MINNEAPOLIS — A poison control center that takes calls from Minnesota and the Dakotas said it has had distress calls over children swallowing a new kind of laundry detergent packet.

Kirk Hughes, the education director for Hennepin Regional Poison Control Center in Minneapolis, said the center has gotten 27 calls since March about the small soap pods. The brightly colored packets may lead some children to think they are candy.

Hughes said the effects from the cases were minor.

Nearly 250 cases have been reported this year to poison control centers around the country. A few made children seriously ill.