Children and coffee

[givemushypeasachance]

What age would you think it appropriate for a child to drink coffee? And would it be different for a cup of Nescafé at home, or a pumpkin spiced latte from a coffee shop? Or an iced coffee drink?

I'm thinking back to my childhood where we only ever had instant coffee in the house but I was certainly drinking it by secondary school age. Drinking teas and coffees throughout the day was just normal. But it was only instant stuff and not downing drinks with the equivalent of a couple of espressos in. Do you have a set age rule for your kids?

What I did find weird was that I spent a lot of my pregnancy in hospital and was offered caffeinated coffee/tea about 5 times a day! They had NO decaf options at all despite it being recommended to have minimal caffeine during pregnancy. More batshit behaviour from the NHS. I just drank water. I'm also very affected by caffeine as it makes me nervous and shaky so I avoid it completely anyway (other than chocolate which doesn't seem to affect me at all!).

What’s bad about decaf? We drink decaf coffee primarily in our house and sometimes we offer to our 8 and 9 year old, have certainly done for a year or two. They drink it milky but we don’t make sugar an option. or they love a mocha coffee/chocolate mix.

Not sure to be honest, maybe around 13? My DS is 16 but he doesn't like tea or coffee so doesn't drink it.

I'd be happy for them to have decaf at any age and caffeine from teens provided they handle it OK. It will become clear if they don't and then just wait a bit longer.

A bit of caffeine isn't going to do any harm for a teenager.

Why on earth after all these years do people insist on believing that coffee is bad for you at all?

Coffee in moderation is a health drink with a wide range of significant proven benefits. Discouraging older teens from drinking it is like forbidding them from eating broccoli..

Yes some people can't tolerate it, but some people can't tolerate walnuts, or onions, or salad. Doesn't mean they're not good for the vast majority of the population.

I was about to say something very similar @InfradeadToUltraviolent , I'm always surprised when I see people who still believe coffee is bad for you!

Never? This is an eye opener for me.

When I was 5 I went to stay with my nana and she tried to do an english afternoon tea. I refused the tea as it was rank. She was so keen we tried it again and I succumbed to a dishwater tea with sugar in it. Never had it again.

I don't think I got into tea until my mid 20s. Then it was green tea.

Never had coffee. DM drank it and it reminded me of sweaty armpits. Once at work I thought I must try it and had a double espresso. I had matchsticks in my eyes and I didn't sleep for 24 hours 😂

Having said the above I smoked cigarettes from 15 and I tried drugs at 16 so probably should have gotten into the caffeine.

I was diagnosed with inattentive ADHD aged 39 and now take stimulants. After that I quit caffeine. However if I don't take the meds I have to listen to music to get my brain going. Having ginger first thing, either in hot water or in porridge also helps.

I genuinely think a vast majority of people could not function without caffeine.

16 maybe..? For me it’s the effect of caffeine I’d want to avoid. So if they wanted a pumpkin latte I’d just buy them a decaf one.

I’m confident there is a genetic component to how you process caffeine. So it’s not wrong or surprising that those of us who have very strong reactions are more keen on delaying caffeine use in our kids. It’s sensible really.

Tell that to Europe, and also the rest of the world

In fact are you on crack yourself to make such ludicrous statements?

OP, I think my mum invented the latte, not quite as we know it but she used to heat up some milk in a pan and add mellow birds to it in the 70s for us kids. A milky coffee, it was a treat.

Early teens. I would much rather they drank a little black coffee than sugary drinks or those with artificial sweeteners. Coffee is very good for you as long as you don't have too much and has a mutitude if health benefits. I would make sure they know to drink it before lunchtime to avoid negative impacts on sleep.

Ironically it's because people intrinsically believe that anything so useful and habit forming/ addictive must therefore be bad for you that it's been studied in so much depth for years by scientists looking for its killer potential, which is why we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's really good for most people.

DD is 17 and has the odd cup of coffee with hot milk at home. We had a phase when she was 13/14 that she wanted to share my latte but that was over quite quickly.

She doesn't like tea, it makes DH and me chuggle as we are both fairly addicted to the stuff.

So far DD hates all the extras added to hot chocolate, I can't see her moving to a pumpkin spice latte.

I think I began drinking instant coffee as a teen but still wasn't keen on strong filter coffee till late teens. Obviously now coffee comes with all sorts of sugary syrups and cream on top it's more appealing. I have to say neither of my kids have asked for coffee or tea, they've tried it but would rather go for some sort of overpriced smoothie or a can of coke.

Has she tried it and likes the taste? Is she asking for it? If not I wouldn't bother encouraging yet. If she says want to start drinking it definitely go for instant. Else you'll be £20+ out of pocket every week thanks to Costa!

What about tea?

I’d be fine with proper coffee from secondary school but those flavoured lattes at Costa/Starbucks are nothing more than junk food so I won’t buy them.

My brother used to drink proper coffee (lattes!) aged 2, we used to have milky tea from about the same age too 😅😂

I had tea through secondary school, only developed a taste for coffee after I left home.

Coffee (in moderation) is good for you, but the two biggest things to be mindful of are Sleep and Sugar.

Caffeine has a half life of about 12 hours )I think) so if you have a coffee at lunch time, half that caffeine stimulant will still be in your blood stream at midnight. Therefore the best way to drink it is in the morning, so you have chance to expel it before you need to sleep. For this reason it’s also not great for kids to drink other caffeinated drinks like Red Bull or what have you, in the afternoons or evenings. It can ruin sleep and sleep is the foundation of everything else.

Also as pp have said, sugar - some commercial drinks have more sugar than a Snickers or something.

I drink mine black in the mornings, no more than two, and usually stop by 10am, definitely 12. DS has a black coffee in the morning with breakfast - he only started drinking it in sixth form. He has tea but is a bit take it or leave it, and he doesn’t touch the canned energy drinks.

Decaf maybe 10ish? Actual coffee in the teens.

normal coffee like an americano or espresso? I’d wait until they had started primary school. Coffee flavoured syrupy goop like ‘pumpkin spice latte’ I think I caved at around the age of 9 or 10 but allow the kids to have one perhaps two or three times a year.

That said everyone’s different in how they process it - how wired it makes you feel. If you are exercising, it’s known as the most powerful legal performance enhancing drug there is! Sadly as a runner I can’t really take advantage of that as it also has the effect on me of making my bladder and digestion speed up!

our family has adhd and is unmedicated. One daughter in particular is very tricky. A latte sorts her right out! She’s been having them since 10 and now has an ice coffee in the morning plus a hot cup of tea in a thermal mug for her walk to school. She doesn’t have more than 2 cups a day but I view it as beneficial to managing her symptoms so I’m all for it.

Cola and chocolate have caffeine in them, we don't ban kids from those.

My mum gave us tea in baby bottles from a few months old, for some reason!

Coffee isnt bad for us - it has many health benefits. Easy to look this up.
I think it’s 2-4 cups max that is the recommendation.

So the main issue is the caffeine. It can have a half life of anything from
2-12 hours so you need to work out how caffeine sensitive you are and how you process it. I can’t have a coffee after 12 and sleep. DH could have one before bed and be fine!

Personally I grew up in a tea household and didn’t fancy that until
my 20s. Though the energy drinks I drank at uni would have been far less healthy than cofffee. I discovered it in the sleep deprived baby years.

My DSs 14 and 15 show no interest. If they did I’d think one in the morning would be fine. Could give them a boost at school/ exam time. But it’s up to them.

DS 14 had half a milky coffee before park run and he couldn’t stomach food and caffeine has been shown to boost sports performance.

My dd is almost 15 and has just started drinking proper coffee (she had decaf for around 18 months first). It happened organically, rather than there being any sort of discussion about her being allowed at a particular age. Most adults drink coffee (or tea), so it didn’t seem like a big deal. From memory I think I was around the same age.