An Australian toddler who drank hand sanitiser and suffered severe alcohol poisoning has prompted a warning from experts for parents to keep the products away from their kids.

In September 2014, a 3-year-old girl was found by doctors to have 260 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood -- more than five times New Zealand's drink driving limit of 50mg per 100ml.

The girl's parents told doctors she and her 1-year-old sibling had been playing with a 375ml bottle of 70 per cent alcohol-based hand sanitiser while supervised by an adult.

In a review of the incident, published in the Medical Journal of Australia today, Dr Michael Barrett and Associate Professor Franz Babl said the child must have ingested no less than 55ml of the product -- the equivalent of a quarter of a cup.

After she was admitted to intensive care, her condition improved and she was discharged within 24 hours.

In the report, Dr Barrett and Associate Professor Babl noted that "contrary to perceptions, preschool children are able to ingest enough alcohol- based hand sanitiser to develop severe ethanol toxicity."

"There should be an increased awareness of the hazards associated with alcohol sanitiser ingestion."

New Zealand's National Poisons Centre operations manager Lucy Shieffelbien said the organisation got calls "all the time" from parents whose child had ingested hand sanitiser.

"It's definitely not something that should be there for unsupervised use," she said.

But because it was bitter, when kids did eat it, they generally had nothing more than a small lick or a taste.

"Quarter of a cup is quite a mammoth effort -- it's quite hardcore for a child to consume that," Ms Shieffelbien said.

She said the only similar incident in New Zealand was when it was assumed a child had eaten hand sanitiser at an Invercargill childcare centre.

"That's the only severe case we've ever seen -- when a child's ended up in hospital effectively drunk."

Last year, a 4-year-old girl became intoxicated at an Invercargill pre-school after supposedly drinking hand sanitiser.

And in 2011, three inmates at Rolleston Prison in Christchurch were found to be drunk on hand sanitiser.

Ms Shieffelbien said the effect of the product on people would depend on factors like the person's size and the alcohol content.

"People need to be aware that it is a potentially dangerous substance that needs to be kept out of reach of children."

She said if parents did insist on their kids using hand sanitiser, they shouldn't just leave it where the child could access it -- but should oversee its use themselves.

Paediatric society president Dr David Newman said the gel consistency of hand sanitiser meant it was slimy and unpleasant, plus it had a nasty taste.

He said that despite this, there were alcoholic adults that were known to go into hospitals to conume hand sanitiser to get drunk.

"So will a toddler drink this stuff? Some kids will eat or drink things that are not exactly pleasant tasting.

"Sense of taste differs over time and different individuals experience some flavours, tastes and textures very differently," Dr Newman said.

In hospitals hand sanitiser had to be secured to walls so it wasn't stolen, and high enough to be out of reach of children, he said.

A toddler did not need to drink a lot of something with a 70 per cent alcohol content to become inebriated.

If a child ingests hand sanitiser, they should be given something to eat and the National Poisons Centre should be contacted on 0800 POISON (0800 764 766).