herbal/fruit teas for children?

[MissBegotten]

My 6yr old loves herbal and fruit teas - he used to want to share my coffee, which I am not hapy with, so I've started to offer him fruit tea instead. He loves them, especially lemon tea, and the mixed fruit ones. I thought they were ok, but a friend has told me that they have the same stuff in them as tea and coffee and children shouldn't drink them. Is she right? I am not looking forward to taking away his hot drinks since he loves them so much!

Your friend is talking nonsense. Fruit teas are fine for kids, particularly if they're just fruit, and not fruit-flavoured black tea (which does have caffeine).

I give fruit tea to my kids, I just read the ingredients, and avoid any tea with tea in it (sounds stupid, huh? In French, tea-less teas are called "tisanes", which is much clearer), and also avoid any tea which purports to have medical benefits (e.g. echinacea).

Thanks! He does like them very much and I thought they were supposed to be good for you, and I was hoping to not have to stop him having any more (I had visions of heating up ribina!!!)

They're much better for you than Ribena.

Actually, generally, I think they have pretty much no nutritional value, but that's better than Ribena, anyway - no sugar or artificial sweeteners, no chemicals, either.

Apparently giving kids herbal and fruit teas is normal in Europe. It's mentioned as a good alternative to water in Foods Kids Eat (I think it's called? A British book about kids + food, anyway.)

The Food our Children Eat? I've been reading that and fruit teas are given the thumbs up!

That it, Gillian76. Lovely book. I read it ages ago. I probably should give it another go, although I think I've promised to loan it to someone.

We like the Celestial Seasonings ones - all natural ingredients, no caffeine, and great hot or cold. Red Zinger is particularly nice cold in the summer.

DD1 spent her early years in Romania and it was perfectly normal there to give herbal teas to small children and babies, some were even labelled especially for babies.

I drank coffee from a very young age - my mother would just make me one whenever she had one. The doctor had a fit!