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 …