More Slimy Ear

Since Demi has a history of "slimy ear" (fungal ear infection), I'll relate our latest episode.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, we ran out of ThreeLac, one of the supplements we use to fight yeast. Just three days later, Demi started complaining that her ear hurt.

Based on previous results, I immediately gave her some ibuprofen for pain and swabbed her ear with anti-fungal cream. That night, she woke up twice in quite a bit of pain. I comforted her as best I could, giving her a bit more ibuprofen and another swab each time.

The next morning, she was pain free and went to school as normal. (Good thing, since her big Christmas party was that day!) We continued that routine for the next couple of days. I thought it was taken care of.

A few days after stopping, the pain came back, in both ears this time. I repeated the same thing once again, but kept it up for a week after the pain dissapated.

No problems since.

Truvia?

I just got a couple of sampler packets of a new sweetener called Truvia. Anybody heard of it?
It says it's made with erythritol.

So, onto the internet. What's it all about? Is it truly "natural?" Any harmful effects? Here's what I've found so far:

• derived from sugar, just like xylitol
• 60-70% as sweet as sugar
• .2 calories per gram ("almost" calorie free)
• absorbed by the small intestines and less likely to cause any negative side effect like xylitol or maltitol (unless consumed in excessive quantities)
• does not cause cavities (like xylitol)
  does not sound like it's great to bake with as it tends to dry things out, doesn't dissolve as well as sugar, and may not give the desired consistency
• although it's been around for awhile (FDA GRAS status since 1997), it's not widely available (Maybe Truvia will change that?)

I tried the Truvia sample packets in my tea this morning. Tastes ok to me. I didn't find anything negative about, but perhaps I didn't look hard enough. Anyone have additional information?

I found a 1lb bag of erythritol here: