Children and tea.

[SamraLee]

Would it be okay for my daughter to have some tea? She is 8 months old. I was thinking more along the lines of her grabbing and stealing sharing my cup of tea and having a few sips, rather than making it for her. Also, mint tea or fruit teas, so no actual tea leaves or caffiene. Also no added sugar either.

I wouldn't let her share your cup - you want to teach her to avoid mugs and cups of hot drinks, not see them as something she can have. If she grabs and steals a cup of tea she could end up permanently scarred.

If you really want to give her some cool sugar/caffeine free tea in a sippy cup though I don't see the harm.

14mo has had a few sips of cool peppermint tea from her dad's mug once, which in theory is fine, but it does seem to have undone all the 'hot, don't touch' work we've tried to do for mugs. For safety, I would stop her grabbing your cup, even if what is inside at the time is safe - it won't always be safe for her. So I would say if you are going to let her have cool fruit tea then do it from her own cup or beaker. But I can't imagine there is anything about fruit tea whch would be bad.

I don't really see the point in encouraging kids to drink tea/coffee etc. Surely it could stain their teeth and i'd be concerned that a younger child might get into the habit of drinking tea and grab for a hot mug/cup.

Plus it'll cost you a fortune in coffee shops when they're older.

My DC are 11 & 8 and only very occasionally have hot chocolate. They generally just stick to water when we're out.

DD used to try my tea at that age. It was normal tea with milk. She liked to have a sip, but didn't really drink much of it so I was never very bothered. Obviously I was careful to ensure that it wasn't to hot first.

thank you for your replies. I didn't even think about not letting her touch mugs because they are normally hot as we very, rarely have tea/hot chocolate and never coffee in our household. I was actually thinking of just giving her a drink from my regular cup that normally has water in which she always drinks out of. I even have something called Cold Brew tea that you make from cold water so it would never be hot.

I wouldn't be too worried about fruit/herbal teas staining her teeth anymore than regular fruit would, but maybe it's different? I'm not sure.

I think fruit tea has a lot of acid which can be bad for the teeth, but apart from that, I can't see that it would cause any issues?

I know a lot of people at work said they'd given their little ones normal tea from their mugs, but I'm not sure I would want to give DS caffeine...he has enough energy already :o

So I guess I'm saying I think the odd taste won't do any harm, but tea shouldn't be given as a regular drink.