My baby accidentally drank tea

[stressedmum22]

I'm quite an anxious mum in general so please be as kind as possible, as I do think I'm probably worrying for nothing here.

My little one (who recently turned 1yo) picked up a lukewarm cup of tea from where I'd stupidly left it on the living room floor. I had nipped to the kitchen for something and came back to her drinking it (well mostly pouring it all down herself 🙈). I can't remember how much was in it.

Is tea / caffeine harmful to babies??

Hot drinks as everyone knows can be very dangerous.
Toddlers can reach much further than one thinks.
DS reached for a mug of coffee put on a high table and it splashed all over his chest and arm.
{We had visitors, so I was distracted}
His top acted like a poultice for the few seconds it was on.
I put him under the cold tap, poor little man, but his skin was blistering before my eyes. We hotfooted it to Casualty, where amazingly, they saw him immediately.

Every 'Splash' where the coffee went {with milk in, so not even 'boiling'} made a blister.
He had to have regular dressing changes daily, until it healed.

Thankfully, it didn't scar, but was extremely frightening.
Incidents like this can happen so fast.

I found my 9mo dd eating a temporary tattoo the other week

My mum used to give us milky tea with sugar in a bottle once or twice a week as a treat at that age. I’m not saying it’s what should be done now, but honestly it doesn’t appear to have hurt any of us😉.

Mine drank an espresso at about a year old. I did wonder if nursery would notice her being particularly active that morning...

I was given tea (sometimes with a splash of whiskey in ) in a bottle. A bit id tea will do no harm. But echoing PPs, use it as a useful reminder to keep hot drinks well out of reach.

How many times do I have to say, when it was freshly made and hot DD was sleeping. She wasn't able to go anywhere near it when it was hot. If she'd been crawling round and playing of course it wouldn't have even be left within her reach for a second! By the time she picked it up it was barely warm. So the issue isn't that it was hot and could have scalded her - it is that I was worried about the caffeine.

Thanks everyone (mostly everyone) for the sensible and kind replies

The older women gave their babies a shot of whiskey in the night feed to make them sleep.

yep, it was the done thing here back then. My parents, aunts, uncles were all given a few drops of brandy in the night bottle so they slept through. It was accepted practice and termed ‘medicinal’. When we were young and at the grandparents and they were looking after us as parents went out or because they were having a turn at putting babies/kids to bed they did the same for us but our parents didn’t do it as standard. I think they did it when we were teething etc though so ‘we’ would get a good night sleep😆.

Yep, tea with 2 sugars in a bottle from an early age here too. :-)

Honestly, it's fine. Mine actually used to plead for the dregs of my cup of tea. I remember the delight when the tea was too cold for me to drink, how excited they'd be to drink it!

My one year old loves tea! Do not worry at all.

My brother used to drink tea in his bottle.

He's 40 this year. A bit of a twat, but we can't blame that on the tea.

Also ignored the sanctimonious posters. My kid once pulled a fresh cup of tea all over himself. He was being watched by three adults at the time and the tea was high. He knows better too. Moments like that happen. And that wasn’t even what happened! Your little one just wanted a taste.

Ha!! Mine too! Christmas Day, overly generous measure poured by gran, lad assumed it was milkshake, took an almighty swig. I worried a fair bit, he cried with disgust, had a longish nap and I was flapping wondering if it was because he was exhausted with Christmas or knocked out by the booze and if social services would come sweeping in on zip lines if I phoned NHS direct. I did phone, the nurse, after giving the 'keep an eye on him' advice said "little scamp, he won't do that again!"

She will be fine ,please dont worry. She wont be the first or last babe to do this. No harm at all in the long term .All first time Mums are the same .I certainly was!

Tea used to be the only thing my then 1yo would drink apart from breast milk. Wouldn't even touch expressed milk, so it was the only way I could leave him with anyone - if he could have tea!

My 2 year old loves tea. I had tea in my bottle as a kid and it hasn’t harmed me at all. She’ll be fine don’t worry❤️

Ds2 used to toddle into his grandparents bungalow swinging his trainer cup round so that tea ran in rivers down the wall! Grandad used to call him "the little teabelly!!" 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

I had coffee in my bottle to keep me warm. When I was little. Tea and coffee were what people raised their children on.
it was very early 60s and it was a very poor immigrant neighbourhood but I think it wasn’t really a big deal in more middle class neighbourhoods. I know some of my friends parents from school who I would have considered more middle class drank tea or coffee.But then other friends wouldn’t be allowed it.

I occasionally give mine watered down tea. They're allowed to have a bit.

When my boy was around the same age I walked into the kitchen and found him chewing on a chicken nugget which he found under a flap thing at the bottom of the oven. Thought he’d surely be poisoned as don’t have a clue how long it was there….not a bother on him😊

Totally fine, one of mine used to love tea.

Mine had her first tea at about 18 months. She was really thirsty, had finished all her water, and all I had to offer was an iced tea. I told her to just take a sip and then we would get her a drink asap. She took one sip, loved it, and grabbed it and just started drinking like crazy. She was fine.

I ended up stocking decaf tea in the house after that. When she got older, she even asked for an assortment of tea for Christmas one year.

Tea in a bottle used to be the norm from a really young age when I was a child.

My kids are grown up in their 30s and 40s and used to actually drink lukewarm tea.