Effects Of Soft Drinks On Your Child
Most children love to have soft drinks. They are often attracted to its taste and lucrative packaging.
But these soft drinks have excessive sugar in them, and as we know, excess of anything is destructive. The same is the case with soft drinks.
Soft drinks or other sweetened drinks such as fruit, energy, or soda are not recommended for your child’s health.
They do not provide any nutrition to your child as they contain empty calories. Instead, it leads to various health concerns.
In this blog, we will highlight why you should avoid soft drink intake for your child.
Harmful effects of soft drinks on your kid’s health
Sweet drinks can cause a range of health issues for your child. A few of them are discussed below:
Excessive weight gain
Being high in energy and significantly less nutrition, Regular intake of soft drinks can lead your child to obesity.
Further, obesity can cause serious health concerns such as diabetes and blood sugar imbalances in the body.
Even replacing soft drinks with diet soda isn’t affected prevent obesity as it contains aspartame which gives a boost to the sugar craving.
Oral health concerns
Children who intake soft drinks regularly are at risk of tooth decay.
The acid present in soft drinks is responsible for deteriorating tooth enamel.
Also, higher sugar level causes cavities.
Heart Diseases
According to the research, consuming fizzy drinks also increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases in children.
Harmful for stomach
Fizzy drinks can affect the acid-alkaline balance of your kid’s stomach. As acidic content rises in the stomach, it can cause inflammation of the gut causing acidity.
Further, it can cause stomachache, heartburn, burps, etc.
Causes Dehydration
Water plays a significant role in the proper functioning of the body. So, you must keep your child hydrated.
But like tea or coffee, carbonated drinks are also responsible for causing dehydration.
Effects brain
Intake of soft drinks can also impact the brain functioning of your child. It can also cause headaches and moodiness.
It is also believed to cause an imbalance in neurochemistry in developing kids’ brains.
Certain brain chemicals like MSG can adversely affect your child’s brain.
Loss of appetite
Soft drinks are full of energy, so they can quickly fill children up. Due to this, they do not have good hunger for food.
Improper eating habits can make your child deficient in essential nutrients resulting in diseases like anemia, fatigue, nausea, or dizziness.
Change in bowel habits
Your child may face problems while digesting the sugar in soft drinks. Due to this, they may suffer from diarrhea or loose motion.
During loose motion, essential nutrients and water loss occur, and their body may lose energy, affecting their average growth.
Weaken liver and kidney
Soft drinks’ large quantities of phosphoric acid can cause kidney-related problems such as kidney stones. Also, excessive intake of soft drinks is responsible for putting pressure on their level.
In this way, soft drinks affect the kidney and liver and prevent them from functioning well.
Ways to save your child from hazardous health concerns of soft drink intake
As your child is somehow dependent on you to eat and drink, so few precautionary ways can help you to change your child’s diet.
- Avoid consuming soft drinks yourself or bringing them to your house. Try to stock your home with healthy products.
- If your child is already customary to the intake of soft drinks, limit their consumption slowly. First, try to replace soft drinks with water-based drinks and then move on to water.
- Encourage your child to eat fresh fruit and drink plain water instead of fruit juice.
- Limit their consumption of fizzy drinks to half, and that too occasionally.
- Kids need to know that it is not good to avoid health for taste. Try to explain the disadvantages of soft drinks over their pleasant taste if your child is big enough to understand. For this, you can also tell them fictional stories to convey the message of avoiding soft drinks.
- Search for innovative ways to make healthy food attractive and tasty for your child. Children love to eat or drink items that look appealing to them.
- Visit your pediatrician or healthcare provider if you face any health concerns related to your child.
Conclusion
Considering the severe health issues soft drinks can cause your child, it is advisable to discontinue them entirely for your child’s health. If you find it challenging, you can follow the necessary steps discussed above, and also you can take a consultation with the pediatrician.
Pediatrician can help
If you notice that your child is facing any health-related issues due to excessive intake of soft drinks and you are unable to figure out ways to stop them, you must take advice from the pediatrician.
At Sunpediatrics, we have an expert panel of pediatricians who offers dedicated treatment to children and is always concerned with their health. Our pediatricians strive to provide reliable treatment to every child.
All you are supposed to do is to discuss it with us.
