As adults, we know how important water is for keeping our bodies hydrated and running smoothly, but perhaps you can remember how plain and even boring it seemed to taste as a child. Many children have trouble drinking enough water, and who can blame them when there’s an ice-cold cola or a gently fizzing lemonade on hand? But whether you and your kids are consuming plenty of soft drinks or none at all, you’re probably aware that they aren’t very good for either of you.

Preschoolers are always brimming with questions! They need to know the ‘hows’, the 'whys', the ‘whats’ and the ‘whens’. And although the constant questions can sometimes become a little tiring, when they know why they should or shouldn’t be doing something, they’re much more likely to comply. So, when they ask, ‘why can’t I have a can of Fanta?’, it’s important that we, as parents, know just what to tell them.

With this in mind, let’s first determine what a soft drink actually consists of.

What exactly are soft drinks?

Also known as soda, fizzy drinks or pop, these drinks are made with carbonated water and flavoured with natural and artificial ingredients. Carbonated drinks have been around for roughly two hundred years, and were then termed ‘soft drinks’ to distinguish them from ‘hard’ liquor. Examples of soft drinks include cola, lemonade and Fanta.

A regular soft drink is around 90% water and is sweetened with sugar, while a diet variety is closer to 99% water and sweetened with low-calorie sweeteners. Carbon dioxide is added just before sealing to give a soft drink its fizz. On top of this, certain acids and other ingredients are added to soft drinks to act as preservatives and give them their colour and consistency.

So, now that we know a little more about soft drinks, why is it that they have such a bad reputation?

Why are soft drinks bad for our kids?

Although regular soft drinks do offer hydration and calories in the form of added sugars, they deliver very little nutritional value, and the added sugars pose a real threat to your child's teeth when they react with plaque to form enamel-harming acids. Given that a regular 12-ounce (0.45 kilogram) cola contains almost 10 teaspoons of added sugar (around 40 grams), and a preschooler shouldn’t really be taking in more than 18 grams of sugar a day, soft drinks are absolutely best left in the bottle and on the supermarket shelf. Alongside this, they’re quite acidic, which again contributes to tooth damage.

Soft drinks are also quite filling, suppressing your child’s appetite, and some contain caffeine, which can cause your child to have problems with sleep if too much is consumed.

Regular soft drinks are simply full of too many added sugars and have next to no nutritional value. So if you and your child enjoy drinking soft drinks, it’s important that you begin to cut back, no matter how good they taste!

But you may be asking - Surely one soft drink once in a while won’t do any harm?

How can my child safely consume soft drinks?

Soft drinks don’t need to be entirely removed from your child’s diet. However, it’s vital that they’re only consumed occasionally, and certainly not as a regular drink. Save soft drinks for special occasions, such as birthday parties or for a sunny summer BBQ, and even then, buy smaller quantities and make sure their teeth get a good brushing afterwards! Although diet options consist of less sugar, they are still very acidic, and therefore are harmful to teeth.

Can my child drink soft drinks?

Try and limit or avoid giving these drinks to children, says Unii.