At what age would you allow your child to have caffeine?

[Nai]

Well it settles the stomach when you have a hangover so I can see how it might work with gastro I always do the same but with lemonade for stomach upsets.

[nothing2lose]

We don't have coke or other caffeinated soft drinks in this house. I don't drink it, DP very rarely drinks it and DD has never drunk it. She doesn't drink tea or coffee but will have a hot chocolate about four or five times a year.


I imagine she won't drink it for a few years yet.

[*LittleMissSummer*]

We don't have coke or other caffeinated soft drinks in this house. I don't drink it, DP very rarely drinks it and DD has never drunk it. She doesn't drink tea or coffee but will have a hot chocolate about four or five times a year.


I imagine she won't drink it for a few years yet.

Most children follow from example. Though it was different in my house. My mum always drank just water and coffee and my step father always had a bottle of coke with him at all times and drank coffee. But i was told that it wasn't for children.

Of course i had opportunities to have them when at friends houses but i always said no. My mum said we didn't need them and they were adult drinks and thats how we saw it.

My DP is a coke addict he will drink a 2L bottle every night if i let him. DD has thrown many tantrums wanting some of it but i tell her its big people drink and i give her a very watered down cordial or some milk.

People may think i am very stupid in thinking my kids will listen to me but i hope they would. If they want to try these drinks i would hope they would approach us first and i would think about it. Respect and trust is a huge thing with me.

[Calluna]

DS has had tiny sips of a few things, but I'd never give him a cup of any of it for a while yet. I'm not sure how olds, I guess I'l take it as out comes.

He's had nepalese chai tea from our fave restaurant, lemonade, froth from iced coffee and hot choc, and the baby cinos e'er occasionally get have choc in them.

He gets to try anything we have, I don't think it's fair that we are allowed to eat something but he isn't. We limit it, of course, so he gets a taste but we explain to him that if he has too much lemonade for example that it will make him feel sick in the tummy because it had lots of sugar in it- our whatever else is in it that's not good for him. At this stage this is enough for him and he is quite happy to accept that. It also means that we keep our diets in check because we know that what we have he will want too.

mostly though, he has a really good diet. 99% of what we eat is homemade from fresh produce, so I feel good knowing that it is quite rare that he gets this stuff.

[Rouge]

My kids don't have anything with caffeine. They are not allowed coke, or coffee. The only thing they get is chocolate! Which isn't that often either. And the amount of caffeine in chocolate is small.

[~*familyof3*~]

DS2 Has a cup of tea before school. His pead recommended it. He has adhd and we were told that some caffeine can help there thinking proccess.

just wanted to add DS2 is 12

[Rach75]

god I must a be a terrible mother my kids are allowed a small bit of soft drink and yes they drink cola, be it pepsi, coke or la ice... or something else... the other thing jack reacts to preservative 223... which is found in almost all soft drinks except coke which surprisingly has no presevative and most juices and cordials, so remember back wehn you were kids and mums allowed you to have a lemonade if you went out to lunch etc.. well my biys can't have lemonade LOL so yes they have a small glass of coke when the reaction was at its worse both seemed to be growing out of it till I gave my 5 yr old a treat of juics and misread the label 3 days of hell later

[Phteven]

My family and ILs give my children chocolate sometimes and I let them eat chocolate cake. They were both allowed to eat chocolate cake on their first birthday so I've been letting my children have caffeine since they were one.

DS1 once got his hot chocolate mixed up with DH's mocha and by the time we realised it he had drunk it. He's been terrified of caffeinated drinks ever since then.

[nothing2lose]

Onyx, I think fear is a great demotivator
There are days I wish I suffered from Caffophobia

[Trillian]

I tend not to make a fuss over it because in my experience, the more you make a fuss out of something by 'banning' it, the more likely they are to seek it out behind your back. That said however, I actively encourage them to make choices that do not have caffeine and explain that there is more badness in coke/softdrinks than just caffeine kwim? I know for a fact that because I don't let them have coke that if it is on offer elsewhere and I am not there (such as parties etc) then they often choose to have that. They are getting better as they get older though and know that overall it's not a healthy choice of drink. I don't like to single out a specific ingredient in food as a reason and look at the whole product. And I also encourage everything in moderation. Coke is not good, but then I'd never let them have an entire can of lemonade either if I can help it.

Putting an age restriction on it is a bit redundant too I think because caffeine is a drug that can affect anyone at any age - too much caffeine is bad for adults as well you know

[misty]

We don't keep softdrink in the house. But all three of my older kids (aged 2yr, 4yrs and 6yr) have had it, and I don't discriminate between the caffinated sort and the non caffinated. In fact they are more likely to have Coke Zero or Pepsi Max, because I will only drink sugar free softdrinks and they tend to be the only ones you can buy cold, and the kids are drinking from my drink. My DS1 also loves a cup of tea - so when I have a cup when out and about, I will usually save him the dregs.

ETA: we only ever buy diet cordial here, that is the main drink consumed in the house, with water coming in second and milk coming in third.

[skybie]

Dd1 has soft drink at parties, dd2 doesnt yet.
I started drinking coffee at 15.

[feeb]

My Kids only drink water or milk and on very very rare occasions will have some apple juice.

I do not drink tea or coffee but I do enjoy coke, but boys know its a mummy drink and they dont ask for it.
DH Drinks tea and coffee and coke and iced coffee/coffee milk.

DH prefres carbonated water to still, but he makes it at home in soda stream and kids have had a sip before and they DO NOT like the bubbles anyway even in plain water.

We don't plan in the kids having soft drink until much older, mine have not even had cordial and it seems to be available at most kids party's at play centres but I just give kids cup of water instead.

[helle]

when they can go to the shop and buy it themselves and keep it in their own fridge ><;
I give DS juice when he asks... and that's quite rare. The juice he does have is 100% apple juice (the Nude one... "72 Apples in a bottle and that's it!") so I don't really mind that he has it, it's mostly just laziness of my part that he doesn't get it every day. He also gets a cup of milk before bed time, but he can have milk anytime during the day if he asks. He LOVES his water.

[~clover~]

I forgot to mention, DD3 doesn't like juice or milk! I'll give her a bottle of water to carry around through the day & she'll usually finish it by the end of the day (she has boob on tap too!)
I gave her watered down juice 2 weeks ago & 3 days later it was still 3/4 full. Milk is the same (only I don't let her have it for 3 days! )
She joins the kids in a watered down lemonade for dinner on occasion though.

I actually get told I'm too strict on that stuff all the time

[Sunny Love]

Oh dear, they'd lock me up and throw away the key!!
DD gets, every morning that SHE asks, some of my lemon tea and she has one cup of cordial a day, she's not a fan of fruit juice though (I think its TOO sweet and acidic for her liking).
As a child I was allowed most things, and I turned out ok. Im not too worried personally about what she intakes caffeine wise (and within reason of course-I don't want people to think I don't give a rats!) but more concerned about WHEN in the day she consumes it......not sure why though. Im more of a moderation type parent-that uses lots of dialogue to explain things, and lots of expression to demonstrate....*imitates holding a sore tummy from TOO MUCH juice*