S/O tea thread, um coffee loving toddler...

[Latte Mama]

I'm a horrible mother. I left my iced 1/2 caff latte on the counter while I ran to pee a few weeks back and when I came back my DS was GULPING it!!! How the heck he manages to get up on the counter I have no idea.

Anyway, ever since, when he sees that darn S*bux cup, he cries, REALLY wails for it. If I have decaf, I'll give him a sip but I always feel like I'm doing something forbidden. But then I think that hey, doesn't coffee have antioxidants in it now ?

So how awful is it to give him a little decaf now and then?

(I swear if nothing else, THIS proves this is my boy, lovin' the java !)

[jadedqueen123]

Add me to the horrible mother group then! DD steals my espresso all the time. I drink an iced Americano every morning and she manages most days to get a sip or two. Like anything moderation is the key (at least in my deluded world) so if it's a sip I am not going to worry about it. She has never gotten jittery or not been able to nap afterward so obviously the amnt of caffeine she is getting isn't enough to alter her. Decaff would be preferable I am sure but I don't do decaff.

[Friday13th]

My 2 year old LOVES coffee. I gave him a sip once thinking he'd hate it and stop bugging me for it (hey, worked with soda!) but no, he would drink the whole cup if I let him. I go through drive-thrus and he's in the back yelling "Ashy own big coffee!" It's crazy. I give him his own iced beverage like watered down juice or milk with a straw when I get an iced coffee, that seems to help.

[elmh23]

I don't drink coffee but dh does every now and then and so does my mom. They both share sips with the kids when they have them since the kids LOVE coffee (and tea actually, another thing only Nana and Daddy drink.) I don't see it as a big deal as long as they aren't drinking adult size cups every single day.

If it makes you feel better, they also get sips of my Coca-Cola at least once a day. Coffee has to be better than that!!

[Letitia]

I drink the most disgusting coffee - black decaf, which I don't mind, but made lukewarm by a few ice cubes to prevent scalding if it's pulled off the counter. So I really was expecting the icky-face when I gave my daughter the sip she'd been asking for. Guess she was a little less than 2? Well, she liked it. It's never become a large-volume thing, but she's asked for sips since then. Now her brother (21 months) has tried it too, and once again, no faces, so I guess they'll both be begging sips.

[peaceful_mama]

Well, I have one now too....16 months old and steals my cup if i'm not looking. Usually 1/4 goat's milk and some STRONG coffee cause that's the way DH likes it. (meaning use like twice the amount you should of the cheap stuff or buy a stronger gourmet bean)

he seems to like it and it doesn't seem to affect him.

I have a friend whose 3/yo is the same way and has been since she was this size. And another friend who *made* her child--now teenaged--her own (heavily milked) "coffee-milk". (we're talkin just enough coffee to discolor the milk a little and appease a toddler)

*I* made my own coffee when I was my oldest's age. (5...I *may* have been 6.) At my grandma's who watched me while my mom worked. And I mean I pulled a chair to the counter, measured the coffee, ran the pot for everybody, AND I had my own two-fingered handled cup. It was green. 70s green. Black coffee, with sugar. And we wonder *why* I seemed to have ADD....

[Latte Mama]

Thank you for the laughs mamas! I pictured a bunch of toddlers grouped around a table with steaming mugs . I'm glad that I'm not so horrible after all.

[hakeber]

Very milky coffee...just like his mama...basically melted coffee ice cream.

But yes, Dh and I like a cup o' joe now and then and so does ds. It really has no more caffine than the chocolate cake we'd probably have with it.

[Ruthie's momma]

Another lousy momma here...

DD loves coffee! And, she has for a long time. DH and I really enjoy our coffee drinking ritual. So, we drink something coffee related everyday (brewed black, espresso, cafe au laits and/or lattes).

On the weekends, DD asks for a cafe au lait. DH makes her a tiny mug with a smidge of brewed French roast (maybe a tsp?) and a lot of steamed/foamed whole milk. She sips it while lounging at the breakfast table with us...it is pretty cute!

[brittney_]

Add me too! When DS was younger than 2, he grabbed my mug of very strong, black coffee and gulped. I was expecting a grimace but he loved it! He's 3 now and still asks for sips of coffee, and if we go to *bux or another coffee shop he asks for coffee.

[ShadowMoon]

DS hasn't gotten the coffee drinking bug yet, but he LOVES roasting it! His father is the roaster at a local shop and DS loves to help gather the beans, clean the roaster, help pour them in and dump them when they're done. He also loves the smell of fresh roasted coffee. It won't be long.......

[reignbelle]

I only worry about the sugar. Daddy's black coffers no prob. Milk coffee totally cool . The time dd2 drank half a iceTd mocha while I was in the bathroom little worried... I thought shed be sick!

[Meems]

Here I was thinking my kid was off her rocker... she is always trying to steal sips of our coffee... she'll say, "Jus twoooooo sips, mommy!"

[elleystar]

I thought I was the only one, too! My DS just loves the taste of coffee, though lately he'll only ask for some maybe once a week. If he sees me with a disposable cup he's always interested in THAT, though. There is a S***bucks in our Safeway. I've actually discovered that he will eat more food, and a greater variety of food, if we're out somewhere new and 'special'. So once we finish our grocery shopping we'll go sit at a table by the coffee place, I'll pull out the various snacks I brought along for him, and get myself a coffee. The gal who's always working there is really sweet. She will give me an empty cup in their smallest size (8 oz?), with a lid, and I'll put water in it for him. He feel special with his own little cup and doesn't care what's in it. We'll bring it home and I'll put milk in it for him later. He drinks from it till it falls apart.

[ncavillones]

My daughter (20 months) recently got into the coffee habit, too!! Mommy and daddy drink it every morning, after all, and we eat every meal as a family, so naturally she wants to join in. I have these little espresso cups, so we put a little coffee in there, and fill the rest with milk (I would say 1/4 coffee to 3/4 milk, LOL). She loves it, she feels included, and it doesn't hurt, as far as I know. We do limit it to one "cup" though, which she didn't like at first, but now doesn't argue about it anymore.