'Tis the season... DS was playing with Xmas decorations and a snowglobe broke and drenched his head. We immediately rinsed out his eyes in the sink and noticed that the contents of the snow globe really smelled. Took him to the ER just in case and were told that snowglobes are usually filled with ethylene glycol (antifreeze) and glycerine and while it'll irritate the skin and eyes, he should be fine.

So...whats your question???

No question, just informing people that those nice decorative snowglobes are filled with antifreeze. I'd always thought they were filled with water. We were lucky that it just spilled on his skin -- if he'd ingested it, we'd have been in a lot of trouble.

That is really scary!!! Antifreeze is so toxic. Do you know if that is the norm for snow globes?

Sounded pretty common. Poison control was very familiar with snowglobe accidents and what they contained. Did a search the next day 'cuz I was kinda freaked about the antifreeze and found several references to ethylene glycol and glycerin for making snowglobes, warnings about pets (dogs) drinking the contents of leaking snowglobes.

DS's shirt smelled horrible, but familiar. The doctor at the ER thought it smelled like formaldahyde, but DH could tell it was antifreeze.

Oh wow! I've always thought there was water inside.. but antifreeze? scary!

I just cannot get over that! I always thought they were so pretty, but we won't have anymore in our house!! That is just crazy! Thanks for the info!