How excessive sugar can be harmful to children?

Excessive sugar causes tooth decay, hyperactivity, obesity and types 2 diabetes in children. Sometimes parents give a reward in the form of candies to their children for good behaviour. Though the excess sugar can take a toll on their health.

Sugar addiction
It has certain physical and psychological harms to kids and it is like some drug addiction only. There are withdrawal symptoms if a child doesn’t get his sugar does. And these are mood changes,  irritability, and physical symptoms, tremors, changes in activity level, like your child becoming more overactive, or lethargic than usual.
All the minerals, vitamins, iron, calcium is needed for proper growth of bones and blood supply. So, this may not be present in sugary foods.
When someone consumes lots of a nutrient like sugar, the result can be termed as overnutrition.

Tooth decay/cavities
Tooth decay can cost your child the need for fillings, or even losing teeth. It can lead to various illnesses if left untreated as well as death. Every time the bacteria in your child’s mouth comes in contact with sugar thereby, producing an acid, which attacks the teeth for 20 minutes. It is really a big problem at such a tender age.
While good oral hygiene, including brushing/flossing twice daily, and regular dental checkups are required to prevent tooth decay. Regular candies increase the likelihood of tooth decay and gum disease. Even soda consumption and sugary foods do that. Some soft drinks contain as many as 11 teaspoons of sugar and even sugary drink affects the health of children at a young age.

Psychological harms
One research looked at a clear link between daily candy consumption in ten-year-olds and violence in later life. Parents to solve out give them candies to control behaviour, but this isn’t right. As the researchers proved that these children become violent in later life because of delayed gratification. To give them too much of candies isn’t a good idea.

Obesity
Every gram of sugar contains four calories, so for example, if food has 15 grams of sugar per serving, that’s 60 calories. And sugar is often added to high-calorie cookies and cakes. Drinking sugar-coated beverages add more calories. And it increases the chance of obesity in adulthood also.

Poor nutrition
Getting high on sugary foods and drinks crowds out nutritious foods that children need for their growth and development. Too many empty calories often result in nutritional deficiencies and that impacts a child’s ability to fend off illnesses.

Though giving your child sweets might seem the easiest way to get him to do what you ask, you could very well be landing him/her for the problems by giving too much sugar. Try doing effective discipline methods instead. It won’t fetch you good results in the long-term. Tooth decay, sugar addiction might be the problems but the biggest problem is the habit that you are inculcating in your child. Cutting back the sugar intake can lead to less sugar-related health problems in your child.
It can cause nutritional deficiencies and obesity.

Moderate sugar can also be a part of a healthy diet. Start by limiting portions of sweet treats. Go-ahead with whole-grain cereals without added sugar.  Do check the ingredient list you buy for your child. Cook food with reduced sugar. Be sure the child brushes twice a day and flosses once daily to get protection against cavities.

Heavy intake of sugar is really bad for the child’s health. Keep in mind the results and the repercussion. We woo them to do what we want them to do for a while. But, in the long run, it is not advisable to give them candies and sugary drinks just for the sake of expectation of good behaviour from them.

Parents should keep a check regularly to see if there are no psychological harm or tooth decay problems with their offsprings. It is really a big responsibility on parents’ part to keep a check on their children’s health. Also, see there should be no nutritional deficiencies which are not good proper growth and development of a child. Basically, do include a healthy diet including the fruit-based desserts. Also, keep a check on weight to see if their child has been showing symptoms of obesity which is a chronic disease and increased laxity. Finally, it is in your hands to regularly see if your child’s health is correct/proper or not!