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Original poster

Tea/coffee for children?

35 replies

Earlybird · 08/07/2004 21:10

What age did you start giving your children their own tea or coffee (not simply allowing them a sipp of yours)? Did you dilute? Did you serve at a cooler temperature?

OP posts:
twiglett · 08/07/2004 21:21

message withdrawn

daisy1999 · 08/07/2004 21:21

Can't remember what age but made it weak with about half milk/half tea - yuk! This made it cooler and then I left it to cool a bit more.

vict17 · 08/07/2004 21:25

Why would they need to drink tea or coffee or am I missing something?!

Original poster
Earlybird · 08/07/2004 21:47

Not thinking about giving my dd tea or coffee as she is too young for the caffeine, but just wondered what others do - especially as someone on the "where do you eat" thread described having tea and toast with her dd....though I don't know how old her dd is. Just got me thinking about whether others give theirs tea/coffee and how/when. Just being curious....

OP posts:
zebra · 08/07/2004 21:54

DD just likes tea and she generally doesn't drink enuf fluids. Started clamouring for it in Italy a few days after her 2nd Bday. Generally she has it heavily diluted w/ hot water, maybe 2x/month. She loves to dunk biscuits something we didn't teach her, either.

suedonim · 08/07/2004 22:30

None of mine, except dd2, have been much interested in tea/coffee until about 15 or 16yo when they drank coffee to aid exam studies. Dd2 went through a phase of having tea in her milk (as opposed to milk in her tea!) when she was 7 but she doesn't have it now.

Tommy · 08/07/2004 22:53

I can remember drinking coffee (with sugar and milk) when I was about 4...what was my mother thinking?

leander · 08/07/2004 22:59

my ds 2 1/2 asks for a cup of tea with his toast but only when we are at nanna and grandads house,he gets a cup of milk with a tiny bit of our tea in it and he loves it, that ammount of caffine isnt going to hurt him so why not.

poppyseed · 09/07/2004 01:20

Don't understand why they would need to drink either TBH, sorry! As well as the Caffeine issue there's also the tannin in tea - doesn't it bind to Iron and effect the way that it is absorbed????

spacemonkey · 09/07/2004 01:33

we used to be served with milky coffee and biscuits in primary school, although i doubt there was much in the way of actual coffee in there

i used to give dd and ds milk mixed with hot water and call it tea when they were toddlers and wanted "a cup of tea like mummy's"

they are now 13 and 10 and both like a cup of tea these days although if they ask for coffee i make it very milky and weak

OldieMum · 09/07/2004 01:48

Isn't it more that they want to copy adults? DD (17 months) is fascinated by our drinking tea and I'm sure she wouldn't need much encouragement to want to copy us. She has the same attitude to wine, pointing at the glass and saying 'wine', 'wine' excitedly. She isn't going to get any tea or wine, by the way!

tallulah · 09/07/2004 13:52

My younger 2 (14.5 & 12.5) still aren't allowed coffee!! DS1 isn't forbidden it but as far as I know has never had coffee.

Can't remember what age they had tea at. (Must be getting old )

eddm · 09/07/2004 14:10

Poppyseed, yes, tannin binds to iron, but if you drink tea in between meals it shouldn't be a problem. There are lots of studies that seem to point to some sort of health benefit from tea and coffee (for adults) but can't remember details... think something to do with lower rate of heart disease? Flavanoids are present in tea and are good micro-nutrients but are present in other foods too.

survivour · 09/07/2004 14:10

poppyseed is right, i was told off for giving my 3rd child tea, he is underwieght, and i didn't realise about it stopping the body from absorbing iron. The dietitian was not impressed with me at all, but my 10+ 7 year olds were not allowed tea. I was just happy that the baby found something he could drink, he has had a facial stroke. And as you can tell, he gets away with everything.......

Twinkie · 09/07/2004 14:17

Goodness me its mad that people think it ok to give their kids chicken nuggets or ribena but frown when you give them tea - it was the only way that I would make sure DD got enough calcium as she refused to drink milk from 7 months and the milky weak tea, yoghurts and dairylea had to make up for all that milk she wasn't drinking.

To say why would they need to drink tea or coffee is rather anal IMO - I only need water and certain foods but life would be pretty shit if I just stuck to that and if I just stuck DD to the food that she 'needs' she would have a pretty bland diet!!

And DD is small but not the smallest in her class - she is very well advanced and very healthy and eats everything that you put in front of her - I'd say getting antsy about a cup of tea now and then is taking things a bit far!!

nikcola · 09/07/2004 14:23

my dd is the same twinkie she wont drink milk so i give her milky tea and she loves it, oh and she had ribena and choclate milkshake in a bottle

zebra · 09/07/2004 14:35

Why is coffee seen as so bad? It doesn't even have the tannin problem, and tea has more caffeine (in general).
Besides, nobody is talking about limiting chocolate, are they? God-knows how much caffeine my children would get from chocolate given the oportunity.
No, DD doesn't "need" tea, but if it's a way to get more liquids in her (she tends to have too little), I'm all for it.

Am still much more worried about aspartame, sodium benzoate, tartrazine, etc. for preschoolers...

tamum · 09/07/2004 14:58

I used to love tea when I was a child and had it quite often. I was pretty healthy, never anaemic and am OK now!

samwifewithkid · 09/07/2004 22:47

My dd (2) has just started to have the odd cup of tea because she copies daddy (very weak and milky). She also likes to play tea parties. I'd never even thought of giving it to her, but just recently she has been asking so nicely and it's really cute. I'm not a big tea or coffee drinker so I don't think she will be, but the odd cup can't hurt here or there! I am careful about not giving it to her before meals, incase it fills her small tummy up. I also make sure if she has one it is in between meals so as to avoid the problem with absorbing nutrients. She doesnt eat sweets or chocolate very often, so I think that everything in moderation is OK. I am appauled to see people giving it to babies in a bottle though. There's no need for it.

daisy1999 · 09/07/2004 22:52

My 5 yr old has tea about once a week but agree with twinkie there are more things to worry about than a cup of tea. Good point on the nuggets

aloha · 09/07/2004 23:05

Coffee has a lot more caffeine than tea. My stepdaughter's been drinking tea since she was about seven or eight - very milky at first, now she's twelve she has it the same as us. I prefer tea to diet coke, that's for sure. It has antioxidants in it for a start.

zebra · 09/07/2004 23:46

Depends how the tea is brewed, Aloha. Let it steep a few minutes, it's easily got more caffeine than most cups of instant coffee.

poppyseed · 09/07/2004 23:54

Don't actually worry about the tea/coffee/chicken nugget thing at all (in moderation with everything in our house ) it's just that I personally see tea/coffee as an adult thing, that's all.

pupuce · 10/07/2004 00:16

Well my kids don't drink milk, they hate it (after breast they never took to milk or formula)! and it never occured to me to give them tea with it to make them drink it! They eat lots of greens and a very varied diet.
They don't have ribena, nuggets and Mc Donalds either.... and I saw a 4 year old with a bottle of coke yesterday... I have to say I fail to see why he was drinking it... or given it in the first place ! And he is the 2nd 4 year old in 2 weeks I see drinking coke.

BTW tea (and coffee) is also addictive as it is a caffeine rich drink

florenceuk · 10/07/2004 00:29

Actually tea drinking in children was a problem in NZ, where some ethnic groups gave sweet tea in a bottle from an early age - so anaemia was not uncommon, not to mention bad teeth. I am not sure though if you gave sufficiently weak enough tea if you would not be achieving the same result by just giving them milk diluted by hot water? Or is it the sugar they like? Obviously if diet etc is sufficiently varied, then drinking tea is probably not a problem esp if taken between meals - although green/herbal teas are better for you.

I used to love the milky sweet coffee you got in a tube with condensed milk - do they still make that? I have a doctor friend who spends a lot of time researching healthy diets, and he thinks coffee is OK apart from the fact that you get withdrawal symptons if you don't have it, i.e. its addictive but not proven to do much harm.

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