A well-liked summertime deal with may comprise hidden risks to children’ well being, a brand new examine cautions.
Researchers at College Faculty Dublin performed a overview of 21 kids who turned unwell between 2009 and 2024 after consuming a “slush ice drink.”
A overwhelming majority of the youngsters, none of whom had preexisting medical situations, turned unwell inside an hour of getting the drink.
The sufferers, who ranged in age from 2 to six years outdated, all obtained medical therapy within the UK and Eire.
Essentially the most prevalent signs included acute lower in consciousness, hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar), metabolic acidosis (lactic acid construct up within the bloodstream), pseudohypertriglyceridaemia (falsely elevated triglycerides) and hypokalaemia (low potassium ranges), in keeping with the findings, which have been printed within the journal Archives of Illness in Childhood.
“The kids had very low blood sugar ranges, have been unconscious (one had a seizure) and had excessive ranges of lactate of their blood,” lead examine creator Ellen Crushell, a pediatrician at Kids’s Well being Eire and a scientific professor at College Faculty Dublin, informed Fox Information Digital.
“They’d excessive ranges of glycerol of their blood and urine when sick, which disappeared after they recovered. They recovered effectively, however wanted hospitalization and intravenous fluids.”
The researchers concluded that consumption of slush ice drinks containing glycerol could trigger a syndrome known as glycerol intoxication.
The vast majority of the youngsters (95%) didn’t have continued signs after avoiding the drinks.
What’s glycerol?
“Glycerol is used as a sweetener and to take care of the semi-frozen texture of some (not all) slush ice drinks,” Crushell mentioned.
“It’s getting used extra typically lately as a sugar substitute,” she famous. “Giant doses might be dangerous to babies.”
The impact of sudden sickness after consuming a slush drink had by no means been reported within the medical literature, Crushell famous.
This examine did have some limitations, the researchers acknowledged.
“The numbers are small and embrace solely the sickest kids who have been dropped at emergency departments and who have been referred on to specialists in inherited metabolic problems,” Crushell mentioned.
“They have been referred as a result of their signs have been just like these of some uncommon metabolic ailments. We have no idea the extent of kids who could develop milder signs.”
The opposite limitation is that the quantity of glycerol ingested within the numerous slush drinks is unknown, she added.
Suggestions for fogeys
Crushell mentioned slush ice drinks “don’t convey well being advantages at any age” and usually are not advisable as a part of a wholesome, balanced weight-reduction plan.
The UK Meals Requirements Company and the Meals Security Authority of Eire (FSAI) have each issued steerage recommending that kids age 4 and below keep away from consuming slush ice drinks containing glycerol, and that kids 5 and up ought to solely drink them moderately.
“Using slush ice machines by kids within the house ought to be monitored,” Crushell suggested. “Mother and father and guardians ought to test the substances of syrups used to make slush ices within the house for the presence of glycerol and comply with the producer’s directions to be used.”
The researchers hope this new examine may result in the event of recent insurance policies and steerage associated to glycerol ingestion.
Fox Information Digital reached out to the US Meals and Drug Administration and to a number one producer of slush drinks requesting remark.
