MIL giving toddler tea

They’re having a sip or two, not a SportsDirect mugful before nursery…

Yeah I know, it was more aimed at the ‘back in my day we drank gallons of the stuff and it never did me any harm’ people.

I was a toddler in the late 80's and had a bottle of tea everyday. Everyone I know did. My sister's kids in early 00's did the same. I'm not sure when it changed but other than myself being a raging tea belly it hasn't done any harm. So I doubt a few sips will be a problem

That. Upsetting someone with dementia is pretty cruel, when it's really unnecessary. Offering a drink or nourishment to a toddler is an instinctive and loving thing to do, and she's been made distressed by his response. Providing the tea is cool and the toddler supervised by you, let her have that little bit of pleasure in that loving act.

I unwittingly caused my lovely lovely MIL with dementia, to cry. I wasn't telling her off, but I did misjudge something. She's gone now and it's something that I find myself dwelling on a lot. It's a huge regret.

@JLou08 as a special naughty treat, my Nan would pour half her cup of milky sweet tea into the saucer for me to drink, saying, darkly, “don’t tell your Mother!!”

Both my grandmothers were dismayed that we didn't give our toddlers tea. Apparently they used to put tea in their babies' bottles from about 6 months... Someone even told me recently that doctors up until the 80s recommended giving tea to babies and young children (may need someone older to confirm that one...)

I'm not saying I'd recommend giving babies tea... but I also think a toddler having a few sips of tea once or twice a week (or whenever you see her) isn't going to do ANY damage to your child in the long run. Tea is much weaker than coffee, for example. I'd just let her get on with it. It's sweet. Make memories with the two of them while you can. In 40 years' time you'll be laughing about this.

They're probably talking about regular consumption rather than the odd sneaky sip.

A few sips won't harm him. My DH's grandmother used to give him tea and it hasn't harmed him. We always had a cup of tea with breakfast in the morning. It was pretty normal back then. A few sips I'd let slide. When she's no longer there it will be a nice story to tell your son about his relationship with his grandmother.

My toddler has developed a taste for coffee and keeps trying to snarf the foam from on top of my cappuccino. We don't really do boiling hot coffees in our house so no burning risk, but I've caught the little tourag siphoning the foam off with a plastic spoon (the kids have a kitchen drawer with their own stuff on it) on more than one occasion when I've popped out for a minute and left a lukewarm coffee on the table.

Is it great? No. Have I become better at putting my coffee in a high place she can't get to? Yes. Am I worried that she's managed to have a sip or two? Not really tbh.

Tea is much hotter than coffee (whenever anyone has tea in our house, I constantly monitor where the cup is) so I would worry from a burning perspective but, like you, assuming it's lukewarm, I wouldn't frighten an elderly person by making a fuss but would just try to engineer the situation so that it didn't happen.

Doesn’t tannin found in tea stop the body absorbing iron properly? It’s not good for babies or children to consume tea.

My nan gave me tea when I was a toddler. Lots of children drank tea. It's not going to harm them. Is it really worth upsetting a vulnerable lady over a sip of tea?

Maybe just educate yourself about dementia. It’s a horrible disease that initially causes problems with short term memory.

My mum used to give me sugar cubes to eat when we were out in cafes 😂

To be fair, the potential for scolding is there so it wouldn’t be unwise to move the drinks, but if she’s drinking from it, I wouldn’t have a problem with it.

It’s a pretty harmless drink.

Pardon the pun but storm in a teacup. This is not something anybody needs to be getting ‘really frustrated’ about. It’s an elderly lady trying to do a generous thing for a beloved grandchild which will have absolutely no detrimental effect on the child.
Your husband absolutely needs to reevaluate whether this is something he wants to upset his increasingly confused mum over.

In light of your update please do not upset her further. You are being extremely precious about it. The amount of caffeine they are ingesting will be minute and the sugar is hardly going to cause an issue on the rare times they are having the cup of tea.

you are making a mountain out of a molehill, or should I say a storm in a teacup!

What's wrong with a toddler having tea.

What’s wrong with the odd sip of tea?

Maybe just be tolerant. If MIL has signs of dementia then just closer supervision generally would help . Haven’t seen any evidence that tea is detrimental to a child health. Hope it was decent tea😉

I used to insist on having a cup of milky coffee when I was three and my mum would make me one. It wasn't decaff, and it was probably not very strong, but it didn't hurt me.

I presume you're not worried about him being scolded as you've said it's not hot. So what exactly are you worried about?

You said it yourself, it's tea, not crack.

I can't see what there is to get worked up over. If it brings a bit of joy into each of their day's, then surely that's a nice thing, isn't it?

Absolutely not worth falling out and upsetting her over.

In which case understand she has dementia and you will need to repeat yourself.

Unless it's scolding hot tea how much harm will always few dribbly sips cause?
I'd be more concerned about your poor MIL suffering from toddler backwash tbh.