Toddler drinking tea at MIL's!!

[boo64]

My MIL bless her insisted on giving ds (just under 2) some tea today - very milky and weak but still tea. I tried to tell her I'd rather he didn't have it but she gave it to him anyway....grrr.

Now yes he does always try and drink our tea as he sees us with it but surely this isn't a suitable drink for a 2 year old - dilute or not??

Or am I being over protective??!

I dont put sugar in tea but my mum does.

both my ds's love a milky (very weak) cup of tea, normally with a biscuit to dip in it

What's wrong with tea? The way things are going our poor kids will be given nothing more to imbibe but tofu/alfalfa sprouts and ethically sourced spring water .

caffeine is the issue here, just buy some decaf for her

the tannin inhibits iron absorption so caffeine free tea will make no difference to that. My dd (3) has had a sip of mine on the odd occasion but I wouldnt make her a cup of her own - she has milk, water, drinkable yoghurts or well diluted high juice. I dont really want her having tea/coffee - they are more an adult drink than a childs one.

yes my dd (now 3) has been having milky tea about twice a day for a year or so. i've no idea whether she shouldn't. i remember reading a few years ago that They had linked decrease in tea-drinking children over time with increased susceptibility to illness...

Definitely the cafffeine

Gave son some teawhen he was little and he was bouncing off the walls.

At least it wasn't whiskey.

She shouldn't have gone against your wishes.

I've given very weak milky tea to all of my charges once in a while.

I think alwayswatching raises an interesting point. For all the 'latest' ideas about what you should or should not give a child, (and it's alway shifting), in general children are more allergy prone and less robust than in the days when your mother just gave you whatever was around ... including tea.

When I was a kid in the 1970s, I don't recall a single child with an allergy. Maybe we are over-protecting our children too much these days?

I've been looking at the title of this thread for ages, wondering if I had been giving my dd (11) contraband!! It seems I have the same opinions as everyone else afterall! I'd much rather dd drank tea in the morning, than fruit squash like some kids. And anyway, how are you going to teach them the art of careful dunking, unless they have their own tea to loose it in!

to be honest I agree with you Rabbleraiser and MotherMlove, However DS is one of those children with lots of allergies, but I think genes have a lot to do with it.Both hubby and i have lots of allergies , but DD shows no sign of them at all.
I will never forget the effect tea had on him so it was no no for a long time,He just couldn't stop moving, it was obviously the caffiene that was the problem, but he is 11 now is partial to a cappucino or mocha, DD is 9 and prefers her cup of tea.
Just wouldn't give tea to a baby or toddler after my experience.

I have to say that after dh went there the other day I asked him what ds had eaten as he seemed hyper and he said nothing. Now I suspect it was the tea as apparently they gave it to him last time he was at MILs too.

I can use dh as a counter example to the increase in allergies correlating with over caution - he is alergic to nuts yet his mum (MIL) didn't have an ounce of caution in her - or so it seems. Ok he is just one person of course...