As long as I can remember I have been drinking coffee, something containing coffee, or coffee flavored and whenever I had something with coffee it was always accompanied with my mom saying something along the lines of “You’re too young to be drinking that!” or the classic “Coffee will stunt your growth!” As an adult I drink coffee everyday maybe more than once a day. It’s gotten to the point where my roommate likes to remind me that I am addicted to coffee. The caffeine in coffee is how most adults begin their day, it helps them function, and wakes them up. As we drink more coffee we become more reliant on it and it’s caffeine boost. But when is it too soon to introduce children and young adults to caffeine?

The caffeine that coffee has affects kid’s bodies in the same way it affects an adult it leads to “jitteriness, nervousness, an upset stomach, increased blood pressure and heart rate, and problems sleeping and concentrating”, according to kidshealth.org. Also, most kids are introduced to caffeine through soda. Not only does produce these affects in kids, but because children are younger and tend to weigh less than their adult counterparts, it takes less of these drinks to have their affects.

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In a study done it was cited that boys are actually more affected by caffeine intake than girls are. This study looked at how low doses of caffeine affect kid’s blood pressure and heart rates. They took 52 kids between the ages of 8 and 9, and 49 kids from the ages of 15-17 and monitored their results. It found that “Caffeine slowed heart rates and increased blood pressure in all the children”, but according to the study’s lead Jennifer Temple of the University of Buffalo, that of course is not a new finding. Although, one finding that was interesting was that there was  difference in the gender in terms of the stimulant’s effects. The younger group that the caffeine had no difference in gender in terms of the heart rate, but in the older group it did where the boys felt the effects stronger than the girls did.

According to Temple, “right now we don’t have enough data in kids to know what the long term effects of repeated exposure to caffeine would be,” so it will be interesting to see how the intake of caffeine in young children will affect them later in life.

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Then in another study published by Pediatrics, states that although caffeine consumption has not increased over the past ten years from 1999 to 2010, but did find that “coffee and energy drinks represent a greater proportion of caffeine intake as soda intake has declined”, and about 78% of kids consume caffeine daily.

Both studies are interesting because it shows the shift of caffeine in children shift away from soda toward energy drinks like Monster or Red Bull. What would be nice to see is how much of their caffeine intake is influenced by their environment such as their parents or their school work. It is safe to say that a child under 12 most likely should not be consuming caffeine on a regular basis, and if a young adult should be drinking caffeine filled beverages it should be in moderation and monitored by their parents.

Work Cited

http://www.livescience.com/48615-how-much-caffeine-should-kids-have.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2699625/

http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/feeding/child_caffeine.html

http://www.today.com/health/kids-caffeine-may-be-dangerous-combination-new-study-suggests-1D79801666

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2014/02/04/peds.2013-2877.abstract