Sodas Can Give Kids Chronic Headaches

If your child suffers from chronic headaches and migraines, then he or she may be drinking too many caffeinated sodas. There's an easy way to find out if it's the caffeine and that's to stop the sodas and any other beverage that contains caffeine. Once the caffeine stops, so
will the headaches and migraines if they were caffeine related. One word of warning - you need to gradually wean you child off the caffeine beverages by reducing the amount by one-quarter per week. Withdrawing too quickly can also cause headaches.

KIDS CAN EXPERIENCE WITHDRAWALS

A study in the "Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry" found that kids who had been drinking three cans of caffeinated soda per day experienced caffeine withdrawals. When the kids went off the sodas cold turkey, their performance dropped dramatically.

So what can you do? 

1. Limit your child to one soda a day. When you figure one soda, keep in mind other sources of caffeine the child is having during the day, like chocolate, iced tea, etc. 

2. Just like you wean adults off drugs, wean a child off excessive caffeine gradually. 

3. You can begin to substitute fruit juices for sodas.