Sean and Heidi Cripe will never forget the phone call from their son’s high school: Davis was on his way to the emergency room.
“He chugged an energy drink — like, just trying to be cool,” Sean Cripe recalled nearly a decade later.
Soon afterward, the teenager’s heart went into an abnormal rhythm, and he died. Although deaths linked to energy drinks are uncommon, doctors across the country have repeatedly warned that their high caffeine content can seriously affect children. Potential consequences include irregular heartbeats, elevated heart rate, sleep problems, dehydration, agitation, high blood pressure and seizures.
A newly established coalition of doctors is renewing attention to those dangers following a sponsorship agreement between Monster Energy and the Big 12 Conference, a college athletics organization. The physicians are calling on conference officials to suspend the deal and urging the NCAA to examine energy drink marketing aimed at young people more broadly. They cite the deaths of three children, including Davis, a 16-year-old from South Carolina.
The doctors say their concern extends beyond Monster Energy to include all energy drinks and similar sponsorship arrangements.
“Kids are going to see energy drinks now promoted by the universities and the athletes that they admire and want to emulate,” said Dr. Matthew Nelson, an Idaho cardiologist involved in the campaign. “The kids will think of them as sports drinks, which they’re not.”
Too much caffeine can harm kids in many ways
Several medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, recommend that children and teenagers avoid energy drinks entirely. Still, many young people consume them. The latest findings from Monitoring the Future, a federally funded survey conducted by the University of Michigan, show that 23% of 12th graders, 20% of 10th graders and 18% of eighth graders reported drinking energy drinks every day.
Caffeine levels vary by product, ranging from 80 to 300 milligrams per serving. An 8-ounce cup of coffee typically contains about 80 to 100 milligrams, while some sodas have 50 milligrams or less. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children ages 12 to 18 consume no more than 100 milligrams of caffeine daily. Younger children are advised to avoid caffeine altogether.
Caffeine and other stimulants raise the heart rate and heighten activity in the nervous system — essentially increasing “how fast things go in the body, which can create an overload of the system,” said Dr. Tamara Hannon, an Indiana pediatrician who chairs the academy’s nutrition committee.
Hannon compared the effect to running a blender until its motor overheats. “The same thing can happen when you deliver stimulants to people,” she said. “The heart can wear out, the nervous system can go haywire and you can have really serious consequences.”
The cardiovascular risks are real, but experts at Harvard Medical School say there is no scientifically valid evidence supporting the common belief that caffeine stunts growth.
Mixing different types of caffeine can be risky
Children with existing conditions such as high blood pressure face particular risks, Hannon said. But even healthy children can experience serious effects after consuming too much caffeine or other stimulants, including young athletes.
There is another concern: Children may consume several caffeinated drinks in the same day. That happened with Davis Cripe, who died in 2017. The coroner said Davis had no known heart condition and had consumed a Mountain Dew and a McDonald’s latte earlier that day. After drinking the energy drink, he suffered an arrhythmia.
Davis had consumed energy drinks before, although they were not a regular part of his diet.
“We had talked to him and let him know that they weren’t healthy,” Sean Cripe said. “We didn’t understand they could be deadly.”
Trade group says the energy drink industry tries to protect kids
The American Beverage Association, which represents Monster and other companies accounting for 94% of the energy drink market, said its members voluntarily list caffeine amounts on product labels. Those labels also include warnings such as: “Not intended for children, pregnant or nursing women, or persons sensitive to caffeine.” The association said its members do not sell or market energy drinks in K-12 schools.
Monster Energy said in a statement that caffeine and other ingredients used in its drinks are also found in a wide range of food products. “Mainstream energy drinks have been marketed worldwide for more than 30 years and more than 100 billion energy drinks have been sold and safely consumed globally,” the company said.
The deal between Big 12 and Monster calls for a co-branded logo on football and basketball jerseys, fields and courts, and across digital and social media channels.
“The energy drink category is not new to collegiate athletics,” the Big 12 Conference said in a statement, adding that beverage companies are always looking for ways to reach sports fans.
The NCAA doesn’t have the authority to regulate conference or school sponsorship agreements, Dr. Deena Casiero, the association’s chief medical officer, told the doctor group in a letter. She said the association offers schools educational resources on caffeine and student-athlete health, and caffeine has been a topic of interest for an NCAA committee, which recently commissioned a cardiac advisory group.
How to educate kids about excess caffeine
To protect children, teachers and coaches can educate them about the dangers of too much caffeine and the difference between energy drinks and sports drinks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sports drinks are designed to help replace water and electrolytes lost through sweating after activity.
Parents and other adults can also model good behavior by not consuming energy drinks in front of kids.
At well visits, parents should talk with pediatricians about all the beverages their children are consuming, said Hannon, who often advises families to “Rethink your drink.”
Sean Cripe said sharing stories like his could also help children understand that energy drinks are not for them. “We just pray parents will use our stories, our tragedies, our grief, to have an impact on their own kids.”
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