You get up in the morning and you get your first jolt of caffeine. Now that you're awake, you have a little more. And then later in the day, another refresher.
If this sounds like someone you know, it could very well be - your kids.
They don't have to be coffee or tea drinkers to be getting their fix. There are plenty of products out there that will sell it to them. Take those so-called energy drinks that can be easily gulped down. Or caffeine-laced chewing gum. There's even a spray designed to deliver a fix straight into their throats.
Caffeine is in a lot of foods and drinks, of course. The problem comes when there's too much of it and the consumer isn't aware of it.
The gum, for example, contains about 50 milligrams of caffeine, roughly the same as a cup of tea. But kids may be tempted to chew an entire pack - and that would deliver enough of a jolt to equal five espressos.
To make matters worse, the spray doesn't even list how much caffeine each shot delivers.
That alarms some experts. "A lot of these energy beverages and gums are clearly being marketed to children," worries U. of T. Nutritional Sciences Professor Ahmed El-Sohemy. "Children are generally more sensitive to caffeine than adults, mainly because they tend to be smaller."