I recently got into a little back-and-forth with Mrs. Feiler Faster over whether it is OK to give children iced tea. Now comes word that a teenager in Britain actually overdosed on coffee. Obviously this is an extreme example, but if I, as a grown man, feel the effects of a few M&M’s eaten at midday that night when I try to sleep, doesn’t caffeine affect children?

A teenage waitress overdosed on caffeine after drinking 14 shots of espresso.
Jasmine Willis, 17, could hardly breathe and was taken to hospital with a high temperature and heart palpitations.
She had drunk almost three times the recommended daily amount of caffeine in just four hours.
Miss Willis, a student, was working part-time out in her father Gary’s recently-opened sandwich bar after sitting her GCSEs.
She began her coffee binge last Wednesday after getting only five hours’ sleep the previous night.
“I decided to have a double espresso to perk me up,” she said. “It did the trick so I had one after another and they seemed to be working. I felt great – as if I could take on the world.”
By noon she was feeling unwell and crying and laughing uncontrollably in front of bewildered customers.