Free slurries at 7,11 today, but also some slushy type drinks, not great for younger kids, especially under 4 years old. A lot of these slushy type drinks use something called glycerin or glycerol to keep them nice and slushy and not freezing. And unfortunately, in higher doses, younger kids can develop symptoms. They are headache, nausea, vomiting. You can have some diarrhea. They can get agitated. They can even go into shock or lose consciousness and have low blood sugars. In the United Kingdom, there are several reports of younger children needing to be hospitalized secondary to these drinks.
The Food regulatory agency has recommended that kids under for not drink them at all and kids under 10 only have one. No refills in the United States. I don’t see any FDA regulations related to slushies or these pounds.
Looking at some of the bigger company’s ingredient lists, there are some flavors that do include glycerin or glycerol. Since it is 7,11 today, I looked at the 7,11 ingredients. They do not list glycerol specifically, but it says sugars and glycerol and glycerin are sugar alcohols. So I called the company, there is one sugar alcohol included, but they could not tell me definitively if glycerin or glycerol is in their product. They’re supposed to email me back shortly. Since my kids are over 4 years old anyway, we will still go to 711 and get free slurbies today, but we will limit it to one, which is probably enough anyway.