A four year-old girl was left ‘floppy and unconscious’ after suffering a life-threatening reaction to popular slushy drinks.
Marnie Moore, from Lancashire, was rushed to hospital where she received urgent treatment for glycerol toxicity — dangerously low blood sugar triggered by the iced, artificially sweetened drinks.
Last week, researchers issued a stark safety warning over the drinks after reviewing the medical notes of 21 children who became acutely unwell shortly after drinking one.
Writing in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, the scientists urged public health chiefs to revisit guidance that states under fours should not consume the drinks.
This ‘do not drink’ warning should be extended to all children under eight, they said.
The problem lies with the sweetening agent glycerol, a sugar substitute that prevents slush drinks from freezing.
While older children and adults are able to process glycerol quickly, smaller bodies are unable to, leading to a build-up in the substance that can lead to a drastic drop in blood sugar and water.
At a mild level this can lead to signs of dehydration like headaches and nausea.
But in rare cases it can cause hypoglycaemia — a low blood sugar condition usually associated with diabetes which leads to trembling, dizziness, seizures and in worst-case scenarios, coma.
The little girl’s mother, Kim Moore, 35, is now calling for a ban on the drinks for under 12s.
‘If I hadn’t taken her to hospital, it may have had a different outcome,’ she said.
‘So many places promote free slushies when you play there but you’re promoting poison.
‘I don’t think they should be sold to kids 12 and under. And I personally wouldn’t allow my child to drink one at all. It’s not a risk I’m willing to take.
‘I wouldn’t wish what we went through on our worst enemy.’
Recalling the ordeal, Ms Moore explained the symptoms began minutes after she Marnie drunk roughly 500ml of a slushy drink at a children’s party.
‘We bought two one-litre refillable cups and they [her daughters] were going off playing, eating, getting drinks and coming back but Marnie didn’t drink the full cup, probably only half.
‘Then about 10 minutes later, she started getting really aggravated then she started falling asleep so I just thought she was over-tired.
‘It was only five minutes later when I tried to wake her up that I realised she wasn’t waking up and was actually unconscious. She’d gone really pale.
‘She wasn’t rousing at all and I think it was mum’s instinct that I knew something wasn’t right. She was floppy and completely unconscious.
‘I was shaking her trying to wake her up and there was nothing.’
Terrified, Ms Moore rushed Marnie to A&E where doctors confirmed she was in hypoglycemic shock — a medical emergency caused by dangerously low blood sugar that can, in worst case scenarios, lead to coma and even death.
Marnie remained unconcious for about 25 minutes, before doctors successfully increased her blood sugar.
When she eventually woke up, Ms Moore said she ‘screamed out in agony saying her head hurt and threw up everywhere’.
‘Looking back, she had every single symptom of glycerol toxicity,’ she said.
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‘We got transferred to another hospital and they had no idea what had caused it.
‘We started looking into the slushy because that was the only thing differently she’d had that day.
‘Doctors couldn’t tell me why it had happened but they knew it was the slushy that had caused it.’
Marnie was discharged after three days in hospital, and Ms Moore has since banned her daughter from ever ordering a slushed drink again.
Experts have previously warned a string of glycerol intoxication cases may be an ‘unintended consequence’ of the sugar tax.
Slushies were traditionally made with a sugar solution to prevent the liquid ingredients from freezing, at about 12g of sugar per 100ml.
But formulas using glycerol only need 5g per 100ml to achieve the same result.
Some brands have already removed glycerol from their recipes in response to the FSA guidance, with Slush Puppie being one of them.
Marnie Moore is not the only child to have suffered a frightening reaction to the slushy drinks.
In October last year, four-year-old Albie Green from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, became unresponsive after drinking a strawberry-flavoured slushy at an after-school bowling trip.
His mother, Beth, grew increasingly worried after Albie started ‘hallucinating’ and ‘clawing at his face’, prompting her to rush him to hospital.
There medics had to start resuscitation as Albie’s blood sugar levels had dropped to dangerously levels.
At one stage his heartbeat became so slow his parents thought he would die.
Medics later told the pair if they hadn’t rushed Albie to hospital there and then he would have died.
Scottish mother Victoria Anderson also previously shared how her three-year-old son Angus almost died in January after drinking a slushy in January last year.
The 29-year-old, from Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, had taken her youngest son, three-year-old Angus, and an elder sibling out shopping.
Not long after the trio ventured out, Angus requested a raspberry-flavoured slushie after spotting the bright, pink-coloured ice drink while in a local corner shop.
Victoria purchased the drink for her son, who had ‘never had a slushie before’.
Approximately 30 minutes later, the three-year-old unexpectedly collapsed and fell unconscious.
Victoria said Angus’ body was limp and ‘stone cold’ as paramedics rushed to the scene and attempted to revive him after his blood sugars became dangerously low.
Angus was sped to Glasgow Children’s Hospital, where he remained unconscious for two hours.
Both children got the medical care they needed.
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