sports/ energy drinks

[Anonymous]

Do you let your kids (ages 5 - 12, or your teens) drink sports or energy drinks?

I'm working on some background research for an article on this topic and would be very interested in hearing parent's thoughts. Do your kids like the taste of these drinks? Are they perceived as "cool," or "healthy" in their schools or on their sports teams?

Thanks much for any thoughts!

[Anonymous]

At a parents meting, prior to the first swim team meet of the season, a parent asked the coach what she thought about these types of drinks. The coach responded that she did not want the kids to have these types of drinks prior to participating in the meet. The general concensus was that many of these drinks are full of sugar and caffeine, clearly not ingredients you want to pump into young kids. Even Vitamin Water is loaded with sugar. We push bottled water.

[Anonymous]

(All of that is definitely true, by the way).

Can I ask the general ages of the kids on the swim team?

[Anonymous]

There is a w-i-d-e range of ages on the swim team. There are kids as young as 5 and kids as old as 18 (just graduated high school).

[Anonymous]

My son is 7 and plays on his school's soccer team through Stoddert. I'd say the mix of drinks people bring for their kids leans toward more water with a few kids having gatorade or powerade once in a while, my son included. My kids (4 and 7) do get Gatorade when they are sick with the throw-ups as they prefer it to pedialyte and alwasy have, since they were about 2. They def. like gatorade and ask for it by name but its considered a treat. The old stanby yellow and orange ones are the most popular.