Do 9 year olds drink tea?

[northstarisnorth]

I'm asking for a friend who has a visiting 9 year old who's telling her that it's perfectly fine for her to drink tea and coffee.

I have a 9 year old, but I realise I have no idea what other people do.

Is it OK for a 9 year old to drink tea never, occasionally or all the time?

What do you do?

Thanks :)

In fact, my DS had an absolutely spectacular tantrum while we were out the other day that culminated in wailing 'I neeeeed a cup of teeeeea!' I really think it's fine as long as it's not too hot or sugary and it's just a small cup (although maybe that's just because I don't want to deny the child his cuppa.)

@Reigateforever in the kitchen of a boy I knew as a child, you’d see their two dogs, one cat, and a rabbit, all lined up and drinking their saucers of tea. 😂

I think a cup of tea for a nine year old is totally fine. Toddlers in my family back in the 80’s might have been given a very milky cup of tea in an avent tested bottle, perhaps, maybe 😅Thankfully we all know better now.

*teated

When I lived with friends for a short while I was watching their 2 older children one afternoon and they asked me to make them a drink of tea so I did it how my mother would have done for us/grandchildren (1 small cup of tea, split between 2 children and topped up with milk so not hot) they drank it and enjoyed it. Later in the week their mum asked how I’d made it as they were asking for ‘my’ tea so I told her; apparently she used to give them warm milk with a spoon of sugar in and called it tea 🤮🤮

Eldest DD 20 doesn't like tea or coffee.
DD15 likes iced lattes but not standard tea or coffee.
DS14 enjoys a latte or (posh coffee - insert coffee shop £5 monstrosity here -) similar once or twice a week.
DS12 loves a cup of tea, a few times a week.

I dislike tea and coffee. And, in only the last 7/8 years started drinking herbal teas - peppermint/camomile/green tea.

A milky tea with half a sugar or sweetener, never hurt anyone - I'm sure of it.

Mine do. If they have a masala chai it is sweetened with sugar or honey (dependent on child!) and normal tea is without.

They all like a coffee as well, but tend towards the milky and sugary.

We’re a nation of tea-drinkers so genuinely I’m not bothered in the slightest.

I don't drink tea or coffee so my DS had never had either. I think I'd be in the minority though, and wouldn't think it would be anything unusual for a 9 year old to drink tea. Probably not coffee though!

My auntie's dog had a saucer of tea every day of her life, I have no idea in hindsight whether it's safe for dogs but she seemed to enjoy it and lived to a ripe old age 😁

Mine drank it from being toddlers, as adults they drink lots of tea. The dentist told me the only thing children should drink from a tooth decay perspective is still water, milk or sugarless tea.

My 5yo likes green tea (my preference) and has done since he was very small.

as a child I sometimes drank tea, but my friend practically lived on the stuff. She came from a big tea drinking household, all the family would have tea multiple times a day. I used to enjoy a cup after a cold winter walk. Children probably had more caffeine exposure then, lots more Coca Cola etc.

I grew up in quite a working class area, and have ascended to the middle class as an adult - I have no idea if the lack of tea drinking children around me is generational or a class thing. I do remember seeing babies with tea in their bottles when I was a child, not seen that for a while!

I loved tea at that age. But I remember the caffeine used to keep me awake at night. I even had coffee when I was 5 when I used to visit an elderly German couple about once a week. It’s a fond memory of mine.

My DD has had tea since about 2. It started off very weak and got stronger so that by Senior school she’d be drinking the same as me (she has one sugar). She now has about three cups a day (she’s 17) and also a couple of flat whites using the coffee pod machine. She hates fizzy drinks, so lives on hot cuppas, tap water and Roses lime cordial mostly.

DS got his very own teapot for Christmas the year he turned 9.

He likes to drink his tea black. Probably because I do (lifelong milk hater!) and he’s out to prove he can hold his own with me. He'll only have a drop of milk if it's a big mug and won't otherwise cool down for a long time.

DD, age 6, likes her tea milky. But will drink it in one go and then have another, up to three cups at a time.

We had tea at every meal when I was a child. I don't remember ever not being encouraged to have it (let alone not permitted).

My children have never had tea or coffee, they are now 18, 20 and 23

with the one exception of ds2 when we went to Italy when he was 14 and we ordered him a milk…except we obviously didn’t cos he got a latte which he drank out of politeness

My 10 year old drinks week black tea occasionally. (prefers it black like me although loves milk to drink)

Genuinely don't get the issue. It is a completely natural product with antioxidants and in his case not sweet at all. I don't but fizzy pop and hardly ever buy squash or juice so he is used to just water or milk usually.

He has just started to be allowed to make his own too!

We made it at Brownies (from the age of 7) so it must have been considered ok back in the 80s for kids to drink it.

I wouldn't worry about the caffeine in a weak-ish cup of tea but I do wonder about teeth as I know that people who drink red wine/tea/coffee are more prone to having discoloured teeth.

Dd2 was definitely keen on tea at that sort of age - black, like mine. Tea with milk tastes vile to me, which just goes to show how people’s tastebuds can vary.

At 9 or 10 she went to stay with friends in Ireland and came back thinking it was incredibly swanky to have a teapot - why didn’t we have one, instead of just sticking teabags in mugs? 😂
I had to go and buy one, still rarely used though.