MU Health Expert Suggests “Caution” For Kids And Energy Drinks At School

It’s a sight becoming more common nowadays on grade school and high school campuses…kids consuming energy drinks.

But the question many parents ask is if those drinks containing elevated caffeine levels do more harm than good for their kids.

“Children under 12 should avoid really any caffeine, so an alternative would be something like juice diluted with water, water, milk, things like that. For that 12 to 18 year old range, you want to keep the caffeine under 100 milligrams per day.”

Doctor Regina DePietro, a family medicine specialist from MU Health Care, also says it’s not just the caffeine in energy drinks that present potential health problems for kids.

“Energy drinks can contain things in them that aren’t just caffeine, and some are not regulated by the FDA, so they can have a lot of additives that we don’t even know about.”

And while it’s suggested that adults limit themselves to 300-400 milligrams of caffeine a day, signs of children being overcaffeinated include interruptions in normal day-to-day activities and irregular sleep patterns.