Can babies drink carbonated drinks? What are the dangers of drinking carbonated drinks for babies?

It has passed the beginning of summer, and the temperature is getting higher and higher. Summer is coming soon. In summer, parents often have a glass of iced carbonated beverage when they feel too hot. Today, let's talk about whether babies can drink carbonated beverages. Are there any harms for babies after drinking carbonated beverages? Answer now

Can babies drink carbonated drinks?

Babies who are too young cannot drink beverages, and older babies should also drink beverages in moderation.

The dangers of carbonated drinks

The more you drink, the more thirsty you will feel. Some experts point out that carbonated drinks contain a lot of pigments, additives, preservatives and other substances, none of which are good for the body. These ingredients need a lot of water when metabolized in the body, and the caffeine contained in cola also has a diuretic effect, which will promote the discharge of water. Therefore, the more you drink carbonated drinks, the more thirsty you will feel.

Leading to osteoporosis. Experts point out that drinking phosphate-containing beverages such as cola will affect the body's absorption of calcium. Most of the ingredients in carbonated beverages, especially cola, contain phosphoric acid. Usually people don't care, but this phosphoric acid will subtly affect your bones. Drinking carbonated beverages frequently will threaten your bone health.

The intake of large amounts of phosphoric acid will affect the absorption of calcium, causing an imbalance in the calcium-phosphorus ratio. Once calcium is deficient, it will cause great damage to the physical development of growing adolescents. Calcium deficiency undoubtedly means slow bone development and osteoporosis. Therefore, data show that adolescents who often drink large amounts of carbonated beverages have a three times higher risk of fractures than other adolescents.

It is easy to cause kidney stones. Calcium is the main component of stones. After drinking too much caffeinated carbonated beverages, the calcium content in urine will increase significantly, making them more likely to form stones. If more caffeine is taken, the risk is even greater. Magnesium and citrate in the human body can originally help people prevent the formation of kidney stones, but after drinking caffeinated beverages, these are also excreted from the body, which greatly increases the risk of stone disease.

Baby needs to pay attention to drinking beverages

① Refuse to drink a lot of drinks for a long time: It is important to know that it takes a long time for the hard tissue of teeth to be eroded or cause tooth decay. If a person drinks cola or juice every day, every hour, and every moment, and some people have even become obsessed with it and replaced drinking water with beverages, then this quantitative change can easily accumulate and eventually lead to qualitative changes. Therefore, maintaining a normal amount and frequency of drinking will not cause irreversible damage to teeth.

② Use a straw: Maybe it is because the drink flows over the tip of the tongue and fills the mouth, which brings continuous sweetness, especially children like to hold the drink in their mouths for a long time and refuse to swallow it. But this is really not a good habit. The recommended drinking method is to use a straw to minimize the contact time between the drink and the tooth surface.

③ Don’t brush your teeth immediately after drinking: Some people say that since drinking beverages is so harmful, I will brush my teeth after drinking! In fact, this is also a bad habit. Foods with high acidity, especially fruit juice and fruit, will soften the surface of teeth to varying degrees. If you use a toothbrush to mechanically stimulate the tooth surface immediately, it will cause tooth wear. The correct way is not to brush your teeth immediately after drinking a beverage. It is not too late to brush your teeth after the acid on the surface of the teeth is neutralized by saliva, a powerful buffering medium.

④ Regular dental check-ups: This is a common way to prevent all kinds of dental and oral problems. Visit the dentist regularly for a comprehensive check-up, treat the diseases that need to be treated, and strengthen and maintain the habits that need to be followed. In this way, you can enjoy the pleasure brought by various beverages while keeping your teeth strong and healthy!

Carbonated drinks are harmful

1. Carbonated drinks can corrode your teeth

A British study found that drinking carbonated beverages increases the risk of tooth decay in 12-year-olds by 59% and 14-year-olds by 220%. If more than four carbonated beverages are consumed a day, the likelihood of tooth decay in these two age groups will increase by 252% and 513%, respectively. As in the previous case, carbonated beverages are very harmful to teeth.

2. Carbonated drinks hinder growth and development

Fan Zhihong said that carbonated drinks contain almost no nutrients other than sugar, and they can never replace the nutrition of fruits and vegetables, rice and steamed bread, meat, eggs and milk. After drinking carbonated drinks, the stomach feels bloated, especially for children with small stomach capacity. Therefore, drinking carbonated drinks will invisibly reduce the intake of nutritious foods in the three meals, reduce the quality of the diet, and even lead to nutritional deficiencies. Some young parents allow their children to drink a lot of carbonated drinks, which often leads to multiple nutrient deficiencies and hinders the growth and development of children.

3. Carbonated drinks affect calcium absorption

Carbonated drinks usually contain synthetic colors, flavors, and phosphates, which are not only nutritionally worthless, but also become waste that the body needs to deal with. The phosphates in them can also interfere with calcium absorption.

4. Carbonated drinks make children violent

In 2011, a US study found that children who frequently drink carbonated drinks may be more violent, with more prominent aggression and aggressive behavior. Researchers at the University of Vermont in the US surveyed 1,878 14-18 year-olds from Boston, and the results showed that children who drank more than five cans of carbonated drinks, such as cola, Sprite, soda, etc., within a week had a 9%-15% increase in the proportion of violent and aggressive behavior, including forcing or threatening others, having serious conflicts with classmates or siblings, fighting, carrying knives and guns, etc.

5. Carbonated drinks can cause obesity and diabetes

Fan Zhihong, associate professor of the Department of Food Nutrition and Safety, College of Food Science and Engineering, China Agricultural University, said that carbonated drinks are high in sugar and can easily lead to obesity and diabetes. Carbonated drinks contain about 10% refined sugar. Drinking two cans of carbonated drinks a day will unknowingly consume 70 grams of sugar, bringing 280 kcal of calories. If you do not increase your daily exercise and do not reduce your food intake for three meals, the extra calories you consume in three months will be equivalent to an increase of 2.8 kilograms of fat.

6. Regular consumption of carbonated beverages may cause cancer

In 2005, Indian medical scientists found that the incidence of esophageal cancer increased in people who consumed a lot of carbonated drinks, which means that there is a certain inevitable connection between carbonated drinks and esophageal cancer. Some doctors speculate that the pressure of carbon dioxide may cause gastric acid to reflux into the esophagus, thereby stimulating the esophagus and promoting esophageal cancer. However, there is currently no sufficient research evidence for this explanation, and it is only a hypothesis. There is no reliable data on how many carbonated drinks a day may increase the incidence of esophageal cancer. However, it is certain that people with digestive tract diseases and gastrointestinal dysfunction should strictly control carbonated drinks, and young children should also stay away from such drinks as much as possible.

American nutritionists have been calling on the public who are addicted to carbonated drinks: as long as carbonated drinks are replaced with boiled water or homemade lemonade, life will be much healthier and health will definitely improve. Therefore, parents must strictly control and not let their children drink carbonated drinks.