How Much Caffeine is Your Child Consuming?

Caffeine is a drug. It's a legal drug, but a drug nevertheless. It was first discovered in coffee when a sheepherder named Kaldi noticed that his sheep were being very frisky after ingesting some berries. He dried the fruit and decided to get a little jolt himself.

For hundred of years, we were satisfied with getting our caffeine from drinks like coffee and tea. But now we have a flood of energy drinks on the market. Go into any 7-Eleven and the cooler will be filled with dozens of different energy drinks with names like Rush and Red Bull.

These energy drinks are extremely popular with the younger crowd, but how young? The reason that there should be concern is that caffeine can be extremely dangerous if too much is consumed. The line between a lot of caffeine and an overdose of the drug is very thin. It would be easy for a child to step over the line.

When I was in the restaurant business, I knew a couple of managers who abused caffeine to stay awake during those long 14-hour shifts. One used to shake so bad he could hardly hold his energy drink. Another manager had to go to the emergency room after ingesting too much of the stuff.

Back before energy drinks, we used to take our caffeine in the form of No-Doz. Then somebody got the idea of mixing it with snuff (powdered tobacco) and snorting it. It gave you a powerful head rush that definitely woke you up. But after a while, my nose started bleeding and I stopped.

Caffeine consumption in children has been blamed for them not being able to fall asleep when they should and some think it may contribute to bed wetting. But the amount that the children consume and what effect it may have on them hasn't been studied very much.

According to Medical News Today:

"In a study published in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers found that 75% of children surveyed consumed caffeine on a daily basis, and the more caffeine the children consumed, the less they slept."

The researchers found that some children as young as 5-years-old were getting too much caffeine. And that increased as they got older. 12-year-olds were found to be drinking the equivalent of about five cups of coffee a day, and that's too much.

The research found out that the popular notion of caffeine contributing to bed wetting is basically an old wife's tale. It did not make the children more likely to wet the bed.

So monitor your child's caffeine consumption. Those energy drinks that are marketed to kids may not be so harmless after all. And you don't want them acting like Tweak on "South Park" do you?

Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/211288.php