How much caffeine is in Lipton Iced Tea?

[birthjunkie27]

I am CRAVING iced tea and some Lipton just happened to make it's way into our house.....how much caffeine *is* in this? I've been avoiding coffee and pop so would it be stupid to drink iced tea?

[Spark]

Well, if you haven't had any caffeine, it might just give you a big buzz. It is generally accepted to have 1-2 cups of coffee a day throughout pregnancy. I don't know if that's why you're off caf or not though.

HEre's your answer though: http://wilstar.com/caffeine.htm

[birthjunkie27]

I've just been trying to avoid caffeine in general....even though I know it's "ok" to have 1-2 cups of java a day....I'm paranoid about what I put in my body. My Bradley instructor (from first pregnancy) once put it like this: If mom weighs 140 lbs and baby weighs 7 lbs (which it doesn't yet...I think ) then baby receives the equivalent of 20x what mom consumes. That really freaked me out....now I don't know how much of it baby actually gets....but still. Freaky nonetheless.

Anyway, thanks Spark for the caffeine chart, that's awesome! It says on there that Lipton Brisk only has like 9 mg of caff. But my tea doesn't say Brisk...just Lipton iced tea, Lemon. Oh, well, I guess it won't hurt to give in to a craving. Thanks again!!!!

[Geofizz]

Originally Posted by birthjunkie27

I've just been trying to avoid caffeine in general....even though I know it's "ok" to have 1-2 cups of java a day....I'm paranoid about what I put in my body. My Bradley instructor (from first pregnancy) once put it like this: If mom weighs 140 lbs and baby weighs 7 lbs (which it doesn't yet...I think ) then baby receives the equivalent of 20x what mom consumes. That really freaked me out....now I don't know how much of it baby actually gets....but still. Freaky nonetheless.

Ok, that's really bad logic.

First off, the baby also has 1/20 the amount of blood. So by the logic your Bradley teacher gave you, the baby would be getting approximately the same effect as you are. HOWEVER, not all chemicals cross the placenta in the same proportion they are in your blood. Some preferentially cross the placenta giving the baby a relative higher concentration, and some chemicals are filtered out by the placenta, giving th ebaby a significatly lower relative dose. I have no idea where caffeine sits with this, though.

I have read that the half-life (time for the concentration to drop to half maximum) of caffeine in an adult system is something 5-8 hours, but is significantly longer in the baby. This is all relative to the peak concentration in the individual though, and says nothing about how much actually reaches the baby.

The recommendation of 1-2 cups of coffee per day is based on a french study showing no ill effects from up to 6 cups a day.

All that being said, yeah, I avoid caffeine in large quantities, but when it's hot out, nothing's better than a cup of iced tea.

[mykidsrock]

not enough :LOL

[birthjunkie27]

Geo, thanks for putting it into perspective. I knew that her logic wasn't really adding up...the placenta does filter out a lot (but like you said how much, we don't know), and the baby metabolizes things at a different rate, etc.....

Up to 6 cups of coffee and no ill effects according to a study? WOW! That's crazy! I don't think I'd feel comfortable even having 1 or 2 cups, no matter what the studies show.

[Geofizz]

I'm normally someone who only functions with a coffee cup in my hand, but under any circumstances, 6 cups would make me sick.

Ok, I'm glad that explanation made sense. On my way home, I came up with a more convincing way to show that the logic didn't work. Take it to an extreme: When you go back to the time when the baby was just a few cells, then the baby would be 100% caffeine.

Yeah, kidsrock, days like today, iced tea doesn't have nearly enough caffeine!