Assessment of the palatability of vehicles for activated charcoal in pediatric volunteers

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the palatability of 4 common flavoring vehicles (water, chocolate milk [CM], orange juice [OJ], and cola) combined with activated charcoal (AC) in pediatric volunteers. DESIGN: A single-blind taste test of 4 different vehicles (water, OJ, a cola drink, and CM) was conducted in healthy volunteer children. Each child tasted 1.25 mL of Charcodote (0.2g/mL) mixed with 1.25 mL of each vehicle. SETTING: Palatability testing was conducted at the office of 1 of the authors. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty children (16 male, 14 female), aged 6.5 +/- 1.4 years (range 5-9 years). OUTCOME MEASURES: After each test dose, each child rated its taste on a modified 10 cm visual analog scale incorporating a facial-hedonic scale. Each child was also asked for his/her overall preference. RESULTS: Taste scores (cm) were as follows: water 5.6 +/- 1.8, OJ 5.4 +/- 1.0, cola 7.6 +/- 0.7, and CM 5.6 +/- 0.8. There was a significant difference in the taste scores between the cola drink (P = 0.01) and the other 3 vehicles. The cola drink was also selected as the most preferred vehicle by 50% of the children as compared with 19.2% for CM and 15.4% for OJ. In contrast, water was selected as the least preferred vehicle by 36.4% of children versus 31.8% for CM and 27.3% for OJ. Only 4 children (15.4%) stated that water was their preferred vehicle, and only 1 child (4.5%) stated that cola drink was the least preferred drink. CONCLUSIONS: Children rate the palatability higher and prefer charcoal given with a cola drink rather than with water. OJ and CM do not seem to improve the acceptability of charcoal.