Sugar vs. Party Atmosphere

Activities such as birthday parties or other celebrations are often exciting to children, who can come home behaving like small demons or stay cranky for the rest of the day. It’s hard to determine whether it’s the sugar from cake and ice cream or simply the party atmosphere that revs up the kids. Pediatrician William Sears, creator of the AskDrSears.com website, notes that some research indicates a few children are more sensitive to sugar than others, and that their behavior and attention spans deteriorate after they consume sugar.

Other Issues

Sears notes that children who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are more likely to be sugar-sensitive and ADHD kids might have several reasons for this problem. Children with ADHD are impulsive and need instant gratification. They may eat quantities of junk foods in a quest for more energy, which makes both their blood sugar and cortisol levels increase. Cortisol is a stress hormone that affects another hormone – insulin -- that controls blood sugar levels. These children often react to a concentrated dose of sugar with a sudden fall in blood sugar, which can cause behavior changes. Dr. William Greene, a father of four, and also a pediatrician who reports on family health on his website, reports that some children can have a spike in adrenaline after a dose of sugar, which can also affect behavior.

Research and Outcomes

The way in which research is performed can affect the outcome, writes cognitive scientist and psychology professor Daniel Willingham, a psychology professor and author of “Why Don’t Students Like School?” Willingham, writing in a November 2010 article for “The Washington Post,” notes that most of the studies asked parents to rate the children's behavior after a sugary snack. However, both parents and children knew what the child had eaten, which Willingham felt could skew the results. Studies in which none of the participants or researchers knew if the child had actually eaten sugar failed to show a correlation between sugar and behavior.

Limiting Sugar Intake

In the face of conflicting research, parents must make their own decisions. If your child’s behavior changes after eating sugar, it’s just possible that she is among the sugar-sensitive group discussed by Sears. Behavior changes that are unrelated to exciting events such as parties could also occur if a child is tired, doesn’t feel well or is under stress. It may be difficult to determine whether sugar is really the culprit. There are, however, other reasons to limit sugar intake, such as obesity and tooth decay.