Trauma Headquarters and ADSG

Our 12-year old daughter, adopted in China, is RAD (inhibited). She has some depression, takes Sertraline, and has mild OCD symptoms that change every month—one month making sure the lights are turned off a certain way, another needing to sleep with the light on in the bathroom--after a month or two, she moves on. My question—all of the sudden, we are missing bottles of green hand sanitizer. When I asked her about it, she said that carrying a small bottle in her pocket at school and that putting it on her hands makes her feel better (so she keeps filling it up from the large bottles). I have never seen her sanitize her hands nor are her hands chapped. My concern is that she might be drinking it for its alcohol content (she has never done this before but who knows). I talked to her about it and she roundly denied drinking it saying that was really gross. She is very picky about smells, texture and food tastes so this would be very odd. No smell of anything on her breath but she does sleep soundly. Thoughts?

Our damaged kids do really weird things that we can't imagine or predict. I'd get rid of all the hand sanitizer and buy old-fashioned, nasty-tasting bars of Dial soap.....just in case.

Thanks so much. Sani is going out in today's garbage.

Best,

Grace's Mama

Welcome Mama to Grace.

I agree with Eliza's suggestion.

If you have pets, smaller children or disabled grandma living with you, check their water bowls, sippy cups, and denture cleaners.  RAD kids are sneaky and can be very cruel to living things that are defenseless.

Welcome to the forum!

Don't share your concerns with her school administration or teachers unless you want CPS involvement in your life.

I switched to alcohol free mouth wash in my house, just incase.

If you have a suspicion, go with your gut.
Better safe than sorry!

Thank you all for the kind weigh ins and suggestions.

FYI:

"Teens are using hand sanitizer, an over-the-counter cleanser, to get high. It's cheap, easily accessible and contains 62 percent ethyl alcohol. Some teens use salt to separate the alcohol from the sanitizer, making a strong concoction that is similar to a shot of hard liquor. (Distillation instructions can be found on the Internet).

Dangers: Teens are showing up in emergency rooms with alcohol poisoning after drinking hand sanitizer. Watch your supply!"

So glad I'm done with this!