A mum has issued an urgent warning over particular type of drink after her four-year-old ended up in hospital. The parents of Albie Pegg appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain to talk about their son’s reaction after drinking a slushie after school last year.
They say the reception pupil had been at a bowling alley with a friend where he drank a small strawberry-flavoured slushie, something they claim his friend did too. However, the four-year-old, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, was soon allegedly left hallucinating, clawing at his face, and biting himself.
According to his parents, Beth Green and Fred Pegg, both 24, Albie appeared 'tired and agitated' in the back of the car within half an hour. By the time they got to A&E their son was “a deadweight”. The mum said she feared that her son could die, saying: "It was absolutely awful and it was just so heartbreaking."
According to ITV, doctors said it was the additive glycerol in the drink that caused the boy’s reaction, not the colouring. Professor Robin May, from the Food Standards Agency (FSA), also appeared on Good Morning Britain to talk about the dangers of glycerol.
He said: “The issue is if you consume a lot of glycerol fast, particularly if you’re relatively small, a small child. That can lead water to rush into your blood vessels essentially to compensate."
The professor said the drinks shouldn’t be drunk by children four or under. He also said the amount of glycerol consumed should be limited in all children under the age of ten, as a large quantity of the additive can have adverse effects in small bodies.
Children's bodies can't deal with an additive such as glycerol as quickly as they deal with normal sugars in the blood, and as a result it can cause shock, low blood sugar and lack of consciousness.
