What parents should know about kids and caffeine amid rise in ER visits
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(NEW YORK) — A new study is highlighting a dramatic rise in caffeine-related emergency room visits among kids.
The study, released Monday by Epic Research, found the number of caffeine-related ER visits for middle school-aged children nearly doubled from 2017 to 2023, rising from 3.1 per 100,000 visits in 2017 to 6.5 per 100,000 visits in 2023.
For high school-aged children, the rate nearly doubled, rising from 7.5 per 100,000 visits in 2017 to 13.7 per 100,000 visits in 2023, according to the study.
Notably, the study, which looked at more than 223 million ER visits, found that boys had triple the rate of caffeine-related ER visits as girls.
The new study comes less than two months after the release of a report showing a rise in calls to poison centers involving children who consumed energy drinks, which often have high levels of caffeine.
The number of calls to U.S. poison centers about children consuming energy drinks increased about 20% in 2023 after years of remaining relatively flat, according to data from America’s Poison Centers, which accredits and represents 55 poison centers across the country.
Amid the alarming data, here are three things for parents and guardians to know about caffeine and kids.
1. Milk and water are recommended for kids.
Both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the American Academy of Pediatrics say water and milk are the best drink options for kids.
The current U.S. dietary guidelines say children under the age of 2 should not have any caffeine. For kids under age 12, caffeine is also not recommended.
It is not known exactly how much caffeine is safe or unsafe for teens or young children, since studies of its effects are not permitted on children.
For adults, the FDA has cited around 400 milligrams of caffeine a day as a generally safe amount, though it notes there is “wide variation” in people’s sensitivity to caffeine.
For reference, a 12-ounce caffeinated soft drink contains anywhere from 23 to 84 milligrams of caffeine, according to the FDA, while a 12-ounce cup of coffee contains 113 to 247 milligrams of caffeine.
2. Caffeine is also in foods, not just drinks.
While caffeine is most often thought of as an ingredient in drinks like coffee, sodas and energy drinks, it is also found in different foods and products, according to the FDA.
Ice cream, chewing gum, protein bars, chocolate chips, energy bars and some over-the-counter medications may also contain caffeine, which has the same effects as when it occurs naturally in drinks like coffee or tea, according to the agency.
Decaffeinated teas and coffees also contain some caffeine.
The FDA recommends reading product ingredient labels carefully to check for caffeine. When it is added to a product, it must be listed on the label as “caffeine.”
When caffeine is naturally in a product, like chocolate, just the caffeine-containing ingredient is listed, according to the FDA.
Multiple signs may indicate a caffeine overdose or poisoning including but not limited to an increased heart rate, heart palpitations, increased blood pressure, nausea or anxiousness. Children with caffeine poisoning may also experience rapid breathing or tremors.
In severe cases, too much caffeine can lead to seizures or cardiac arrest.
In milder cases, too much caffeine can cause dehydration, upset stomach, sleep changes, headaches and jumpiness.
If a child or adult exhibits any such symptoms after consuming a caffeinated drink, they should seek medical attention immediately.
For poisoning-related questions, or if you need emergency assistance, you can contact Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222, or visit PoisonHelp.org.
ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.
(SAN MATEO COUNTY, Calif.) — Health officials in California have confirmed the first domestic case of a more severe strain of mpox in a traveler from Eastern Africa, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The risk to the public remains low, according to the agency. Health officials are working to identify any people who may have been exposed to the person who recently traveled from Eastern Africa and was treated shortly after returning to the U.S. at a local medical facility, the CDC said.
Casual contact — including during travel — is unlikely to pose significant risks for transmission, the agency noted.
This is the first confirmed case in the U.S. of a strain, or clade, of the virus called clade 1b.
Another strain, clade 2b, was primarily responsible for the global outbreak in 2022. During the outbreak, mpox primarily spread through close sexual contact — and a strong vaccination effort was credited with helping slow the surge of cases. This less severe version continues to circulate in the U.S at low levels. The CDC does not currently recommend booster shots for those who are considered high-risk and already fully vaccinated.
Clade 1b was recently found in September in the Congo, likely responsible for a growing outbreak in Africa that led the World Health Organization to declare a global health emergency. Early data shows that this clade is more severe and may be spreading through other contact routes in households and often to children.
People with mpox, which was formerly known as monkeypox, often get a rash that can be located on hands, feet, chest, face, mouth or near the genitals, the CDC said.
After more than two years of gender-affirming treatments, LW, the Tennessee teenager behind a landmark case at the U.S. Supreme Court, says, “I feel normal now.” (ABC News)
(NASHVILLE) — The transgender Tennessee teenager behind a historic hearing at the U.S. Supreme Court this week doesn’t want to show her face on television but is eager to speak about a case she says has the potential to make thousands of American kids feel “seen” for who they are.
“The court has definitely ruled in ways that would make me think that they don’t exactly value bodily autonomy, but I have heard that they’ve been a little bit better about trans cases than people would think,” said 16-year-old LW in an exclusive interview with ABC News alongside her parents Samantha and Brian Williams.
The court on Wednesday will hear the Williams family’s challenge to Tennessee’s 2023 ban on gender-affirming medical treatments for minors, including puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapies that have dramatically improved LW’s quality of life.
While the medications have been used safely to treat minors of all genders for years, they are now prohibited in Tennessee when used to treat trans kids struggling with gender dysphoria, the distress experienced when one’s gender assigned at birth is different from one’s sense of identity.
“It’s not very comfortable being trapped in [your body] because it just doesn’t feel like you,” said LW, who reports significant improvement since beginning the treatments in 2022.
Since the state law took effect, LW now has to take time away from school to make a 10-hour round trip out of state to continue receiving care. The travel has also been a costly and time-consuming burden, her parents say.
“It would definitely be horrible for me to have to continue to go out of state to get care,” said LW. “I feel normal now.”
Backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Biden administration, and major American medical associations, the Williamses sued Tennessee last year alleging the ban on certain gender-affirming treatments for minors discriminates on the basis of sex and overrides the rights of parents to make medical decisions for their children.
“Our state legislature had made such a big deal out of parents’ rights during COVID, about masks and vaccines that that’s for parents to decide these medical decisions for their children,” Samantha Williams said. “And then they made this medical decision for our child.”
State lawmakers who support the law, SB1, say it is meant to protect kids from potentially irreversible effects from treatment and that contradictory scientific evidence and uncertainty about long-term adverse consequences warrant caution.
“We made the policy decision on behalf of our constituents that in Tennessee we think this is a risky procedure,” said state Sen. Jack Johnson, the Senate GOP leader who sponsored the bill. “It is our role as policymakers here in the state of Tennessee to set those guardrails.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics says the effects of puberty blockers are not permanent if treatment is discontinued and that many effects of hormone therapy can also be reversed. Long-term risks may include fertility challenges and possible harm to bone density, but the Academy says those risks require further study.
Worldwide, several countries which had previously embraced the treatments for transgender children have subsequently reversed course, citing unclear data about their purported benefits and alleged harms. In many of those places, the treatments remain available, but on a much more limited basis.
In Tennessee, there are an estimated 3,000 transgender teenagers between ages 13 and 17, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School, which has analyzed Census data. It is not known how many were receiving treatments that are now outlawed or how many suffered alleged harm.
A study published in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics in October 2024 found the overwhelming majority of participants in a long-term survey of 220 transgender youths reported high levels of satisfaction and low levels of regret in the three to five years after receiving puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
Major American medical associations have for more than a decade endorsed the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy as part of “individually tailored interventions” to support trans kids and affirm their sense of self.
“It all begins and ends with science. This is not about any sort of agenda,” said Dr. Ben Hoffman, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in an interview with ABC.
Clinical practice guidelines from the American Endocrine Society — based on more than 260 research studies — recommend consideration of medications to treat gender dysphoria in young people but waiting until a child reaches adulthood to consider gender-affirming surgery.
“It’s crucial that there be a deep understanding of both the risks and benefits, and truly informed consent,” Hoffman said. “And for that reason, it is, by definition, going to take months or years.”
The Williams family said the decision to use medication to delay LW’s puberty followed months of careful consultation with medical experts and mental health providers. They said they grew worried that masculine changes to LW’s body would compound her gender dysphoria.
“There is this time clock sitting here,” said Brian Williams. “The kids can go through puberty and it can have permanent effects on them. So these two things you’re trying to balance at the same time.”
“She’s not suicidal, but she shouldn’t have to be suicidal, right?, to get the care that she needs,” added Samantha Williams. “When that really hit me, I was like, ‘OK, let’s do blockers. Let’s get moving.'”
More than a year later, LW began receiving hormone therapy to better align her body with her gender identity. The course of treatment led to a reduction in discomfort.
“That was incredibly helpful,” LW said. “I feel amazing after that. You know, maybe it’s just because the gender dysphoria was so bad.”
The outcome of the case U.S. v. Skrmetti could have a sweeping impact on health care for the more than 300,000 American teens who identify as transgender, as well as the broader LGBTQ community.
“This is one of the most significant LGBTQ cases to ever reach the Supreme Court. I think this is an inflection point,” said Chase Strangio, the ACLU attorney representing the Williams family. He will be the first openly transgender person to argue a case before the nation’s highest court.
“Is this going to be a Bowers v. Hardwick type moment that sets off years of government legitimized discrimination against LGBTQ people? Or, is this going to be a Bostock moment that clarifies what we all have been assuming all this time, which is that LGBTQ people are protected under the Constitution and civil rights laws,” Strangio said.
In its 1968 decision in Bowers, the court upheld state laws criminalizing private same-sex conduct; it was overturned in 2003. The Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County found that employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal.
Twenty-six states have laws banning gender-affirming treatments for minors, according to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group.
“What concerns me as a physician is that legislators are going to be able to make decisions about a diagnosis, which is very unusual. I mean, that really hasn’t happened,” said Dr. Susan Lacy, a physician who specializes in hormone management and transgender care for teens and adults at her private practice in Memphis.
Lacy, who is also a party to the Supreme Court case, agrees with Tennessee lawmakers that more research is needed on gender-affirming treatments for minors, but that a debate over the data shouldn’t deny patients the chance to make an informed decision of their own.
“I think the most compelling thing is to listen to the patients,” Lacy said. “I have about 700 transgender patients out of about 3,000 total patients, and I have not seen anybody have a serious complication — not one.”
“I think we’re just at a point where we’re still in the process of treating people and having studies that will give us more and more data to support this treatment,” she said.
Johnson said he hopes the Supreme Court will uphold an appeals court ruling that affirmed Tennessee’s right to impose restrictions on treatments for transgender minors.
“States should be the laboratories of democracy,” he said. “We should be making the vast majority of decisions about what’s best for our people, our constituents here in the statehouse.”
The Williams family says care that has improved the life of their daughter should not be up for political debate.
“I want to listen to the doctors. I want to listen to my kid. I want to take care of her, you know?” Brian Williams said.
(FRESNO, CA) — After bird flu was detected in a retail sample of raw milk produced and packaged by Raw Farm, LLC, the California Department of Public Health warned consumers on Sunday to avoid consuming any from the same lot.
At the state’s request, the Fresno County-based company also issued a voluntary recall of the affected product: cream top, whole raw milk from lot No. 20241109 with a “best by” date of Nov. 27.
Anyone in possession of the product will be able to pursue a refund from the location where the item was originally purchased.
Retailers have also been notified to take affected products off of their shelves.
The CDPH has also emphasized that pasteurized milk remains safe to drink.
Most cases of bird flu discovered in humans in the current outbreak are with people that worked directly with birds or cows. There are not any cases known to be associated with raw milk consumption, but the risks associated with raw milks have been long established.
The Food and Drug Administration has previously warned of the possible dangers of drinking raw milk.
In a statement from May 2024, it warned, “Raw milk can carry dangerous germs such as Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, Campylobacter, and others that cause foodborne illness, often called ‘food poisoning.'”
Raw milk products do not undergo pasteurization, which is a heating process that kills bacteria and viruses.
Pasteurized milk and dairy products, however, are safe to consume because the heating process kills pathogens that can cause illness — including bird flu.
However, raw milk does have its proponents, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Last month, in a post on X, called the FDA’s “aggressive suppression” of it part of the agency’s “war on health.”
In November, President-elect Donald Trump selected RFK Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. The appointment requires Senate confirmation.
As of Sunday evening, no illnesses had been reported in association with the finding of bird flu in the single lot of raw milk.
The contaminated sample was discovered as part of routine testing performed by the County of Santa Clara Public Health Laboratory, which tests raw milk products from retail stores as a second line of consumer protection. The finding was then verified by the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System.
In response to the positive test, the California Department of Food and Agriculture provided onsite testing at the Raw Farms facilities, which were negative for bird flu. CFDA will continue testing raw milk banks twice per week.
ABC News’ Claire E. Strindberg contributed to this report.
