Why Gatorade Will Make Your Kid Cry

The way this article will end is this: Milk is better for kids to drink than Gatorade.

I know, right? My biggest gift has always been my ability to shock. (And disappoint my parents. Ok, I never really disappointed my parents. Ok, yes, I did, but they were very gracious about it. Moving on!)


Let's start with the impetus: There is an unfortunate increase in kidney stones in kids, or as they say in the medical journals, "children".

Kidney stones, or nephrolithiasis [nef′rō lith ī′ə sis], is the development of calculi (stones) in the urinary tract, kidney and/or urethra. 

 Another term for the development of stones anywhere in the urinary tract is urolithiasis , but it won't be on the quiz.

The experience of kidney stones is painful and intense. I have not experienced one. However, I have had the pleasure of hosting gall stones and let's just say by the third attack I started giving away all my possessions.

Kidney stones basically occur due to:

• decreased urine volume
• imbalance of mineral salts
• genetics, disease, drugs (none of which are the focus of this blurb)

So, if you have a child who is hesitant to drink a plain glass of water, but adores chips, fast food and lives on sports drinks, well, hydration drops, minerals are imbalanced and then, slightly possibly:

These symptoms:

• Sudden onset of intense pain
• Pain is not relieved by changing position
• Pain and cramping radiating from lower back to bottom or groin
• Nausea, vomiting, fever, chills 

The increase that has researchers' attention is a 2007 study which found a 5-fold increase in stones in the pediatric population between 1996 and 2006.  And another that states the proportion of children with kidney stones at pediatric hospitals across the country has tripled in the last 10 years. (Still half the rate of appendicitis hospitalizations. Perspective is key.)

But to adjust the dietary microscope's focus: What about the sports drinks?  Is your child certain to get a kidney stone? No. Would it be better if s/he did not indulge in high-sodium sports drink as a rule? Yes.

Kids are definitely drinking more of the watered down lemonade fruity sport drinks than ever before. They serve it in schools, for heaven's sake.  Gatorade, Powerade, Big Mucky's all-time-high-energy-swill... all are filled with sodium and pretty much not necessary unless your kid is sweating it out in 95 degree heat becoming the next Tiger Woods, Brett Favre, Ben Roth... well, a talented and morally upright sports hero.

It all goes back to:

Everything You Already Knew Before Reading This:

• Limit intake of high-sodium processed food and drink
• Moderate protein intake 
• Increase intake of boring water
• Increase intake of dairy (this surprised me regarding stones)
• Exercise, but stay hydrated
• McDonald's really is kinda gross
• Lose the daily sports drink

And, in other words, milk is better for kids to drink than Gatorade.  

Smart people:

DJ Sas, TC Hulsey, IF Shatat, JK Orak (2010 Jul). "Increasing incidence of kidney stones in children evaluated in the emergency department." J Pediatr. 157(1):132-7.

K VanDervoort,J Wiesen, Rl Frank S Vento,V Crosby, M Chandra, H Trachtman (2007 June). "Urolithiasis in Pediatric Patients: A Single Center Study of Incidence, Clinical Presentation and Outcome." J Urol. 177(6): 2300-2305.

Routh JC, Graham DA, Nelson CP (2010 Sept)."Epidemiological trends in pediatric urolithiasis at United States freestanding hospitals." J Urol.184(3):1100-4.

Totally unnecessary sidenote: In college we had to actually go to the library for our sources. And come back to the dorm and type it out on our IBM Selectric (but the one with the fancy auto-correct. One hit of that button and it retracted your error leaving only the faint hint of glaring bright white corrector film). Now it's an internet click-click-click, footnotes! No wonder kids today feel so depleted.