All we have is anecdotal, and only two recent anecdotal examples, but I'm tired of seeing parents give soft drinks to really young children.
A few months back, on the elevated train, I saw a 3-year-old drinking a soft drink from a can with a straw. That was sad. He was drinking the whole thing, not even sharing with his mother.
Earlier this month, walking on a downtown street, I saw a woman feeding a kid a sip from a soft drink can, and that baby couldn't have been a year old.
This isn't about high-fructose corn syrup versus sugar. This isn't about knowing the exact time to start kids on soft drinks. This is about common sense.
In walking down the street, me and this other guy turned our heads in the direction, a little amazed at what we saw. He questioned whether the authorities should be told. He didn't look like a narc; he was just as horrified as I was, and couldn't believe what he saw.
You would think for selfish reasons that you would avoid giving a tiny baby sugar/HFCS and caffeine at all costs. Wired babies happen naturally, even without help from a can.
Full disclosure: Was once a child, but am not a parent. Parents can afford in the grand scheme to wait until later rather than earlier to jump start their children into this world. Literally, kids aren't in a hurry themselves. They will eventually figure it out, and then stopping them will be the hard part.
Kids will eat a lot of things that aren't good for them, and that is part of the process of childhood; Babies need a lot of good and very little if anything "bad."
Adults have the power to make good and bad decisions for themselves. Children need to learn the joys of making good and bad decisions. Babies rely on others to make it through each day. if the next generation is going to be better off, we need to give them a healthy start.
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