March 14, 2025
The brightly colored slushy 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.
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 health advice to change.
Researchers at University College Dublin said the brightly colored icy drinks can cause "glycerol intoxication syndrome" in youngsters, which leads to loss of consciousness and low blood sugar. Other potential symptoms of "glycerol intoxication syndrome" can include lactic acidosis - which occurs when the body produces too much lactic acid - and hypokalemia, or low potassium.
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.
Current Food Standards Agency (FSA) advice says under-fives should avoid the drinks and under-11s should have no more than one. The advice is due to concerns that if a young child drinks a slushy too quickly, glycerol intoxication could cause shock, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and loss of consciousness.
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 within an hour of having the drinks, mostly between 2018 and 2024. Doctors said they had "glycerol intoxication syndrome" and were affected in a variety of ways:
• most lost consciousness and showed signs of low sugar and high acidity in the blood.
• four needed brain scans
• one had a seizure
The children all recovered and were discharged from hospital, with advice to avoid slushies.
Researchers said there is currently "poor transparency" around slush ice drink glycerol concentration, so estimating a safe dose is not easy. They said factors including speed of ingestion and whether the drink is consumed alongside a meal or during high-intensity exercise may be contributing factors.
