Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to find people who give their babies and toddlers cups of tea in bottles weird?

98 replies

wolfear · 16/07/2009 22:03

I've seen this a couple of times at various local baby and toddler groups and have had to quickly remove the shocked expression on my face. It just seems wrong wrong wrong.

OP posts:
golgi · 16/07/2009 22:28

liahgen - because they like it?
Better than diluted juice for their teeth.
Can't say "no nutritional value" because it's mostly milk.

drlove8 · 16/07/2009 22:32

i give my kids redbush tea occasionally, it has more antioxidants and no caffine.never out a bottle , and just the older ones.dont like "real tea", have various herb/fruit ones and i dont see anything wrong with giving my toddlers some camomile .helps them sleep imo.

golgi · 16/07/2009 22:33

Tannins do reduce absorption of non-haem iron (from vegetables) but not haem iron (from meat).

Horton · 16/07/2009 22:34

DD likes both tea and coffee, made very milky with full-fat milk (approx 95% milk) and a pinch of sugar. She won't drink plain milk at all and isn't keen on cheese. I give her tea and coffee because I would rather she had the calcium and vitamins from the milk than not. It may be psychological and I can't really taste the tea or coffee much at all in what I give her but who cares if it's getting milk into her, frankly! She eats a healthy and varied diet and I don't think it's doing her a scrap of harm, quite the reverse. YABU.

oneopinionatedmother · 16/07/2009 22:43

ermm..chinese littlies get 'tea' which is actually more like squash with a little weak tea.

i don't think they need it, but on the other hand, i don't think its that harmful. Few of the kids at the chinese school had fillings (but then, they found english sweets extremely sweet.)

edam · 16/07/2009 22:44

golgi - yup, that's why I specified non-haem iron (am a veggie so no haem iron at all round here. Except my own, I suppose).

GiraffesCanRunA10k · 16/07/2009 22:46

Well its irnbru around here so I guess tea is better than that.

I wouldn't give caffinated tea myself beacause of tannins.

mrsmaidamess · 16/07/2009 22:47

Oh we used to have a 'cup of tea bocky' every day. You are all miseries.

macdoodle · 16/07/2009 23:27

My 18 month old gets a "cup of tea" in the morning with me and DD1 - because she asked and asked for tea like us!
She has it in a bottle with handles, she has decaf which is mostly warm milk with a sprinkle of sugar - it is the highlight of her day
Her first words of the day are "tea mummy downstairs now"
Considering that a 4 word understandable, meaningful sentence at 18 months is bloody brilliant, I dont think its doing her much harm

elkiedee · 16/07/2009 23:53

2 year old ds has tasted our tea and coffee a few times recently when asked. He likes daddy's tea more than mine because daddy takes two sugars (yuk!) I wouldn't put it in his bottle though. He still does have bottles but only milk or water in them. I agree with TAFKA UD about picking battles but he's generally happy to just taste it.

chegirl · 16/07/2009 23:58

God no i would never give DS tea. It would fill him up and he wouldnt drink his red bull and cola. Now dont tell me that isnt good for him.

thumbwitch · 17/07/2009 00:03

lol chegirl! So long as it's proper diet red bull and cola

chegirl · 17/07/2009 00:09

Of course Thumb. What do you bloody take me for?

Only the finest aspartame for my boy!

thumbwitch · 17/07/2009 00:12
Grin
poopscoop · 17/07/2009 03:07

my issue is not so much the tea but the tea in a bottle. actually it is tea in a bottle hanging from childs mouth as they go about their business.

My 3 older dc like a cup of tea. They tasted mine at about 8 years old and have a cup every now and then whenever they feel like it.

I just would never have even thought about giving a tiny one rea, let alone in bottle.

Pennybubbly · 17/07/2009 03:54

Not really the same thing, but here in Japan, one of the first drinks that Japanese babies are offered (after b/milk or formula) is mugi-cha, which is barley tea.
It is caffeine-free, sugar-free and is supposedly a cleanser of toxins (though actually how many toxins a baby has in their blood I don't know!).
It's actually pretty good and both my dcs had it at nursery from 15 months. They offer it instead of water.

Black tea with milk and sugar is a no-no in my book for babies though, Yorkshire girl though I am. . That said, when I've seen it given, it has always been extremely weak, more like hot water with milk really (mmmm! tasty! emoticon)

LoveBeingAMummy · 17/07/2009 06:27

When my brother was very small and rolled off the table (honestly, and two mins later the health vistor arrived!!), he was admitted to hospital to be checked over and the hospital asked what milk he was on, mum told them he wouldn't drink just milk it ahd to be milky tea and they didn't believe her and tried to get him to drink it, when that didn't work said they'd bring tea and sent over a cup of tea!!!!

MadEyeballsMoody · 17/07/2009 07:12

Well bully for all the perfect parents that can get their children to ditch the bottle because I can't where milk is concerned so dd could well be three with a bottle at this rate. But I don't give a toss really. It wouldn't kill her, neither will the odd half cup of milk with a tea bag waved at it. As it happens she doesn't really have tea, only once or twice and then about a centimetre but if she wanted it she could have it. There are worse things she could ask for. Judge away.

spiralqueen · 17/07/2009 07:26

YABU. Stop being precious - there's far worse they could be doing.

HolidaysQueen · 17/07/2009 07:42

I was given a bottle of tea in the mornings from a very early age. Mainly milk, but some tea and sugar. I now have a life long addiction to tea... But then I am from the north, and have an Irish mother - I think that was probably inevitable

I don't give it to my 15mo DS, and won't until he asks and even then it would probably only be an occasional cup. He only gets water and milk now and I see no reason to change that until he asks. He occasionally gets a little sip of mine when it's cold if he clearly wants to try it but that's it.

I'm concerned about the iron issue which is the main reason I don't - the amount of caffeine in very milky tea is tiny, and I think tea is probably less bad in some ways than fruit juice (bad for teeth), which nobody queries, and certainly less bad than those Fruit Shoot thingies which everyone I know outside of MN (in middle class London suburb no less ) seems to think is perfectly acceptable form the age of 1 .

chocolatefudgebrownie · 17/07/2009 07:53

I saw a 2 year old DC with coca cola in a baby bottle the other day. I was Poor child may have no teeth left by 5!

Picante · 17/07/2009 07:53

I give ds decaf milky tea quite often - it's one of the few liquids apart from milk and water that he will drink. He also has redbush tea pretty often - it's very good for him. They give it to babies in South Africa apparently.

I don't agree with giving caffeinated tea... but how many of you give toddlers chocolate? That's got caffeine in.

In summary... you are over-reacting.

YABU.

TrinityRhinoHasASillyStepson · 17/07/2009 07:58

anything with caffeine is is completely wrong for children
ffs adults shouldn't be drinking it!

TrinityRhinoHasASillyStepson · 17/07/2009 08:01

and the 'there is caffeine in chocolate thing' is a bit of a silly thing to compare it to

you would have to eat about 20 hershey bars to match the caffeine in one cup of coffee

and about 8 hershey bars to match the caffeine in one cup of tea

I mean come on, no contest is it

mrsmaidamess · 17/07/2009 08:04

There is nothing wrong with tea in a bottle. In fact, it would be a very practical way for adults to partake of a cuppa too, less risk of spills, no hands required etc.

Swipe left for the next trending thread