For robinw .... please tell me more about xylitol!!!

[Ghosty]

A question for the xylitol queen robinw

I was talking to a friend (well, acquaintance really) today about her daughter's grommits and the fact that both her daughters have a history of recurring ear infections (they are 4 and 6 and both have had grommits since the age of 18 months).

I told her that I knew xylitol had some effect on nasty bacteria and have seen that since my DS has been taking children's multi vitamins containing xylitol his instances of any kind of ENT infections have reduced ... and told her that I know someone (!) who swears by xylitol toothpaste .... (don't like to tell all and sundry about Mumsnet you understand!!)

I told her that I would find out some more info and give it to her when I see her at swimming next week.

Would you mind telling me more about it ... eg. what xylitol is and what it does etc (all I was able to tell her is that it is a natural sweetener that just happens to fight bacteria ... is that right??) ... and maybe pointing me in the right direction for a website or something????

TIA ...

Love, Ghosty

Restarting this thread as I have a terrible sinus pain at the moment. I don't want to go down the antibiotic route as the last time I took some that were compatible with breastfeeding I ended up incontinent (and we are not talking number 1s)

I did take some sudafed last night after ds had had his bedtime feed so I could get some sleep and he doesn't seem to be complaining about lack of milk (I read on another thread its a side effect for your milk production to decline), but I don't want to overdo this either in case its a cumulative thing.

My question is would xylitol give me any relief, or is it just a way of preventing this? And how much should I take. The only stuff I can find is Annies Denta Sweet, and I'm still waiting to hear back from the local health food shop if they stock it.