Now, pediatricians who want their young patients to benefit from using xylitol have two new products available to them. Ford Xtreme, the health products division of Ford Gum & Machine Company, has recently introduced a xylitol chewing gum and a xylitol bubble gum that can aid pediatricians who want to make it easy for their patients to try this sweetener - Ford Xtreme Xylitol Gum and Ford Xtreme Vitamin - C Bubble Gum sweetened with xylitol. Both xylitol gums are now available to the public.

Ford Xtreme Xylitol Gum is a chewing gum available in three flavors, Peppermint, Spearmint and Cinnamon. All three are sugarfree, have no artificial flavors or colors, and are predominantly sweetened with xylitol. Each consumer unit is individually sealed in a blister pack for freshness.

"Ford Xtreme Vitamin - C Gum is a bubble gum sweetened with xylitol, has no artificial colors or flavors and contains 60mg of Vitamin - C per ball, which is 100% of the USRDA requirement. The gum is individually wrapped to maintain freshness.

"The reasons for pediatricians to recommend xylitol gum to their patients for AOM are being born out in clinical studies," explains Ford Gum's Steve Gold. "The Department of Pediatrics, University of Oulu, in Finland, recently conducted a three-month blind, controlled study of approximately 900 healthy children from local day care centers. The children were randomized to one of five groups to receive control syrup, xylitol syrup, control chewing gum, xylitol chewing gum or xylitol lozenge. Although one occurrence of AOM was experienced by 68% of the control syrup children, only 29% receiving the xylitol syrup were affected, for a 30% decrease. Likewise, the occurrence of otitis decreased by 40% for those children who received xylitol chewing gum versus the control chewing gum group. The occurrence of AOM during the follow-up period was also significantly lower in the children who received xylitol gum. Also, the xylitol was well tolerated by all the children studied.

"The conclusion drawn from the trial test was that xylitol sugar, when given in a syrup or chewing gum, was effective in preventing AOM and decreasing the need for antimicrobials." *