
"If a child ate 10 or 20 of those, they could be in a comatose state," Fairbrother said.
In the same timeframe, poison control centers across the country are also seeing a huge increase in calls about kids being exposed to marijuana-type gummies. Fairbrother said the most severe case she has seen in Houston was a 2-year-old who overdosed on THC.
"I had to admit her to the ICU. It was really terrifying until she started waking up about a day and a half later," she said.
She has also seen a lot of teenagers who were experimenting to see how many gummies they could take without realizing how powerful they could be. She said the effects can be disturbing.
"Often awake, but out of it ... hallucinating, really having a terrifying experience for their parents and for themselves," Fairbrother said.
She said it's all preventable because about 97% of the incidents happen at the child's home. She said parents who use the products have to make it a priority to keep them safely stored away from their kids.