2 year old having cup of tea at nursery

[Pumpkinsoup22]

My dshas just moved out of baby room. When I collected him the other day was told he'd just had a cup of tea and biscuit. I assumed they were role playing and really meant water or milk. However the staff member said no real tea. AIBU to think this isn't really appropriate for 2 year olds.? Before this I've never had any concerns at all with the nursery.

It must be an English thing because this is just beyond weird to me. But then where I come from people aren’t obsessed with drinking tea I used to work as an early childhood teacher and there is just no way we would make children cups of tea, so weird! It’s defi a cultural thing. I also find it funny that people are saying they can have ‘squash’ isn’t squash like a sugary fruit cordial? I can’t see how that’s much better tbh

My 2 baby grand daughters who are 2 always have a milky tea- out of a cup not in a bottle. It's sumthing they like and ask for.
If u don't want them to drink tea tell your nursery not to include him.

Definitely

I would be looking to see if things like that were covered in the policy yes

Best of luck with finding an establishment that meets your standards my love

People giving their own dc a milky tea is completely different to it being provided by a nursery, especially without the parents being aware and able to opt out in advance.

This place its batshit.

Id bet any money its lukewarm decaff. Might as well be drinking milky water.

For iron absorption to be inhibited to such a level where it becomes an issue youd have to drink it by the bucket full.

Christ on a bike youd wonder how any previous generation survived with some of the comments on here.

Mine has had tea since she was tiny. She's not yet 2. I can't get worked up about it. If you mind, tell the nursery.

This place is insane. Here's a biscuit to dunk

No way should they be having tea due to the tannins and the caffeine

Best of luck with finding an establishment that meets your standards my love

I work in one. Have worked in others previously which also considered the nutritional needs of babies and children to be important. In this day and age it is the way early years settings should be.

My 3 dcs went to a nursery run by a university 20yrs + ago, where they were given a cup of green tea in the afternoon( with a selection of raw veggies/ fruit) ....they all love tea and have never had problems will spilling it on themselves or with iron deficiency

Hahaha I love the Starbucks drinking tot. Gonna be a high roller when theyre older. All the comments are still making me laugh. Im glad I was raised by an old school mamma. It'll get to the point we can't give our babes anything and if you listen to all the ridiculous everyone in the world gives you, then we would have no immune or digestive systems. Think everyone who's worrying needs to calm down and have a cup of tea ☕

Wouldn’t bother me, there’s more to life than water, and my dentist said the only drinks he recommends for children are tea, water and milk from a dental point of view.

I grew up on tea and my DC had weak tea without sugar from being about 2-3 in a sippy cup. Healthy, bright young adults now who rarely drink coffee but still love a cup of tea, no sugar.

Exactly this. The cynical part of me thinks it might actually be certain staff who fancy tea and biscuits

How very dare those overpaid pampered nursery nurses fancy tea and biscuits at work!

I work in one. Have worked in others previously which also considered the nutritional needs of babies and children to be important. In this day and age it is the way early years settings should be.

There’s no consistency in your position unless you’re entirely sugar free. Are you?

That would involve no sweet stuff whatsoever, no beans, no yoghurt beyond pure Greek, probably no tomato based pasta sauce as they almost certainly have added sugar, most commercially produced bread has some sugar.

My childcare provider only gives water and milk. One of my kids now in ks1 only drinks these, she seeks out water at parties. The other one will take juice/ squash if offered but it doesn't occur to him to have it often. I drink loads of tea, the kids aren't interested. If they have a snack and I don't want one I have a cuppa. Would be fine if nursery staff have tea coffee and the kids don't, assuming it is in a safe container!

Id bet as well a lot of the posters who think its atrocious are the same posters that down bottles of wine on the regular. Id also bet that they eat sugar and feed their kids it. Both worse than tea.

I hope it was served in a giant Sports Direct mug, with a bacon roll on the side.

I don't think the issue here is whether people wish to give their own toddlers tea. I'm sure that isn't go to do much harm, but I do think it's odd for a nursery to be promoting it. The NHS says 'tea and coffee are not suitable for young children'.

DS loved to have a cup of tea at that age, it makes them feel grown up I think, and fun if you can dunk a biscuit in.

As PPs have said, it was as weak as could possibly be, and it has done him no harm whatever, although now like me, he prefers builders tea that you can stand your spoon up in.

Is your child going to nursery in 1976?

😆

I’d have assumed that it was lukewarm herbal tea. Very common drink for small children where I live. It’s nowhere near hot enough for them to burn themselves and there’s no sugar or caffeine in it.

Talk to the staff before making assumptions. None of us here can know what’s going on, we can only guess.

For people comparing it with sugar etc, there's a big difference. It's almost impossible to consume no sugar at all but people do limit what their children have I'm sure.

There's absolutely no reason whatsoever to give small children tea containing caffeine and tannins apart from some sort of social ritual.

I had tea regularly as a child, I also had loads of processed meat, probably coke with the occasional happy meal we had.

Just because my parents did it, doesn't mean I would or should.

I also wouldn't smack my kids or do a lot of the other things my parents generation did.

That argument is bullshit.

Never heard of tea being given to children in nursery/playgroup/childminders. And I'm old.

And I didn't give it to my own children or grandchildren till they were in secondary I don't think (mainly because they would have wanted sugar in it!)

YANBU OP

There’s no consistency in your position unless you’re entirely sugar free. Are you?

Current guidelines do not stipulate children should have an entirely sugar free diet, they do however state tea is unsuitable for small children.