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Youngsters underneath eight mustn’t drink slushy ice drinks containing glycerol, researchers have warned after a string of hospitalizations within the UK and Eire.
The brightly coloured drinks marketed in the direction of kids usually use glycerol as a sweetener and anti-freezing agent.
However excessive ranges will be dangerous, particularly to kids—glycerol intoxication may cause shock, low blood sugar and lack of consciousness.
In a peer-reviewed medical assessment revealed within the Archives of Illness in Childhood journal on Tuesday, researchers regarded right into a “recent apparent surge in cases” within the UK and Eire, and instructed kids underneath eight ought to keep away from the drinks solely.
They studied the medical data of 21 kids aged two to seven who wanted emergency therapy after ingesting slushies.
Most circumstances befell between 2018 and 2024 and lots of the kids turned acutely unwell inside an hour, the researchers mentioned.
Many of the kids misplaced consciousness and confirmed indicators of excessive blood acidity and low sugar, whereas 4 wanted mind scans and one had a seizure.
The kids all recovered swiftly, the researchers mentioned.
Slushy machines have been invented in the USA within the Fifties, and the drinks don’t all the time comprise glycerol as a result of sugar can be utilized to cease them freezing stable as an alternative.
The researchers instructed the spate of circumstances might be linked to elevated concern about excessive sugar consumption and sugar taxes adopted within the UK and Eire lately.
Meals security companies within the two international locations already advise that kids aged 4 and underneath mustn’t have slushies containing glycerol.
However the researchers mentioned the age needs to be raised additional.
“Younger children, especially those under eight years of age, should avoid slush ice drinks containing glycerol,” they mentioned.
“Clinicians and parents should be alert to the phenomenon, and public health bodies should ensure clear messaging.”
The assessment’s authors additionally mentioned there might be circumstances the place kids have suffered much less severe sickness and never been taken to hospital.
In London, some dad and mom mentioned they supported elevating the really useful age.
Mom Elsa Qorri, 46, advised AFP she turned nervous after her two women aged 5 and 7 drank slushies final 12 months.
“They both got brain freeze and couldn’t have any more,” she mentioned. “I’m not going to buy them again until the girls are a little bit older.”
Extra data:
Glycerol intoxication syndrome in younger kids, following the consumption of slush ice drinks, Archives of Illness in Childhood (2025). DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2024-328109
© 2025 AFP
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Children underneath eight should not drink slushies, researchers warn (2025, March 15)
retrieved 15 March 2025
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