Coffee will not stunt your kid's growth

[ikeOnABike]

[TheChineseWatch]

Considering the amount of cola children drink, I thought this was obvious

[Papasan]

[ejeffrey]

@MalevolentPixy

The ADHD reaction to stimulants is not the average person’s reaction. Other people get wired. We calm the fuck down into something approaching normal.

Huh. I knew that Ritalin and Adderall were ordinarily stimulants but had the “opposite” effect on ADHD, I didn’t realize caffeine works that way too.

[Akimbo_NOT]

the widely held belief that the caffeinated beverage can stunt children’s growth

[lastchance]

This is frustratingly true for me as well.

[baimarui]

One of the many cool things about caffeine is that they prescribe it to premature babies to promote brain and lung development. Was originally billed almost $10k from the hospital pharmacy when my son was in the NICU. I asked the doctor why, if caffeine promotes brain and lung development in preemies, do they recommend that pregnant women limit caffeine. Their answer was that it had nothing to do with the chilld’s health but had to do with difficulty sleeping during pregnancy.

[Carbonman]

@MalevolentPixy

More likely what happened is that the “go wild” was the period before the stimulant hit his brain and the caffeine actually caused the calmness.

The ADHD reaction to stimulants is not the average person’s reaction. Other people get wired. We calm the fuck down into something approaching normal.

A good friend that developed a meth habit (clean for many years now) used to take some before bed and go right to sleep. He said it settled him down. I think an amphetamine habit turns on some of the ADHD switches in the brain and body.

[MalevolentPixy]

Or, getting a dx isn’t easy and many turn to self-medication (even without knowing), which becomes more of a problem.

[Arduenn]

Coffee will not stunt your kid’s growth

You know. This is… Excuse me… Damn good news.

[d_r]

Guy I used to know wrote a nice book about this some years back; he cites one source discussing the Island of Groix off the Brittany coast, where “coffee soup” was a staple for children under 10, who consumed an average of 30 pounds/year with no ill effects.

Coffee, Sex & Health

[David_Guilbeaul]

Interesting they compare coffee to pop rather than the benign choice, water. How many kids will drink coffee without sugar?

[Jesse13927]

As a short guy who has been drinking coffee since my age was barely double digits, I beg to differ.

[Doctor_Faustus]

@mallyboon

As a shorter person I hate the emphasis on height being a desirable trait.

Hear hear

[fuzzyfungus]

@baimarui

Was originally billed almost $10k from the hospital pharmacy when my son was in the NICU

For $10k, pharmacy cost, does it at least come with some exotic release mechanism or a purity level above and beyond what you’d get from the usual $10/bottle caffeine refined and packaged to GxP standards but not explicitly for medical use?

Or is that why the ‘originally’ is in there; and it was just NICU-No-Doze?

[zathras]

My time as a scout master for 10-13 year olds in Austria has taught me that, at least in Austria, there are both

• parents that think that the amount of caffeine contained in a cup of black tea with milk is way too much for children in that age group
• children in that age group who enjoy their daily fix of espresso.

And of course, there’s Red Bull and its various lower-cost imitators.

[AnthonyC]

the widely held belief that the caffeinated beverage can stunt children’s growth

People know about soda, right? And that kids didn’t suddenly get shorter for the century following the launch of Coke and Pepsi?

[d_r]

@baimarui

I asked the doctor why, if caffeine promotes brain and lung development in preemies, do they recommend that pregnant women limit caffeine. Their answer was that it had nothing to do with the chilld’s health but had to do with difficulty sleeping during pregnancy.

In the 1990s-2000s there was a succession of studies linking coffee with miscarriage. Around 10 years ago a careful metanalysis was done that indicated there was essentially no risk for small amounts of coffee, but those of us who had kids during the earlier period skipped the caffeine to be on the safe side.