AIBU to say no to drinking tea?

[SnowSurprise]

DD, 9, had a sip of my tea yesterday and said she liked it and asked to be allowed to drink some more often. I'm not sure. It was after walking back from an activity to the car, so I'm inclined to think it was a warm drink she was after rather than "tea".

I let her drink fruit "teas" which are technically infusions, but not black tea or coffee.

AIBU to think she is too young for proper tea? My main concerns are caffeine, teeth staining, iron absorption.

YABU: let the poor child drink some tea!
YANBU: She is too young, no tea for her!

If it makes you feel better, My 2 year old is obsessed with tea cos it’s what I drink. We use decaf tea bags and water it down, and his is v milky.

Get the caffeine free tea for her

I wouldn’t but that’s because even as an adult, I avoid caffeine as much as I can for health reasons, so I wouldn’t give it to my children regularly either. The odd cup of tea won’t hurt though, maybe give her decaf or take the bag out within seconds so it’s not brewing for long.

SnowSurprise

A cup of tea isn’t significantly more caffeinated than a large chocolate bar!

Bloody hell...how much of a killjoy are you?!

It’s tea, not crystal meth.

My first morning cup of tea is one of my pleasures in life.

Unless you drink it excessively it won’t affect iron absorption, and if she brushes her teeth properly she shouldn’t get any staining from the odd cuppa.

I'm a child of the80's born in.tye 70's and it was normal to see tea in babies bottles.
Dont see it nowadays mind you but I remember both my sisters having tea when they were toddlers in baby bottles

Yes I remember this! I was about 19 at the time, knew nothing about babies, but do remember thinking that can't be right!

[quote DigOlBick]@RampantIvy if people started being unable to function in the mornings without a “nice hot parsnip” or need to have two or three parsnips a day or ruin days out because of the need to find somewhere to sit down and have a bloody parsnip then yea I would ban them too![/quote]
While I completely disagree with you in your tea/coffee hating world, this made me laugh and almost makes me sympathetic to the non-coffee/tea drinkers! Thank you!

Like a different world this place. It's fucking tea woman.

Ds7 has a decaf cuppa no harm in it

Milky tea was one of my greatest treats as a kid. We rarely had fizzy drinks and squash was a treat. I suspect that often the white tea mum served was just milk and hot water (full fat milk and sugar)

It’s tea, not liquid heroin.

Get decaf or rooibos tea

Rooibos is completely caffeine free, but the amount of caffeine in decaf won’t harm a 9 yo

[quote DigOlBick]@RampantIvy if people started being unable to function in the mornings without a “nice hot parsnip” or need to have two or three parsnips a day or ruin days out because of the need to find somewhere to sit down and have a bloody parsnip then yea I would ban them too![/quote]
@DigOlBick how can you even talk of banning parsnips at this time of year, don't you know it's not Christmas without a roast parsnip, a far superior dinner companion than the tiny green ball of evil aka the sprout

Give her a cup of builder's, put hairs on her chest !.

DigOlBick
if people started being unable to function in the mornings without a “nice hot parsnip” or need to have two or three parsnips a day or ruin days out because of the need to find somewhere to sit down and have a bloody parsnip then yea I would ban them too!
While I completely disagree with you in your tea/coffee hating world, this made me laugh and almost makes me sympathetic to the non-coffee/tea drinkers! grin Thank you!

The nice hot parsnip is hilarious, but honestly “ruin days out”? How incredibly precious must you be for it to ruin a day out of someone wants to grab a cup of tea or sit down for a bit?

If you are worried let her drink black tea. It's the dairy milk thats the issue. Tea has lots of benefits but milk wipes them out.

Tea is life haha.

I was making cups of tea from 8 and loved drinking tea, still do.

Get her the decaff version to alleviate the guilt.

I just buy decaf tea for the kids and they don't drink it enough to cause staining or iron absorbtion issues.

My DB and I were brought up on tea. We both drank it from toddler age, and it was one of DB's first words. He used to drink tea from a bottle when he was still too small to manage a cup. No-one thought anything of it then (1960s).

I think the worst than can happen is kids become tea addicts, which we both are.

I drank sugary tea from when I was about 6, I have sparkly white teeth and no fillings.

@DigOlBick

I wouldn’t allow it but that’s because I don’t drink hot drinks and hate that everyone seems to have this addiction to tea and coffee.

Wow. So you don't let your kids have anything to eat/drink unless you personally also like it? You sound fun.

I can function perfectly well without tea or coffee, but I do enjoy a nice cup of tea during the day, and there's nothing wrong with that.

OP - it's fine. I was a child of the 80s and drank tea from a young age. I'm 5'10'' and very fit and healthy, so no issues with iron or growth here.

Get some decaf bags for when she asks if you're concerned about caffeine. But to be honest I wouldn't worry.

I’d be absolutely fine with it at that age. I’d let her choose - a cup with breakfast or a cup after dinner depending on what she prefers on the day. That way it feels special and like a real treat.

Do you realise that fruit tea is far more damaging for her than an odd cup of tea? Fruit tea damages teeth causing cavities, normal tea has a mild amount of caffeine and can block iron absorption but only in larger quantities. I know which I’d rather a child had