If you’ve got kids, you know most kids will put anything and everything in their mouths. So making a toy that looks like candy out of a date rape drug? Bad idea. Very bad idea.

More than four million Chinese-made toys sold in the U.S. as Aqua Dots are being recalled after reports surfaced that children swallowed beads containing a chemical found to mimic the effects of the so-called date-rape drug.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said it has received two reports of children swallowing Aqua Dots and slipping into comas. Both children are now fine, the commission said. At least three children have been hospitalized in Australia, where the product is called Bindeez, after ingesting beads from the toy.

The incident deals a blow to the toy industry just as the Christmas shopping season is getting under way. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. listed the product as one of its “Top 12 Toys of Christmas.” Wal-Mart has instituted an “electronic stop” at its cash registers to prevent further Aqua Dots sales and directed employees to remove the toys from its shelves, according to a spokeswoman. Toys “R” Us said it has pulled the toy in the U.S., and the toy was removed from other major Web sites and stores, including Amazon.com and Target.

The recall highlights a common practice in Chinese factories: cutting costs by substituting ingredients. The toy’s manufacturer, Moose Enterprise, of Melbourne, Australia, yesterday said the problem had been traced to a Chinese factory it contracted that substituted a toxic chemical for a safe glue during manufacturing.

Moose declined to name the manufacturer but said the beads contained an adhesive solvent called “1,4 butylene glycol,” which can simulate the so-called date-rape drug gamma hydroxy butyrate when ingested, causing seizures, coma or death. The toy hasn’t been linked to any deaths.

Brilliant.