The potential dangers of energy drinks, those highly caffeinated beverages that promise to stave off sleepiness, are well known, but a new study suggests that even young children are at risk.
Although the target markets for energy drinks are typically teens and young adults, more than 40 percent of reports to U.S. poison control centers in a three-year period involved children under the age of 6, said study author Dr. Steven Lipshultz, pediatrician-in-chief at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, in Detroit.
“About half of the calls to the national poison control data system for caffeinated energy drinks related to unintentional exposure for children less than 6,” he noted. In more serious cases, seizures and heart problems were reported, the study found.
