Consuming too much sugar can have a negative impact upon your health and quality of life at any age, but the risks are much more dangerous for children as they are still growing and are especially sensitive. It’s your responsibility as a parent to ensure they are eating the right foods that contain naturally occurring sources of sugar rather than allowing or encouraging them to have a taste for artificial and produced cuisine, so they do not suffer the side effects of a non-nutritious diet. The serious nature of what can happen when you fail to feed your children responsibly should not be overlooked, as their behaviour, weight and teeth can all be affected by an excess of sugar.
Behaviour
Though your children’s behaviour may change initially when you deny them of their usual sweet treats, however the after effects of the ice cream or chocolate you give in to providing them with can have on their mood and temper will be much, much worse. Eating high sugar foods causes blood sugar levels to spike at a dramatic rate, thus giving you an instant energy rush. However, these levels can fall just as quickly a few minutes after they have eaten. This effect can be noted in their behaviour, as the initial rush can make them hyperactive and over alert, whilst soon after they can become sluggish, irritable and have a more angry nature in general. You will have probably noticed this as a parent yourself in the past, perhaps when taking your child to a friends party - you take them to the location and they are calm and collected in their behavior, but once the buffet of cakes and candy attracts their attention the sensible offspring you once knew is long gone, and a tyrant ready to bounce off the walls and then scream all of the way home stands in their place. Consuming sugar in smaller quantities and limiting the amount of ‘bad’ (processed) foods your children eat will keep their mood at a stable level and ensure that they never reach either extremes of frenzied excitement and ill-tempered exhaustion.
Weight
Consuming too much of the sweet stuff can have a damaging effect on your child's weight. An excess of high sugar foods like cookies and desserts will do nothing to improve their overall health, instead forcing them to gain excess weight and perhaps encounter more serious issues as a result. One of the main causes of obesity in today's society is due to becoming addicted to and reliant upon sugary produce, and as there are sometimes even masses hiding inside pasta sauces and other bewildering savoury dishes, it can be hard to avoid it completely. When you become overweight or obese, especially because of your large sugar consumption, you have a much greater risk of devleoping diseases and illnesses such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and asthma.Of course these are all things you want your children to avoid developing, so you must explain the dangers associated with an unhealthy diet so that they can understand for themselves and start to think about eating more nutritious foods.
Teeth
The impacts that sugar can have upon teeth can be absolutely catastrophic. Sugar is widely known to cause tooth decay, and if your children have already lost their baby teeth then they have to take extra care to keep them strong until late into their adult life. When sweet foods are consumed, the bacteria that develops inside your child's mouth can break down the enamel on teeth and leave them feeling sensitive and more open to infection, and even lead to total loss of the affected tooth. It’s a good idea to find a dentist and get your little ones mouths checked out by a professional, as no matter how young they are, they may still experience problems if their diet isn’t up to scratch. Other than cutting out high sugar foods, you must ensure that sweet drinks are also limited to fruit on occasion and are consumed through a straw to help stop any bacteria reaching the teeth.
You must take great care when deciding upon which foods your children should eat as soon as they are weaned onto solids, as their health is determined greatly by their diet and nutrition. Failing to limit their sugar intake can affect their mental and physical well being dramatically, and before you know it they will be hooked on sweets and processed goods and feeling the negative effects to no end.
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