Despite being allowed sweets and fizzy drinks, I am pretty sure my kids have never had a 'sugar rush'. Does it really exist or do modern parents just think it does?

[Enid]

I cannot think of a time when my children have bounced off the walls after eating anything sugary.

Does sugar affect different children differently?

Is a 'sugar rush' a known phenomenon? I know it raises blood sugar temporarily but does that always cause children to become unmanageable?

And if it does exist, why do kids seem to grow out of it? Eg teenagers eating shite and drinking coke and seemingly never having a sugar rush, in fact finding it hard to get out of bed ?

We were out walking once and had run out of water. We stopped to buy some at a little shop but it was off season and all they had was coca cola. I was in our local park at 8pm that evening getting my 2 DDs to run laps around the playing field to try and tire them out with no luck. And they wonder why they aren't allowed fizzy drinks!

Enid, there is a strong link between gestational diabetes (high blood sugar when pregnant) and Type 2 (late onset) diabetes. This type of diabetes also has a strong genetic element to it. So, essentially, you need to stay a healthy weight. The good news is that it is not inevitable. It is a preventable disease.

I have three kids and only the middle one is affected by sweets. It took a while to realise that it's actually the additives that send him loopy. And crazily loopy. He packed his bags to leave home aged 6 one time. I've never seen such rage! Now we have an additive free house. We still have the regular Friday after-school sweets, but naturally flavoured ones, and fruit juice, milk or water to drink. The difference since we removed additives from their diet has been huge, but only for him. He no longer has the enormous tantrums and violent urges. Aged 8 now, he's grateful that he feels more himself, and less out of control. He still gets a lot more sugar than normal on Sweets Day, but it has no noticeable effect.

I saw that Truth about Food BBC programme too and it was pretty flawed for a study and not something that would hold up scientifically...too many variables were different, so don't use that as a basis for whether or not sugar causes kids to go hyper.

Of course exciting parties hype kids up, just like some people hype kids up, and calm quiet settings calm kids down.

From my experience I think different kids react differently to stuff in their diets, inc. sugar, additives, caffiene etc, and they can build up tolerances to this over time (just like we build up tolerances to drugs).

newandimproved that's really interesting about the additives and your son.

My kids don't generally get these, but I have evidence of them existing - I was out for an evening, just after making a birthday cake for one of them, so I had 4 nearly full tubes of that writing icing stuff (so sugar and additives!!! . I phoned home at 10.30 to see how dh was getting on, and could hear ds1 leaping off the windowsills and shrieking - at which point I remembered he had unbeknownst to me consumed the entire 4 tubes!!! Sugar rush city!

ds (2 in 2 weeks) doesn't get sugar rushes, but then he's never actually had very very high-sugar things such as sweets and chocolate. He has had cake, chocolate chip cookies, ice-cream and so on, though. Tbh I would tend to suspect additives rather than sugar as culprits of extreme bouncing-off-the-walls behaviour.

My daughter is nearly 4, but we have to steer clear of colourings etc.she is normally a beautiful little girl but additives and colourings make her violent and aggresive. the next day she also suffers from a sort of 'hangover'. We keep experimenting with different things but i can't bear to see her like this and how it changes her personality. So,yes i'm positive it exists

My kids have pepsi and sweets in roughly the same amounts yet dd1 is fine and dd2 is bouncing off the walls.Though dd2 is quite lively anyway and dd1 is more laid back.

Oh yes it exists...they should have warning signs on some foods something like....Beware may cause you child to bounce off wallls; in such an event a hard hat is essebtial.

essential that is

Like others have said, I too believe that it's more to do with the additives in high sugar foods, rather than the sugar.

I'm happy to let ds have the occassional high sugar food, but it's a definite no to any food with additives or unnecessary chemicals in this house.

When I have a sugar low I shout and swear and am generally horrible.

It is getting worse with age, it's like getting PMT every day for an hour or so until I eat lunch or dinner, unless I have eaten snacks inbetween.

Basically I eat all the time to avoid.

I also get the shakes.

So I can see how maybe a sugar high can also affect behaviour.

The program which 'proves' there is no such thing as a suger rush, The Truth about Food, only proved that there is such a thing as the self-fulfilling prophecy- if we expect something to happen then it will, and that parties with clowns and bouncy castles get kids more hyped up than any sugar filled food and drink!

Over Easter, my 20 month old son discovered milk chocolate in the form of easter eggs and I found that he would laugh manically and run up and down like an animal in a cage! It has never happened before, not with juice or chocolate biscuits or even cake. So of course, milk chocolate is now banned and I had to finish his Easter Eggs...

even if we give DS sweets with no artificial flavours etc and he isn't in a high excitement environment...like sat quietly at home....he still goes daft. He does it with fruit sugars too, so we have to ration how much fruit he can have and he only ever gets milk or water to drink. He'll be fine one minute, then banging himself about the head the next and charging around like a loon....we can only conclude it is the sugar. He's a normal child in every other sense.....until he gets sugar in any form...then he goes bonkers

and the come down is miserable for all concerned, so we just don't do it any more as it isn't fair on him at all.

A very interesting topic... I have always been concerned about the effects of too much sugar from sweets/cakes on my 2 year old. I try to give him a well balanced diet with occasional treats, So far I have not noticed much effect but I have noticed that if he has 'sugar free'(!) Calpol esp. during the day then He is different when it kicks in. One minute he's under the weather the next He's charging round the room like a nutter, & quite aggressive and spitful. (He's usually a well behaved/despite 'terrible two's' 2 year old)
I heard that some 'E numbers' were worse culpits than sugar, amazing really that we try to steer clear of fun sugary treats and yet it's the medicine that does it!
I also heard somewhere that Superdrugs own brand paracetamol had less 'nasty' E numbers in. I might invest in some!

ds has a healthy balanced diet but i refuse to exclude sweets/chocolate/junk as i believe in moderation and that if they are refused something as soon as they old enough to drink/buy their own sweets etc they go crazy on it. so he does have fizzy drinks and sweets and i have never known him to have a sugar rush. the only thing that has ever affected him and is banned is peperami - we were on a long drive and having a picnic lunch while on the way and he went potty - quite freaked me out as he was laughing hysterically and it was like he was drunk!!!!

My DS1 is hyperactive as a rule so my general rule is no sugar but it is a constant battle against school dinners/ parties / treats...

My DS2 is just a nutter and he is ok as long as he is exercised, otherwise he bounces off the walls as well.

my sister blames "sugar rush" for her childrens bad behaviour when in truth they are just very badly behaved children who have no discipline in their lives.

my three never reacted to sugary things, i even let them eat the blue smarties incidently my sis used to pick them out but her little darlings were still nightmares

I have never seen a sugar rush (and my children eat plenty of it). However, I have several times seen a day or so of HORRENDOUS behaviour following the ingestion of large amounts of chocolate and food colourings.

Last time it happened was with dd2, aged 2. We went shopping, she had a chocolate bar, and another one, then her siblings helpfully offered her some yucky coloured gummy sweets to keep her happy in the supermarket...we were still trying to coax her off the ceiling late that night.

My boys are guarenteed to kick off after a kitkat. Other chocolate doesn't do this.

Haven't read every post, but I've heard it's been proven by someone, somewhere that children don't get sugar rushes. However I certainly do! I have since I was a teenager. Bring on the Dairy Milk! - I also get hyper when I've been drinking alcohol!

I think it definitely depends on the person. My dd (3) can eat what she like sand it barely affects her whereas I can still remember, as a child, only having to have half a packet of sweets and feeling horribly wound up and arguing with everyone. Can't say why i grew out of it but by the age of 10 or so, I could eat huge bags of sweets (only occasionally did it!) and it wouldn't bother me at all.