why no black tea for a two-year-old?

[Anna's Lovey]

My husband and MIL don't understand why it's not ok to give toddlers black tea (I guess in Russia it's totally ok). Anyway, I can't explain why except that "everybody knows you're not supposed to" and: it contains caffeine." Both arguments fail to convince.
Can you help me find a better explanation on why tea is bad for toddlers?
Thanks!

[lifeguard]

Caffeine would be the be thing imo.

It is pretty common in a lot of cultures to give children tea.

[leanbh]

yup, i give my toddler black tea, but it's usually cut with lots of milk. tea is kind of a way of life for us, though, and it's agreed upon by dh and i to be ok occasionally. i'd understand why some parents wouldn't and don't want to.

[AFWife]

I agree that caffeine is the killer here. Can you compromise with a decaf (well, very reduced caf as "decaf" always has some caffeine in it) or an herbal tea?

[sapphire_chan]

how much would she even drink? My toddler adores all tea and she'd drink maybe an ounce of black tea. She probably gets more caffiene from green tea which she'll drink like it was juice (y'know if she got unlimited quantities of either)

[limabean]

I was served tea from a young age, but children were always given very milky tea in our family, so the caffeine content was nothing to be too concerned about. I only drank a few sodas per year as a kid, but in some of my cousins' families they drank soda so frequently that tea would actually be a decrease in caffeine consumption for them.

[AmyKT]

My DD won't drink hot drinks, but she loves iced tea. However, our iced tea is usually loaded with sugar, so I'm more concerned about that than the caffeine. She's a high-energy little thing and we try to limit stimulants as much as possible. Still, she gets sips of iced tea when we have it.

[mumkimum]

I mainly think it's the high amounts of caffeine - if they keep insisting and you were okay with it being given either watered down or as mostly milk & some tea, you could go with that. It would depend too on how often they were insisting on giving it (and, uh, what time of day). We do mainly herbal teas for our 3.5 year old, though she's a fan of green tea when we let her sip on ours.

[puffingirl]

We let DD have tea--black, green or herbal--without bothering with the milk. If it's black or green she won't have more than an ounce, which makes the caffeine negligible IMO. And the only sweetener we ever use is sometimes a touch of honey, so I don't really have a problem with it. She loves to try all different kinds of tea---jasmine, earl grey, chai, whatever. We are big tea drinkers here. She's never had any ill effects or higher energy after. She's far worse off when she gets a cupcake at a birthday party.

[Tizzy]

Our kids drink a lot of tea, they get a lot of weird looks from strangers and questions from friends/family but I'm okay with it. Most of the time it's herbal tea, but if I'm having a regular tea or coffee for that matter, I see no issue with them having some.

I was rasied with the "caffeine is bad for children" concept, and told it stunts growth. So I never ever EVER had caffeine and I'm just a little over 5ft. I've also spent a lot of time in the company of Dutch immigrants whose children drink coffee all.the.time and their kids don't seem to be stunted at all
I do take into account if the tea or coffee has caffeine, what time of day it is etc. before giving them anything, same applies for juice too though - they rarely get juice.

So long story short, in my opinion it's not horrible for a kid to drink tea, but you can encourage herbal or very watered/milked down tea to reach a compromise

[Mosaic]

It's not an issue I'd fight over, but I agree that caffeine is probably the #1 reason why, and its dehydrating effects.

I'd probably just point out that there are other more nutritious options available, and when dealing with someone so little with sometimes crazy eating habits, you need to use every chance you can get to get more nutrients in them (with milk or small amounts of juice, yogurt, etc.).

[KempsMama]

I give DS tea all the time. My DH drinks a TON of sweet tea, and I don't see a problem with him sharing with DS or with DS having the occasional glass himself. I'd rather him have that than most juices, as I make our tea and know what's in it.

[hakeber]

DS has grown up on mate and milky coffee. My parents used to say coffee would stunt my growth, but I snuck it all the time and grew to 5'8" and ds is almost 5 and almost 4 feet tall (by far the tallest in his class), so bang goes that theory.

[rzberrymom]

I don't like to use decaf tea (because of the chemicals used to decaffeinate). But, my midwife recommended putting caffeinated tea into a small amount of water, letting it steep for a minute and then throw out the water. Then, put the tea back into fresh water. She told me that this will get rid of the majority of the caffeine, without having to drinking chemically decaffeinated tea.

That's what I do for my 5 year old too. Or we drink Roiboos, which to me has a strong flavor without the caffeine.

[InMediasRes]

My toddler hasn't had black tea, but he LOVES honeybush or rooibos teas which contain no caffeine. I would say the caffeine would be the biggest issue for me, but he is sensory seeking, so stimulants are a big no-no .

[butterfly_mommy]

DS loves to have tea with me. I got him a little espresso cup and saucer and he will have like an ounce of my tea in the morning which is usually English Breakfast sometimes I have naturally decaf English breakfast or coffee regular or swiss water decaf. I don't use any kid of sweetner just milk or cream. He loves having sips of my lemonade/black tea iced tea from Starbucks when I get it but I limit sips due to the sugar in it.

[texmati]

Caffeine. My cousins used to get to have tea-milk when I was younger, but I couldn't have it because my mom wouldn't let us have caffeine.

[flower01]

I'm with everyone else that say caffeine is the worst thing about it. We are tea drinkers though. In the winter we mostly drink herbal tea, but with the weather warming up we'll be having black tea often. No sugar, though - I think cola has a lot more caffeine than tea.

[bobandjess99]

Originally Posted by Anna's Lovey

My husband and MIL don't understand why it's not ok to give toddlers black tea (I guess in Russia it's totally ok). Anyway, I can't explain why except that "everybody knows you're not supposed to" and: it contains caffeine." Both arguments fail to convince.
Can you help me find a better explanation on why tea is bad for toddlers?
Thanks!

Apparently i too did not receive the memo.
That's okay, I don't like being part of "everybody" anyway.

i have no issues with giving tea to children.

[lovebug]

more taking but i say do as you feel is best and maybe use some of the PP info as a in between...