Issue date: 11/9/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Associated Press Photo A visitor looks at toys at Shanghai Toy Expo on Wednesday Oct. 17 in Shanghai, China.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A mother said Thursday she knew something was terribly wrong when her 20-month-old son began to stumble and started vomiting.

He had just ingested a popular toy that contains a chemical that turns into a powerful "date rape" drug when eaten.

It was the latest Chinese-made toy pulled from shelves in North America. Shelby Esses, 30, said her son Jacob fell and went limp after getting into his older sister's Aqua Dots set, which was recalled Wednesday by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

"That's when we knew what he had eaten and that things were pretty bad," she told ABC's "Good Morning America."

Aqua Dots, a highly popular holiday toy sold by Australia-based Moose Enterprises, are beads that can be arranged into designs and fused when sprayed with water.

The toy was pulled from shelves in North American and Australia after scientists found they contain a chemical that converts into the so-called date rape drug when eaten.

Two children in the U.S. and three in Australia were hospitalized after swallowing the beads.

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