Dietary fructose intolerance in children and adolescents

Children’s diets contain increased amounts of sweeteners such as fructose. Fructose is present in fruit, honey and some vegetables, and fructose corn syrup is increasingly being consumed as a sweetener in various products including soda-pop.1 Unabsorbed fructose may be fermented in the colon and creates an osmotic load, drawing fluid into the gut lumen and is the basis for recommendations that toddlers with chronic non-specific diarrhoea reduce their intake of apple juice. The abdominal pain, bloating and alteration of bowel habits associated with dietary fructose intolerance are under-recognised in adult patients diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome.2 3 However, the production of …