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.

I didn't give my DS's tea or coffee until they were much older. Guess what? They didn't like either and still don't as adults.
I now wish I'd been less precious about it and we could all have a nice cup of tea together!!

I actually started my kids on (decaf) tea cos I wanted to give them options beyond water, milk (which teenagers don't drink socially) or soda (which I won't have in the house).

I figure as social drinks go, it's relatively harmless but unless you drink it as a child, you don't seem to drink it as a teen at all. And the ones who don't drink it seem to drink a lot of coke etc just because they want something substantial beyond water, which is perfectly understandable.

So they drink milky decaff tea with NO sugar and they love it.

It probably sounds really stupid that I'm trying to give them options beyond soda at such a young age - I may be stark raving mad.

I also think warm drinks are comforting to kids from time to time if they're under the weather etc, and decaff tea with no sugar is infinitely preferable to hot chocolate which is mainly sugar.

If the “tea” is mostly milk as many of you say, why not just give milk?

As for “social” drinks, anything goes - water is fine to drink socially!

Haven't read all 177 posts: if you're concerned speak to the nursery manager about it. If they're not bothered then say you don't want your DC being offered tea and please give him milk or water.

I would put a stop to the tea: young children shouldn't be acquiring a taste for tea. It contains caffeine, which isn't good for them, and more than likely teaspoons of sugar which they certainly don't need.

What’s all this giving kids tea? I get that weak tea isn’t the worst thing in the world but just why do it? Don’t understand at all.

I wouldn’t like a nursery doing this, especially without asking. For a 2 year old. I just think it speaks a bit about them, a bit sloppy if you ask me.

Ah yes, it starts with tea and biscuits. By next week, the nursery will be plying them with cans of red bull. By April, it'll be crack cocaine. Stay vigilant, pearl clutches!

do people really not give their kids tea? my four and eleven year olds love tea and have done since they were toddlers! my four year old would drink tea all day long if he could! i really don’t see the issue. then again we’re a big tea drinking family and we see people who don’t drink tea as the weirdos! 😂

I wouldn’t like a nursery doing this, especially without asking. For a 2 year old. I just think it speaks a bit about them, a bit sloppy if you ask me.

Sloppy in what way?
It’s probaby pretty much warm milk, with a teabag dunked it. Same as I give my 3 year old. I don’t see the harm in one small cup a day.

People on here stress out way too much over food and drink.

I’d still be uncomfortable with a nursery doing this with my child. I’d actually look a bit into them, I’d prefer a different nursery tbh.

Tea is better for them than squash, particularly if decaf.

You have to drink shit loads of tea with meals for iron absorption to be an issue.

@naboo because in a nursery’s care, especially at age 2, they need to err on the side of caution. I would not want coke or tea given to me child without my permission. Most nurseries will say what food they give, at this age it’s absolutely fine and appropriate for food and drink to be clear and appropriate for their age and told explicitly to the parents. This nursery hasn’t don’t this, and that is sloppy.

I think that if every nursery in the country replaced every drink of “squash”, “juice” or “pop” for a cup of warm milky tea, we’d have a generation of healthier toddlers and pre-schoolers.

You're probably right.

Our nursery give the kids herbal teas (fruit tea mainly). They don't mean that?

Ha ha! Can’t believe this is now the new health advice!

Look, giving your own child, one cup of mild tea with no sugar a day isn’t going to harm. But it’s a total stretch to say it’s for their health!

I get headaches from more than 1 cup a day of tea. My DP gets bad heartburn from 1-2 cups. And we are adults! There are two issues here:

• tea does have caffeine, there are some negative effects, that every parent should weigh up.
• the nursery did not ask permission. I would feel the same about fizzy drinks. Somewhere my child goes every day - I would want them to ask and to be better informed.

My 4 year old has swiped daddy’s coffee and nicks my cup of tea every so often. Me and my Nan drink gallons of the stuff every day (iron absorption has never been an issue) I get up and have a cuppa with breakfast, then one when I get back from the school run, one at about 11am when I start working, one at about 1:30, one at about quarter past 2, one when I get back from the school run and another whilst I supervise eating dinner. Oh and a final one before I go to bed.
So about 8 mugs of tea a day!
My iron levels have always been particularly healthy and I’ve never had any form of anaemia (I have my iron levels checked due to an unrelated medical problem about once very 6 months)
I don’t think it’s a great idea for your son to be drinking tea every single day but if it’s part of the routine, simply ask that they give him warm milk/horlicks/hot chocolate instead.

I would not want coke or tea given to me child without my permission.

Coke and tea are incomparable.
Coke, high in caffeine and sugar (and probably lots of chemicals).
Milky tea, tiny amount of caffeine.

It seems a strange thing to do and I’d be talking to the manager about it. Not because it’s tea, but because it’s an unusual thing to do these days with toddlers and perhaps the member of staff has a problem with judgement of what’s acceptable and likely to set parents off.

DDs nursery once gave the children Irn-bru. That’s far worse for children than tea! My response was to make sure she didn’t have it again as it is the only food/drink she’s ever had that actually did make her go wild. It was part of a Scottish food tasting they did. I mentioned to management that other parents were quite pissed off about it and they changed their process so for future tasting sessions they gave parents the option for their children to opt out.

@naboo actually I disagree totally. Tea has high caffeine. And I don’t see why I’d push any caffeine. The point is that this is my choice as a parent. Not the nurseries.

DDs nursery once gave the children Irn-bru.....It was part of a Scottish food tasting they did.

I wonder if they went the whole hog and gave them deep fried pizza too.

Tea is fine (the caffeine levels are very low). What isn't fine is putting sugar in it. I really don't like it without sugar although I drink coffee without. My mum is still annoyed with my father for putting it in my tea when I was about 4 and giving me a taste for it!

@yabbers I get the food tasting more as it’s a one off. Even so, for a 2 year old you’d expect to be told / asked. Every day activities are more of an issue.

“The caffeine levels are very low...”.

They’re even lower in water.

Is tea seen as ‘common’? Is that the problem?
Yes - today's discerning middle-class toddler sports a hip flask

Mine have all drunk caffeine free milky tea from about 2 years old. They are all over 14 now and thankfully still prefer a cup of tea to rubbish squash or fizzy drinks. I only ever gave them tea or water at that age as they don't need lots of milk anymore if they are eating well.

I’ve never heard of it affecting calcium absorption

It's the caffeine, assuming it's caffeinated tea. It doesn't affect it much though.