Infants and toddlers may not be able to tell the difference between a white bottle of bleach and a plastic container full of milk. The blue liquid in window cleaners may look like the blue mouthwash mommy and daddy use to rinse their mouths. The dark brown furniture polish and oils may look like cola soda pop. Some lemon-scented cleaners have pictures of lemons on the label. The lemons can mislead small children into thinking that the cleaner is a lemon-flavored beverage.
Many cleaners contain a mixture of soaps and detergents, along with dyes, perfumes and water.
Soaps and detergents are irritating to the stomach and bowels, causing nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Generally the vomiting occurs within an hour after swallowing the substance. These products are irritating but not considered extremely dangerous. One of the most common calls to the Poison Center involves the ingestion of liquid chlorine bleach. An accidental swallow or two will cause vomiting, but rarely anything worse than that.