A four-year-old preschooler in Invercargill has been hospitalised following her drunken episode at a day care centre. Invercargill mum Terri Hawke claims her daughter become intoxicated with a blood alcohol level of almost four times the legal limit while at a child care centre.

When Hawke picked up her child from the centre at 5:30 pm on Monday, the staff told her the girl was “acting silly.” But the girl’s behaviour was beyond that of a silly toddler. The mother soon realised that her daughter’s alleged silliness wasn’t normal.

She took her straight to Southland Hospital, where the staff initially thought the girl may have meningitis. However, the diagnosis later on revealed that her daughter was drunk. Medical documents revealed that her daughter had a blood level of 188mg. Way above the legal limit of 50mg per 100ml of blood.

“The paediatrician said she was intoxicated,” Hawke told The Southland Times.”She collapsed in one of the nurse’s arms in A&E … she was comatose and unresponsive.”

Her daughter was rehydrated and kept overnight in the hospital for observation. “How the hell does a child the age of four get drunk at a kindy?” Hawke asked the most pressing question.

The owner of the child care centre also did not know what happened. Hawke and the owner raised their concerns with the Ministry of Education, which are now carrying out an investigation. The management of the centre suggested the young girl might have been intoxicated by drinking alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Hawke is upset that the centre did not contact her immediately upon noticing her child’s erratic behaviour. The kindy said that she was acting odd since 4:30 pm, an hour before she was picked up by her mum.

Although the girl’s blood alcohol level was quite alarming, it was not life threatening, National Poisons Centre toxicologist Leo Schep told the paper. There was, however, the added risk of blood sugar levels dropping for a child. Alcohol consumption in children isn’t a rare case as well. He said that they receive about three calls a day from parents after their kids had drunk hand sanitizers, which had 60 to 70 percent alcohol content.