Sugar vs hyper
Why does my 2-year-old daughter get so hyper when she eats sweets?
If there were a public debate about the connection between sugar and hyperactivity, I bet you could line parents along one side and scientists along the other. While many parents report that their children get fidgety or hyper right after eating something sugary, scientists maintain that sugar’s link to hyperactivity is a
myth. Studies suggest that children react no differently to sugar than to other ingredients in the foods they eat.
So why the fidgets? I suspect that the energy charge is a product of the environment rather than the treat. If you start taking note, you may find that sugar-laden foods are often on the menu at times when children are already hyped up, such as during a birthday party or in the afternoon when they’re revved up about being home from school. (One possible exception: A sin¬gle cola may contain enough caffeine to make a child hyper.)
Even so, it’s a good idea to moderate the amount of sugar a child eats. Besides causing cavities, sugar has lots of empty calories. Too much fills a child up, so she doesn’t have room for healthier fare. Even pure fruit juice,
loaded with sugar, has recently been associated with obesity and growth problems in young chil¬dren. Babies 6 months to a year old should drink only two to four ounces a day. (Infants younger than 6 months should not have juice at all. They don’t need it, and it might reduce the baby’s intake of more nutritious breast milk or formula.) Kids 1 to 3 shouldn’t have more than eight ounces. Those 3 to 5 should only have twelve ounces.
I offer my kids whole fruit, which con¬tains more fiber and sometimes more vitamins, too. For regular snack time, look to rice cakes, wheat crackers or cheese, and save the sweets for special occasions.
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