Over-Stimulated?

If you've been worried that kids these days are starting too early on the caffeine habit, you're not alone. Everyone knows that children should not be getting a lot of caffeine, and it's not just because it makes parenting harder having to deal with an over-stimulated smaller mammal running around the house. Long-term studies on the effects of caffeine on growing children have not been done, so the effects on development, bodily and psychologically, are unknown.

I didn't even think about coffee until I went to college, as did most of my peers. However, the Starbucks phenomenon was only beginning in the early 1990's, and I already saw the trend, that making cafes the "cool" place to hang out, was only going to get kids to start drinking coffee earlier. On a selfish note, I didn't want these "darn kids" distracting me. But nowawdays, it's common for high school kids, or younger, to start their days with a cup of coffee, and maintain their caffeinated state at the ubiquitous brand-name coffee houses.

It may be too late to go back to a time when children saw coffee as an "adult" drink, but in the years to come, we will see population studies on the effects of early-stimulators, not just of caffeine, but also the prescription medications such as Ritalin and Adderall, on developing brains and bodies. I already have a sinking feeling...