cola for little one's

[stilletoe]

At what age can you give a 2 year old cola or is it a big no no?

no no Fallen - my children want coke because i drink it. they have had it and will have it in restaurants sometimes.

but it is not something i encourage or would want to give them.

Yep. He looks pretty healthy on it really

For now, as I keep telling him

I think dd tried some when she was about 4, in a cafe.

if we go out for lunch/meal she has a coke. So prob once a week if that. She is 7 now. Don't have it at home. I'm, lucky that she loves water and has always drunk loads. She's never liked juice, which had loads of sugar anyway.

DD had her first glass of Coke (as opposed to a tiny sip of mine) on holiday this summer - aged 7y. We were in the US and she had some full fat/sugar Coke in a couple of the biffet places we went too. However, I do think it made her a bit hyper.

She hasn't had it since coming home, and I have no plans of her having it any time soon particularly. I prefer her to have lemonade, juice, milkshake, smoothie or water.

I wouldn't give a 2y Coke.

I the house DD gets fruit juice and water. I do buy in Diet cke for me, but don't share it!

I know that cola is bad for their teeth/full of sugar etc but somewhere in the back of my mind was 'all the bubbles will upset their stomach'.
And this is why I have never given it to dd(4) or (ds). Actually dd has sipp it to satisfy her curiosity ONCE and has since said that she doesn't like 'bubbly juice'.

I have always been terrified of them having a sore stomach and not sleeping/being sick because of it.

Will avoid providing it at home and out for as long as possible.

dd (nearly 6) has tried fizzy juices but doesnt like them. DS(3) likes to pinch mine when we are out for our dinner - he seems to like it! I wouldnt buy one for them though

we don't have anything with artificial sweeteners in because dh believes they caused his mother's brain tumour. i am sceptical but don't think it is a good idea to have erzatz ingredients in general so go along with it.

so with that proviso ds (who is 4.6) can have whatever drink he chooses from shop but only at weekends. not cola either because i am scared of the caffeine. also there has to be something saved as a huge treat for rare days - cinema or mcdonalds visits.

luckily he likes water a lot.

Well I think the answer is a definate no no for cokecola.

The issue came about when my OH had a glass with his dinner a the weekend and she was staring at it across the dinner table and wanted some. She is gonna have to wait a long time for some now I know the facts!
Thanks everyone.

My 3 year old has had various 'pops'. At home, and mostly when out he only has milk or water - I do not keep juice at home. But, it's not poisen. It's not great, but you have to look at the bigger picture. The odd drink of something like that is alot better than day in day out juice IMHO. I think sometimes you have to relax being a parent. Same as my DCs have good food day in, day out so bugger it if we get some fish and chips and the coast, or a happy meal. My DS will often pick water over coke anyway as it's not a big taboo drink that he sees Other Kids drink.

I am bad in mumsnet terms as I have never limited any food or drink for any of my 4 children. Nothing is a 'treat' it is just food/drink

I don't buy coke often but if they wanted with a take away or out somewhere, they were welcome to it. We always have biscuits, fun size chocs in the house and they have had free access

They are now 19, 18, 16 & 14, all perfect weight and all with perfect teeth and I have never noticed a 'sugar high'

What has happened is, I have four children that choose healthy most of the time and don't binge on any kind of food. It worked for us

Did you know that they have to transport cola syrup in specially reinforced plastic containers because it rots through so many substances?

Just thought that may be of interest ...

"At what age can you give a two year old cola?"

Do you mean at what age would you give a child cola?

I'd say wait. 2 is too young.

I would hold off for as long as poss; what they don't know they won't miss. They'll get to drink it at parties etc later.

ave your money and their teeth and stick to water.

saw a women the other day giving her DS (he was about 18 months) coke in his bottle
My DD (10) likes it but only has it when we go restaurants really, DD (3) has never tried it.
I personally have a bit of a diet coke habit!

I used to know someone who gave her ds coke in his bottle. Always made me cringe. I remember him running round the church screaming at a Christening & her saying there was nothing she could do about it because he had ADHD.

SCARY - I love coke but did the putting a tooth in a glass of it experiment at school which was pretty scary. Didn't know it had to be transported in special containers though. Can't drink it at the moment anyway as I'm pregnant & anything fizzy sets my heartburn off like you wouldn't believe.

ONES
not one's

My DS is 3.6YO and has tried diet coke once, he was curious about my drink so picked it up and took a sip and I'm glad to say he was not impressed

I don't see the need to give children fizzy drinks although if DS does start to enjoy them then he can have a glass of lemonade or similair if we are out for a meal when he is a bit older (5 maybe) but I won't be forcing him to drink it!

I buy 4 litres of Diet coke a week for me and DP but TBH he guzzles most of them, I normally drink fruit squash along with DS.

My dd saw her dad having a glass last weekend across the dinner table and has been nagging ever since.I am not keen on the idea and am glad I stuck to my guns now, as she won't be getting any and hubby will have to drink something else at dinner instead.

I wonder how many people here who are all grossed out at the chemicals and sugar drink it themselves?

Not sure why people are happy to give other fizzy drinks but not coke? Coke has lots of sugar yes, but at least sugar is natural, all the other fizzy drinks have aspartame in them which imo makes them worse then coke.

I usually drink coke as I love the stuff even though I know it's actually pretty revolting. I don't understand why people think coke is so much worse than other fizzy drinks. I avoid diet drinks & stuff because of the artificial sweeteners which I think are worse than sugar.

why do you need to give a two year old cola? Or any child? The sugar and phosphoric acid is lethal for their teeth.
Milk, water, or watered down juice should be all they have - especially at 2.....

NB people hwo are saying 'why is coke worse than leomnade?', it's because of the caffeine

you wouldn;t give a 2yo coffee, would you? Or Red Bull?

would you?