tea for 2 year olds

[lotsafun]

hiya my 2 year old has relly got into her tea at the moment, she likes to have a cup of milky tea in the morning and before bed, is this ok for a young child?

[mike11111]

Certainly never did me any harm.

[ummmm]

Personally I didn't give mine it but I know loads of people who did.

Tea still contains caffeine..

[annie0000]

Like mike and others my siblings and I were brought up on tea.

However, they dont recommend it for children now because it inhibits the absorbtion of Iron i think. It also contains caffiene as ummmm says, but then so does chocolate.

That probably means that your daughter is not getting the full benefit from the milk that she is drinking. Whether that would do her any harm in the long term if she has an otherwise healthy diet is debatable but i would think probably not.

[carmalee]

why not try rooibos tea - it doesn't contain caffeine -you could change over gradually as it is an acquired taste.

[lotsafun]

yeah thats why i only allow her one when she wakes up and one before bed. Tea was first recommended to me because she get awfully solid poos, despite her having a fab diet and was told that sometimes this can work as a laxative. I think ill start buying the decaf tea bags though just to be on safer side

[annie0000]

Personally I would carry on as you are as long as the caffeine isn't keeping her awake - they have to chemically remove the caffieine from decaffeinated tea and coffee so it is less "natural".

I don't drink tea at all and haven't done since I was a child (I don't drink hot drinks at all - bit of a weirdo!)- my husband doesn't tolerate caffeine at all well, so he uses rooibus (red bush) or other herbal teas instead, i can comment on the taste, but they smell just as horrible as real tea :o)

Hope it is helping with her little poo problem.

[woofgang]

provided that the tea is weak and not the builders variety and hasn't got a ton of sugar in it it should be ok.

[mike11111]

I tend to put decaffeinated tea and coffee into the same category as non-alcoholic beer. Can't see the point in it.

[woofgang]

decaff coffee tastes nice and doesn't leave me bouncing off the walls all night

[China Doll]

Pah... I need a vat of black coffee to get started in the morning, a milky tea seems a perfectly reasonable and terribly mild start to the day... ;0)

I think baby sister went through a phase of having milky tea when she was very young and doesn't seem to have done her much harm, (it was the constant dropping her on her head that caused the damage ;o) I think all I might suggest is not giving it to her before bed as it might stop her getting sleepy.

Have you tried chocolate covered prunes for the poo problems? My docs always recommending the damn things for kiddies with pain passing poo, personally I think it's a cruel and unusual punishment but the children seem to like them and I guess it must work.

[Jemisa]

A milky tea? Thats fine there's hardly a trace of caffeine in it don't worry about putting her on de-caff (she may qbject) if it 'ain't broke don't fix it.
An old expression but very true.

jem

[mike11111]

An old expression indeed, and one which alas is far too often ignored these days.

[Kgrayz]

Hi, They have mickey mouse vanilla tea bags in Tesco ...

[boxtops]

Annie, not weird at all, I very rarely have a hot drink and when I do, it's a weak black green tea, roobois or ginger. Can't think of the last time I had a coffee, and these days milk in my tea would be just wrong. Comes of being married to Scotsmen who only took their tea black!

[fairycakes69]

Hi 3 out of 5 of my kids grew up on milky tea and the are all healthy adults, though the 2 that didn't take tea when they were little now drink it more than the others. Strange, but that's my little darlings for you ,lol

[mamatwo]

My 2 year old leves milky tea as well. I try not to give it to him an hour either side of eating to avoid any worries about it affecting the amount of iron he absorbs from his meals :)