Kids and Caffeine

High doses of caffeine can bump blood pressure into the danger zone and spark life-threatening heart arrhythmias. It can also trigger neurologic symptoms, including seizures. These problems are especially scary when young children are consuming caffeine. A full 50 percent of reports to the National Poison Data System about energy drinks (loaded with caffeine) were involving children younger than age 6. Caffeine is also being consumed by kids (including some of my grandkids) in the guise of frappuccinos and other sweet coffee beverages. Caffeine is a drug that slowed heart rates and increased blood pressure in all the children that consumed it in recent studies and like the sugar included in soft drinks, has no nutritional value and really doesn't belong in the diets of children under the age of 18. I love my coffee in the morning as much as anyone else, but the caffeine in it is dangerous for kids and could do much more than just stunt their growth.