Do teens need creatine supplements?

What the evidence says

Creatine is a natural substance your body already makes, and it's popular with teen athletes who want to get stronger or faster. The big question parents ask is whether a growing teenager actually needs to add more of it as a supplement.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says most teens don't need it and don't get much extra benefit from it, because puberty itself already boosts strength and performance quickly. Their advice leans toward discouraging use in people under 18, mainly because there isn't enough long-term safety research in this age group, not because there's strong proof of harm.

On the other side, the group that represents sports nutrition scientists, the International Society of Sports Nutrition, says creatine can be acceptable for teen athletes if they're in serious, supervised training, eating a balanced diet, and stick to normal doses. Reviews of the research so far have not found serious side effects in the studies done, but almost all of these studies are short, small, and not designed to catch rare or long-term problems.

Canadian pediatric surveillance data adds a caution: doctors report that performance and appearance enhancing supplements, a category that includes creatine, can sometimes cause kidney and stomach problems in kids and teens, and many physicians say they don't know enough about these products to properly screen for problems. This is one more reason to loop in a doctor before starting.

Bottom line: for a typical teen eating well and playing sports, creatine isn't necessary. If a teen athlete and their family are considering it anyway, doing so with medical supervision, standard doses, and awareness that the long-term data are limited is the safer approach than buying it off a store shelf on their own.