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.
Printable View
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.
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
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
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.
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 ;)
Onyx, I think fear is a great demotivator :lol:
There are days I wish I suffered from Caffophobia
Me too, and then I wouldn't feel like the pot calling the kettle black when I'm having an ice coffee or a coke and telling my kids they can't have any because it's bad for them. Saying that 'it's different because I'm an adult' isn't going to fly for much longer :lol::
No it doesn't fly for much longer.
I had a woman at T2 explain the damages for children and caffeine as oppose to the effects on adults and how whilst it still wasn't great it wasn't as bad. DD hasn't even asked since then. And will only drink "white" teas because she knows there is no caffeine. And I like to think that was education rather than fear mongering... right? RIGHT?!
Did I say fear is a great demotivator?????? Errrrr, I meant Education..... Education is a great demotivator ;) :p
My eldest step son is about to turn 15 and he still isn't allowed caffeinated drinks in our house. He lives primarily with us and I don't know the rules specifically at his mum's house, but knowing her she would be even more strict about it than us.
He likes a cup of tea every now and then, but he either has chai tea or my decaffeinated tea.
Sometimes when we go out to family parties where there is coke available he'll "sneak" a glass of coke, but it's such a rare thing that we tend to let it slide and just tell him to stick with water after that. Obviously we can't control what he is drinking at other people's houses, but at 15 I'm more worried about the possibility of him drinking alcohol at friend's houses than I am about a caffeinated drink.
N2L I think it was probably fear through education is a great demotivator heh ;)
When DS turns one his first taste of chocolate will be his birthday cake. Other than that I don't think I will promote soft drink in our home. Maybe if it's a special occasion at someones birthday party I would like him have some. As for coffee and tea, if he's interested in those I would discourage coffee until highschool but I don't think there would be much harm in a weak, milky tea every now and then.
Mine has a bottle of Mountain Dew and Red Bull and chugs it down before a pageant. Makes her SO energetic....
Oh sorry hang on that's not me, that is THIS lady in the US... ;) GoGo crack juice - only in the US??!?!
None for ours for a long time, fizzy drink like lemonade very occasionally at a birthday party etc and even then they both like to have a sip or 2 and that's all. DS in particular doesn't like overly sweet stuff luckily!
As for Coke type drinks I think it would be a long time away. I have recently cut out DC from my own diet for health reasons plus I didn't want them seeing me chugging a glass or 2 a night every night like I was doing so am hopefully leading by example from now!! Mine are pretty happy with some juice occasionally instead.
DD is almost 10 and I will allow her the odd coke drink, but certainly not on a regular basis. Same as she occasionally has a cup of tea, but thankfully doesn't like coffee yet. I started drinking "coffee" in year 11, yes it was instant which I no longer have in the house. So if she wants to drink coffee, she has to learn to make proper coffee. Energy drinks she can have when she has a job and can buy her own, no way known am I getting them for her considering the effects they have on me.
Since falling pregnant with DS I have pretty well cut all energy drinks, most coke and other such things out of my own diet. I tend to drink mainly water, milk or milo. Occasionally juice and in winter it's mostly herbal teas.
Gosh, I never thought there'd be so many people not allowing their kids soft drink :o Not that that's bad or anything, I just didn't realise it was so common to disallow it... I've always seen soft drinks as kids' or non-alcohol-drinkers' drinks, and maybe moderated in very young kids because of the sugar level :dunno: Never really considered parents might not want their kids drinking any kind of fizzy drink til they were teens...
As for other forms of caffeine, my brothers and I were all drinking tea with our Nan fairly young, maybe four or five? That was a "special" treat (and by "special" I mean "any time we were at Nan's" :lol:) and 2/3 of us don't like coffee at all. If I'm having a hot drink while I'm out, it's always hot chocolate. No-one makes tea the way I like except me :p
Aaaanyway, to the question, I suppose I'd say I'm going to be pretty relaxed about it. I'm going to encourage Amelia to choose other options, but if she wants a little cup of cola or whatever I'll let her have it... Probably no earlier than four or five?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I was a coffee addict by the time I was 16. I can't live without my coffee. My parents are big coffee drinks so it was natural for me to start drinking it at 15.
As for soft drink (caffiene or not), we won't be allowing it for many years to come. I don't know about #2, but for DD there will be no soft drink. And I can't have rules for 1 and not the other.
Due to DD's medical condition her tummy won't handle the sugar and results will be severe pain, bloating and either the runs or constipation.
Unfortunately for her, she will be a water drinker. I don't even know how she'll handle cordial (we only drink the no-sugar Diet Rite cordial). Maybe some watered down juice, but gastro-kids struggle with that, too.
I don't want my kids to drink coffee. DH is anti-coffee, and I'm addicted. He shoves a coffee in my face every single morning (he's lovely) otherwise I'm "a dragon" and he's happy to do impersinations of me to everyone. :D
Holy crap I'm a really bad mum then case I dip my finger in my coffee or or coke and let him taste it. He always comes back for more or try to steal your mug if u don't let him.
On the sugar thing, we even treat Juice as a treat :) It's not an every day drink. People think because its made of fruit it's healthy. It really isn't. The amount of sugar in most juices compare with sweet soda drinks. Water is a constant staple in this house. I even drink more soda water than anything else because I had an unhealthy addiction to diet soda. This is why I am trying to change, so that my children don't see me as a hypocrite.
Homemade juices are great though! And we make home made slushee's too with frozen fruit.