Critical care for clonidine poisoning in toddlers.
 Clonidine may be a source of serious toxicity when ingested by toddlers.
 We describe 11 cases of clonidine ingestion by toddlers (mean dose 0.15 mg/kg; range 0.01 to 0.57).
 The source of the clonidine was a grand-parent in six of 11 cases.
 Symptoms included altered level of consciousness (n = 11), miosis (n = 5), bradycardia (n = 8), hypotension (n = 5), apnea and respiratory depression (n = 6), hypothermia (n = 5) and hypertension (n = 3).
 Therapeutic interventions included naloxone (n = 8) and atropine (n = 4), dopamine (n = 1), fluid resuscitation (n = 4), and endotracheal intubation (n = 1).
 There were no deaths.
 Symptoms of clonidine ingestion were typically mild if the dose ingested was less than 0.01 mg/kg, while bradycardia and hypotension occurred usually with doses of greater than 0.01 mg/kg.
 Apnea and respiratory depression were common when the dose exceeded 0.02 mg/kg.
 More effective measures are needed to prevent these potentially serious intoxications.
