Kids today have active lifestyles. Parents become obsessed with making sure their kids get the right amount of hydration between those vigorous sports and other extra-curricular activities. The fridge at home is filled with bottled mineral water, sodas, juices, coffee and tea drinks, and then there’s power drinks.

It all began with Gatorade – then all sorts of power drinks followed the hype. Today, there are several power drinks which are marketed in different ways. A lot are sports drinks. Some are sports beverages. Others are vitamin waters. They claim to have special body-friendly ingredients which help boost energy levels, increase alertness and concentration, improve nutrition and boost athletic stamina and performance. There’s just one question: How safe are they for kids?

Why these drinks work like they do

Energy drinks, aka power drinks, work their magic because their ingredients. The most popular content is caffeine. It’s the same stuff we as adults crave for to jumpstart our mornings. Doctors suggest that even the healthiest adults watch their caffeine intake because of its side effects – imagine what it can do to kids!      

Aside from caffeine, energy drinks also contain a form of ephedrine called ma huang, which keeps the mind and body active. They also contain taurine, a substance that works like an amino acid. Taurine has been linked to the development of several diseases. 

Lastly, there’s sugar. Feed a kid a spoonful of sugar a few hours before bedtime, and watch him or her jump up and down for hours, refusing to settle down.

Kids and caffeine intake

Children who take in coffee present with difficulty sleeping at night and disrupted rest patterns. While they may be able to doze off to sleep, they may wake at the slightest stimulation, or may not be able to sleep soundly. Children who drink caffeinated drinks also have symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, and restlessness.

Brains of children are still at their developmental stages, so they are extremely vulnerable to the crippling effect of these drinks. Their juvenile kidneys and liver work extra hard to get the caffeine out of their systems, but these substances remain in the blood stream for up to 12 hours. So, if a child gulp down his energy drink at noon, his brain would be up and about way until past midnight.

Supplemental drinks are deceiving.

These drinks claim to give children a boost of energy needed for school and sports.  What they don’t tell you is that these supplemental drinks make your child’s brain dependent on these drinks instead of its own energy – producing chemicals. It is the same phenomenon that happens when adults become reliant upon coffee in the morning and throughout the day.

This can be dangerous. When the brain doesn’t produce its own energy-producing chemicals, the child can experience a sudden decline in energy as soon as the effect of the drinks subsides.

Getting off the drinks is similar to when adults get off their coffee addiction. Caffeine withdrawal is known to make people more irritable and restless, and prevent thought clarity.