Although soft drink consumption is associated with aggression, depression, and suicidal thoughts in adolescents, the relationship has not previously been evaluated in younger children. A new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics found that aggression, attention problems and withdrawal behavior are all associated with soft drink consumption in young children.
Shakira Suglia, ScD, and colleagues from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, University of Vermont, and Harvard School of Public Health assessed approximately 3,000 5-year-old children enrolled in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a prospective birth cohort that follows mother-child pairs from 20 large US cities. Mothers reported their child’s soft drink consumption and completed the Child Behavior Checklist based on their child’s behavior during the previous two months. The researchers found that 43 per cent of the children consumed at least one serving of soft drinks per day, and 4 per cent consumed four or more serves.
Aggression, withdrawal, and attention problems were associated with soda consumption. Even after adjusting for sociodemographic factors, maternal depression, intimate partner violence, and paternal incarceration, any soft drink consumption was associated with increased aggressive behavior. Children who drank four or more soft drinks per day were more than twice as likely to destroy things belonging to others, get into fights, and physically attack people. They also had increased attention problems and withdrawal behavior compared with those who did not consume soft drinks.
According to Dr Suglia, ‘We found that the child’s aggressive behavior score increased with every increase in soft drinks servings per day.’ Although this study cannot identify the exact nature of the association between soft drink consumption and problem behaviors, limiting or eliminating a child’s soft drink consumption may reduce behavioral problems.
Source: Elsevier
There are many problems associated with, either giving into children’s complaining or whining why they must have a sugary soft drink, or the adult themselves becoming lazy and giving children soft drinks for the hell of it.Kids are kids, they are learning as they grow, teach them bad habits that you may have acquired over the years, then get ready to for the consequences as they get older.From exposing them to a poor diet and not much moving, from the daily use of a square box that starts with an “i”.
What happened to the frisbee, the skipping rope, the ball… a ball, what’s that mum and dad?
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