{"id":54308,"date":"2025-03-12T09:34:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T09:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=54308"},"modified":"2025-03-12T09:34:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T09:34:00","slug":"doctors-try-to-stop-under-eights-drinking-slushies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=54308","title":{"rendered":"Doctors try to stop under-eights drinking slushies"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Slushies contain a sweetener called glycerol, which stops them freezing solid<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Children should completely avoid “slushy” ice drinks containing glycerol, which can make them very ill, until they are at least eight years old, say researchers calling for official public-health advice to change.<\/p>\n

The researchers studied the cases of 21 two-to-seven-year-olds in the UK and Ireland who needed emergency treatment soon after drinking a slushy product.<\/p>\n

The brightly coloured drinks are designed to appeal to children – but most contain the naturally occurring sweetener glycerol, instead of sugar, to stop them freezing solid and give the slushy effect.<\/p>\n

Current Food Standards Agency (FSA) advice says under-fives should avoid the drinks and under-11s should have no more than one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And if a young child drinks a slushy too quickly, glycerol intoxication could cause shock, hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) and loss of consciousness.<\/p>\n

Arla, two, and Albie, four, both ended up in hospital.<\/p>\n

And all of the children in the study, published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, needed accident-and-emergency (A&E) treatment, after becoming acutely ill, soon after having the drinks, mostly between 2018 and 2024, with “glycerol intoxication syndrome”:<\/p>\n