Caffeine and Kids
June 18, 2009
This week on Backtalk we are talking about kids and caffeine. Do you allow your children to drink coffee? What about soda? How about those “energy” drinks?
Soda and “energy” drinks drive me crazy and turn me into one of those judgmental sorts of parents. Diet soda especially makes me nuts. Coffee? Not so much. In fact, I allow my teenagers to have a cup of coffee every morning.
Thus proving that my parenting (and probably yours too) is full of contradictions.
Posted by Chris @ 9:01 am
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I’m with you. Soda, or simply pop as we call it up here in Canada, is an occasional occasion, and never at our house. Don’t buy the stuff. Energy drinks? Do kids need more energy?? Coffee…once they’re older (they’re 4 and 1) I will probably allow a cup if they want it.
June 18th, 2009 at 9:14 amBottom line is if you make it something that is mysterious and off limits, it’s all the more attractive. Generally speaking. Diffuse their interest by letting them have some. Don’t make it taboo. Everything in moderation.
June 18th, 2009 at 9:22 amMy teenage stepson thinks Starbucks is the. best. thing. ever.
Unfortunately, we created an expensive little addiction!
June 18th, 2009 at 9:22 amMy mom must have had the same philosophy as you… we never had soda in the house (except for special occasions) and so I’ve never actually developed much of a taste for it. However, I don’t remember a time in my life where I didn’t drink and enjoy coffee. (Although, when I was a kid, it was half milk and only when the adults had it with dessert.)
June 18th, 2009 at 9:34 amI give my daughter soda once in a blue moon. I try to ration it out like I do candy. Too much of it and she bouncing off the walls.
June 18th, 2009 at 9:51 amcontradictions i don’t think (hehehehe) so.
ok maybe once in a while but i’m the mom and the mom is always right (hehehehehe)
when it comes to caffeine i limit it. Soda sometimes. i prefer that they dink a caffeine free soda. energy drniks and coffee are not allowed at all.
June 18th, 2009 at 10:24 amBottles of sodapop are not kept in the house as like a grocery staple or anything, but if my son wants to have some at a restaurant or buy a 20oz bottle at the convenience store that’s perfectly fine with me. Coffee is a big no no as are energy drinks and diet drinks.
June 18th, 2009 at 10:41 amSince neither my husband nor I drink coffee, it doesn’t feel like an issue. I try to look to other options for beverages: fruit juices, gatorade, chocolate milk, occasional sodas without caffeine in them, etc. There are so many other options out there, so why not just avoid the other stuff? Not that it’s a big deal, we just don’t bother with it. I agree that making it mysterious adds to its appeal. It doesn’t mean you have to allow your children to drink it. Just make sure your attitude about it is non-fussy. Take a stand, but don’t ram it down their throats, let them decide in the end. If its not in the home, its much less of an option.
June 18th, 2009 at 10:50 amI grew up in a family that prefered soda for all occasions. My dad weighs 320 pounds. It took a long time to put two and two together (obviously soda alone isn’t responsible, but…)
June 18th, 2009 at 10:51 amNow I have my own little family, we treat soda like candy- you can get it as your ONE treat for the week if you want. Usually everyone chooses candy instead.
Soda is way expensive (especially if you get a caffeine habit), unhealthy, bad for your teeth, and not even hydrating. I just don’t see many upsides to treating it as anything other than a rare treat.
I think kids mimic what their parents do. We are not coffee drinkers…and we recently gave up sodas. Consequently, my kids never ask for it. in fact, my daughter (age 5) says soda is “too spicy”!
June 18th, 2009 at 10:52 amI don’t think it’s a contradicition at all! Coffee is a superfood! Pop has high fructose corn syrup. Apples to oranges.
June 18th, 2009 at 11:08 amI allow my kids caffeine free sodas when we go out to eat. Not at home. No caffeinated sodas at all, yet. My kids are 14, 10 and 7.
June 18th, 2009 at 11:14 ami loved the second (and last) video response. so true. its not a big deal to give them a sip. and kids don’t need a whole cup. its ok to say, this is a grown up drink. you can taste it but you can’t have your own.
at the dr.’s office they offered us a sprite. i took it since it didn’t have caffeine but a sprite has 38 grams of sugar!!! i about peed my pants. then i started looking at the juices we have in the house. they are all really bad. i’m not worried about my kids being obese, they run out all their energy, but 38 grams of sugar can’t be healthy.
so, if juice is just as bad, where do you draw the line?
June 18th, 2009 at 11:20 amMine are still little and they don’t like soda and to young for all the other things. But when they are older I would prefer no soda but there father is addicted so it will be limited and no energy drinks. No one in the house drinks coffee so I’m not worried about that one.
June 18th, 2009 at 11:26 amAs a kid we drank KoolAid and lemonade. As for coffee, I started drinking that in junior high–always black. I’m sure it came from my Scandinavian roots. 1/2 Danish, 1/4 Swedish and 1/4 Norwegian. Now I drink 2 cups in the morning and iced tea during the day and I have no trouble sleeping at night. My own kids were never interested in coffee until college and then it was lattes for them.
June 18th, 2009 at 11:33 amMy kids (6 and
aren’t allowed to drink soda or coffee. We don’t buy those energy drinks so we don’t have to deal with those. My kids tend to drink water or milk on a daily basis. They know that in our house there are some drinks that only adults are allowed to drink.
June 18th, 2009 at 11:36 amI let them have soda on occasion - like if we go out . I never do energy drinks - seriously people drink those blech! My oldest is 14 - he likes a little coffee with his milk.
June 18th, 2009 at 11:42 amSoda for kids strikes me as just adding fuel to a fire. But then we’re currently handing out lollypops like they’re going out of style. This potty training thing is going to lead to dental bills.
We offer flavored bubbly seltzer water to the kids on special occasions and otherwise no soda for them. No sugar, no caffeine, and mostly natural flavors. Before our son I would have said no on all counts including coffee. However, he spent his first 18 months in Guatemala where milky coffee for kids is pretty typical and he came home with a taste for coca-cola and coffee. We cut out cola but he still gets sips of my coffee once it’s cooled off. And so now his older sister does, too. I figure they’ll have their own travel mugs by the time they’re in kindergarten, but really a teaspoon isn’t doing any harm…right?
June 18th, 2009 at 12:05 pmMy kids don’t get caffeine and rarely get pop. When they get it, it’s usually Sprite. It’s water or milk for a daily drink.
They do get coke on Christmas. This is a big deal to them. It’s become the family joke. But really, they don’t even like it all that much on Christmas.
My 17 year old drinks whatever she wants, but still mostly orders water. Once in awhile she’ll have coffee if it’s cold, but she really doesn’t seem to be all that obsessed.
June 18th, 2009 at 12:21 pmWe aren’t coffee drinkers so my kids get tea, even now at 6 and 7. But tea doesn’t have much caffeine, especially the kinds we buy and they drink.
We don’t keep much soda in the house and energy drinks not at all. I will discourage my children from drinking it, but I won’t make it completely taboo. They don’t drink soda now. Too young imo.
June 18th, 2009 at 12:31 pmif we do soda its the non-caffeinated varieties like Sprite, Grape, etc. And it’s only on very special occasions. We (my husband and I) don’t drink coffee or tea, so it’s a non-issue for us. (We’re LDS.)
June 18th, 2009 at 12:42 pmI have never allowed my 5 year old to have soda. I was starting to think I was alone on this one. I also don’t buy it so it the temptation is gone.
Perhaps I lazy, but I’m tired by bedtime with out giving her caffeine.
Wait, maybe I need a soda!
June 18th, 2009 at 12:47 pmI haven’t heard anyone mention the effects that caffiene has on bones and calcium absorbtion. My kids are 6, 4, 2 and not quite born yet and my husband and I tell them straight up that as a child they are still growing, so caffiene is completely off limits until they have reached their full potential and it’s no longer such a risk. Of course my husband and I try to be as healthy as possible so we never drink coffee and only very occationally will we drink caffinated sodas. Even regular sodas are rare simply because of the high amounts of sugar crap in them. My question is, why would anyone let their kids drink anything if it’s proven that it stops your bones from absorbing calcium and even can stunt bone growth??? That is simply nuts to me.
June 18th, 2009 at 12:48 pmRe: Judgment - A bean grown on a tree with a cloud of cream or milk and a spoonful of sugar, compared to high fructose corn syrup mixed with bubbly water and flavor OR aspartame/other artificial sweeteners mixed with bubbles and flavor… I see a difference. Everything in moderation, even soda and coffee, I know.
Side note about high fructose corn syrup before the people that run those ads about how wonderful HFCS is come after me: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090325091811.htm
My mom was worried about caffeine stunting our growth, and I’m not sure if that has been scientifically studied or is just an old wive’s tale. My sister and I started seriously drinking coffee after we stopped growing and we didn’t like soda very much, so it wasn’t a big concern.
June 18th, 2009 at 1:04 pmI didn’t let my son drink it when he was younger. I let him occasionally have a sprite if we were out to eat or something. He started drinking caffeinated sodas probably around age 13 or 14 I guess. And coffee maybe around 15? But not when they were little and their bodies and brains were still just forming.
When I was in college I worked at a daycare and we had an infant there whose mom would send sweet tea in her bottle. SERIOUSLY.
June 18th, 2009 at 1:12 pmThere are so many studies out there connecting soda (sugary sweets in general) and childhood obesity. It’s really scary. I kept soda away from my kids as long as possible. They never even noticed it until recently. The first time my oldest (now 7) tried it was at a soccer banquet. They had nothing else for kids but soda (not sure what they were thinking). He tried it and did not like it at all. Has not asked for it since. As the person said above - if you aren’t given it, you don’t develop the taste for it.
June 18th, 2009 at 1:33 pmKids generally don’t need more energy, so I’d say “no” to caffeine AND too much sugar. That being said, after a certain age, 13-14, a small cup of coffee at breakfast might be a nice “adult” privilege. It IS awfully hard to get going in the morning…
June 18th, 2009 at 1:39 pmI always considered coffee to be a beverage for grown-ups. I don’t know why. Even to this day, it slightly surprises me when I see kids drinking it. Both my parents drank it, and always had a pot going most of the day. They even had iced coffee in the summer (we’re in Texas). They switched to the decaffeinated kind when they got older. But neither my sister nor I nor our kids drink it. I love the smell when it’s brewing, but haven’t developed a taste for it. And soda wasn’t prevalent when I was growing up like it is today. In fact, powdered kool-aid was the thing marketed to kids which was rarely purchased because it cost money and why spend money when water was free and just fine. With my kids, it’s more the high-fructose corn syrup instead of the caffeine that gives me pause. I don’t like it, no matter what those commercials try to tell (and sell) me.
June 18th, 2009 at 1:41 pmNo soda, energy drinks or coffee for my kids if I can help it. (Occasionally, they’re at someone’s house, or even a school function, and they’ll have soda…but usually they’ll pick Sprite or something without caffeine if they do.) My 9yo daughter has severe acid reflux and soda was a huge contributor. I have since cut it out of all our diets so it’s banished from our house completely. The energy drinks are absolutely out of this question for any of us (but ESPECIALLY kids - good lord). And we’re not coffee drinkers, per se, so that’s that. (Sometimes a Starbucks and even then it’s more like a chai tea frappucinno or something, but I’m the only one who even drinks that stuff).
June 18th, 2009 at 2:25 pmWhat’s the difference between an energy drink and coffee?
June 18th, 2009 at 2:33 pmI was in the grocery store the other day and witnessed a mother pouring soda in her childs bottle…I know I was probably staring but c’mon! My almost 4 year old has never had it! Everyone parents differently, and that’s ok
June 18th, 2009 at 2:33 pmMine are still little. So far a few sips of caffeine-free soda have made it past their lips, but none of the other stuff. I guess there’s nothing wrong with trying them later, if they want. But yeah, I get all prickly too when I see a little kid with a Mountain Dew or an energy drink - like they really need that??
June 18th, 2009 at 2:37 pmNo kids here drink caffeine. Of course, they are currently 2 and 4 years old and I can barely keep up with them as it is. The thought of them on caffeine just makes me twitch! Later on….we’ll see. ;o)
June 18th, 2009 at 2:46 pmNo soda, no energy drinks, no coffee. But then my kids are nearly-4 and nearly-2.
In the future?
Soda - if they pay for it with their pocket money.
June 18th, 2009 at 3:44 pmEnergy drinks - if they are into high-energy sports, maybe, but then they have shown a bowl of cereal is much better for you.
Coffee - hmm. I don’t drink the stuff unless it has cream, sugar and chocolate in it, and then probably only once a month. My husband drinks it every day. I certainly wouldn’t let my kids drink it until they are in their mid-late teens. I do drink tea, and let my kids drink fruit or herbal (peppermint, fennel, chamomile) teas. I might let them drink green tea when they are a bit older.
I laughed reading your post. My girls order Dr. Pepper or Diet Cokes every time we go out to eat, but I would never let them have coffee. Why? I’ve never thought about it before! Funny how we draw the line in our minds.
June 18th, 2009 at 4:07 pmMy kids get soda only at restaurants. And if it’s close to bedtime, only caffeine-free. But I do order diet for my 6-year old. He has the worst teeth ever and after nearly $8000 of dental work so far, I will do anything to keep sugar off his teeth.
I am shocked at how many parents serve their kids Mountain Dew on a regular basis though. That is a NOWAYINHELL thing at my house!
June 18th, 2009 at 4:12 pmJust this past weekend, I saw a mother give her 13 month old a sip of coke from a can. Just to see if she liked it…. I had to walk away.
I don’t have a problem with coffee but sodas and sugary drinks are no-no’s in our household. My kids are 8 & 7, they don’t like coffee, they don’t like soda (woohoo! we don’t keep any in the house anyway) and they don’t like energy drinks. Not that they’ve tried them but I know my kids. They’re so picky!
June 18th, 2009 at 5:31 pmOk - so I watched the video after commenting… I have ADHD and I don’t like coffee but I found an organic “natural” energy drink that I like and it works great in slowing me down and helping me focus. My son has ADHD too. He’s only 7 right now and somehow is able to hold things together at school without meds, but maybe I’ll have to think about letting him drink coffee once he’s older.
June 18th, 2009 at 5:38 pmI will totally admit that I judge when I see toddlers with soda. There is just no need. Kids will be happy with a sweet cup of juice, why give them soda? And I know that TONS of teenagers drink energy drinks. Whenever they were under our roof, I would not let my teenaged stepsons drink them at all, but I know they would get them at school. I even heard of someone bringing a case of Red Bulls to a junior high sleepover at our church and I was so appalled. As far as my own kids, we are pretty strict with their caffeine- only because I just don’t see the necessity in it. My kids are thrilled if I’ll let them have a little clear soda or root beer, so they couldn’t care less if they don’t get to have the caffeinated drinks.
June 18th, 2009 at 6:19 pmThis is one of the many things that changed between the oldest (now 21, hardly any soda) and the youngest (now 8, has soda at home). We recently started mixing plain seltzer and fruit juice instead.
I do try to avoid the caffeine, mostly because I have a terrible reaction to it (large, painful cysts in my breasts, thank you very much). Like Nancy said, the youngest (who lives in the “no caffeine house” my older kids didn’t) often BEGS for caffeine drinks - and also diet soda, for that matter.
Diet soda makes me cringe, too. When I was pregnant with my oldest there was a gal in my Lamaze class who worked for Nutrasweet and she said she’d never ingest it while she was pregnant. My takeaway? Never ingest it at all!
June 18th, 2009 at 6:30 pmI don’t buy into the whole idea that if you are strict with junk food, children will want it more. My mom allowed me to have crappy food and I loved it throughout my life. As for my own kids, I’m incredibly conscientious about the food they eat. And because of it, they think sweets are awesome. They have a deep appreciation for them. At birthday parties they’re usually the last ones up from the cake table, only after they’ve licked their plates clean. I’m always shocked at the children that don’t want the cake. I often wonder if they’re desensitized to it. Like it doesn’t mean anything to them. More importantly I feel like I’m protecting their little bodies for the most important time in their life. As they get older, I know I won’t have the same control and I’m okay with that. I can feel good that I did my job for those precious few years.
June 18th, 2009 at 6:32 pmIn my country we drink coffee as in the espresso italian coffee way. So it is never allowed kids before they turn 16 or 17 and even so, most of us will only start drinking coffee around 19 or 20. Soda, on the other hand, is disgustingly enjoyed by most kids once they turn 3 or 4.
We don’t let our kids (9,7 and 4) any of it. They’re too young and do not need extra energy nor extra alertness, thank you.
Marta from Lisbon
June 18th, 2009 at 6:33 pmWe rarely buy pop, and if we do, it’s non caffeinated.
Jake has sensory sensitivities that are HUGELY magnified when he drinks anything with caffeine, so we keep that off limits. The few times he’s had it, even he has noticed that he’s really buzzing and has a hard time controlling himself, so he prefers not to have any. There’s lots of pop without Caffeine here in Canada, so he chooses that. We’re just not pop drinkers to begin with.
Hubs and I are coffee lovers, but we have told Jake that he has to wait until he’s 16-mostly because of the caffeine issue and coffee at 13, I feel, isn’t good for him. He’ll only be able to drink drip coffee any way as he’s lactose intolerant (so no lattes)
Energy drinks are an absolutely not in our house. I don’t believe they are healthy or wise for a 13 year old kid to drink, from what I have read about them. If caffeine affects Jake as strongly as it does, I can imagine that an energy drink would be BAD.
We stick to good old water, 100 % fruit juices, lactose free milk, and coffee for the adults.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:51 pmI have no problem with my kids drinking soda as long as they continue to brush their teeth and run off the energy outside. I recently decided to stop consuming so much Coca Cola so we are making the transition by making sweet tea by the pitcher about every 2 hours. I don’t know if that is really any better. Coffee? I could never get into that stuff. I am more of a hot tea drinker in the mornings…
June 18th, 2009 at 7:57 pmI allow mine to drink soda, not all the time, but if we go out to eat, they drink it. But we go out to eat way too much, so that probably isn’t good. I’ve never thought about coffee, my husband and I don’t drink it at all, so it isn’t even in the house. As for Energy Drinks, I HATE the things and preach on them regularly.
June 18th, 2009 at 10:10 pmMy kid loves milk and water, never has wanted juice. Soda on the weekends only, but limited. Everything in moderation. I limit sweets somewhat but don’t make a big deal over it and as a result, he will decide not to have desert or finish something sweet on his own. He usually picks milk over soda when we go out. I worry more about too much salt than too much sugar. Everyone is different, I guess.
June 19th, 2009 at 12:36 amI agree about the energy drinks and soda. I think many juices are just as bad though. We do buy OJ but other than that my kids drink plain old water most of the time.
I, however, am seriously addicted to Coke Zero. And that stuff is slowly poisoning me, I just know it.
Chris says: I agree with you about the juice. My children drink no juice at all. It is water here.
June 19th, 2009 at 12:56 amI’m not a soda drinker, neither is my husband, so it’s never been in our house. I was never a coffee drinker until I had my second child. I’m ok with my kids (7,6,4,2)having soda at parties if it’s offered, but currently they don’t like the “bubbles” so they don’t want it. And they’ve never asked for a taste of my coffee or my husbands tea, I would probably let them taste it but that’s about it until they hit at least 14. We stick to milk, water and the occasional fruit juice thrown in as well. And I don’t think my kids even know what an energy drink is!
June 19th, 2009 at 2:00 amI met a woman in the pediatrician’s waiting room whose daughter was about my daughter’s age (8 months). She was pouring Dr. Pepper into a sippy cup and told me that her baby wasn’t motivated to learn how to use a sippy cup when there was water or juice inside, but she’s extra motivated now. She says she’ll switch the baby back to juice once she can use the cup. Umm. Good luck with that.
Oh! And when I was about two, the coffee my mom drank in the mornings smelled so good and I thought she was holding out on my by not giving me any, so I tried to swipe her coffee cup any chance I could. My mom was afraid I’d burn myself so one day, she “gave in” and let me have some. Of course, she gave me the cold, bitter three-hour old coffee, and I hated it and never touched it again.
June 19th, 2009 at 2:02 amHee hee, that IS quite the contradiction, as coffee has WAY more caffeine than soda!
I have many of my own contradictions, though, so I won’t judge.
June 19th, 2009 at 5:51 amNo to energy drinks, yes to occasional soda, and yes, I let my 12 year old have coffee when he wants it before the bus comes. (he doesn’t ask for it every day)
June 19th, 2009 at 8:01 amAs for the freezer, I put some old stuff on the corner of our shop yard with a free sign and 20 MINUTES LATER it was gone. They could have wanted to coils inside of the freezer for something else. Our neighbor made an air conditioning system for his garage with an old freezer.
Soda in a bottle? Ever heard of bottle rot? If that can happen with babies drinking milk from a bottle imagine the damage you can cause by feeding them liquid sugar in the bottle? And don’t give me ‘it’s diet’ … too much of any one thing is bad for you. At that age - milk, water, very little juice.
When the boys were little it was NON-caffinated soda (Ginger-ale/sprite/root beer) - but only for parties. I do NOT keep soda in the house … there is no reason for it.
It never occured to me to offer the boys coffee in their milk … an interesting concept but it won’t work now.
Husband and I drink black coffee, strong black coffee…they don’t even like the smell of it brewing.
Now they are teens and are often out with friends - without mother monitoring their intake. Oldest son INHALES soda - preferring the caffinated type every chance he gets. Youngest son doesn’t care for soda … Luckily they have a soccer coach who talks about practicing, training and EATING RIGHT as part of the way to make the team each year.
ENERGY DRINKS ARE EVIL … and an incredible waste of calories. I’d rather eat a bag of cheetoes than drink one of those!
June 19th, 2009 at 8:27 amSoda and such is not “taboo” in my house…it’s just not an issue. The girls (5 and 2) know that mommy and daddy may have soda, but their options are milk, juice or whatever…and, when in restaraunts, sprite. When they’re older, the occassional soda may be an option.
June 19th, 2009 at 9:13 amYep, I’m also contradictory. I allow my kids to drink tea regularly - usually decaf. Soda, and even Kool Aid, is pretty much for party consumption only and never diet. They don’t need that artificial sweetener crap in their systems as kids. They can ruin their bodies as adults if they so choose. Energy drinks have no place whatsoever in a child’s diet imo. And yes, I get judgmental when I see your baby with soda in their bottle or toddler with it in their sippy cup. Not to say my kids only eat granola and tree bark, but I do have my limits.
June 19th, 2009 at 10:14 amUgh, I’m so with you on those darn energy drinks. My sno is always asking if he can try one, oh no way buddy. Another thing is on school picnics they offer kids soda and kool aids, I’m not okay with this, juice is fine, water is fine but not something you haven’t asked. We were invited to one of those picnics and we were asked to bring a 12 pack of sodas, we decided we were not going after that.
June 19th, 2009 at 10:20 amFor us coffee isn’t an issue right now because my kids are only 3 and 6. When they’re teenagers, I’ll let them have a cup if they want. I do make tea for my oldest sometimes but it’s more milk than tea so there’s minimal caffeine.
As for pop (pardon my Canadianism), we do let them have some but not often. It’s more like a treat and we don’t let them have a ton of it. It’s not so much the caffeine that’s a problem for me since they prefer the ones that are caffeine-free anyway (like Sprite, cream soda, or Mountain Dew - Mountain Dew is caffeine-free here in Canada), but the sugar levels. I’m not completely anti-sugar but if it’s hot out and they’re thirsty it’s easy to chug down a ton of pop and get way too much sugar all at once.
Energy drinks are a definite no for me. *I* won’t even drink those things because they freak my body out, I would be livid if I saw my kids drinking one.
June 19th, 2009 at 10:55 amSomeone asked what the difference was between energy drinks and coffee. From what I’ve read, energy drinks have WAY MORE caffeine than coffee. I would never touch one. Our society survived (competitive sports or not) for many years without them. I don’t see any good in them at all.
Someone else mentioned Mountain Dew. I’m totally with you! I would never, ever let my kids touch it - not even my teenager. I saw a special on Dateline (maybe? 20/20?) about kids in the hills of West Virginia that are impoverished, and they - for some reason - all seem to drink Mountain Dew from preschool age on. TONS OF THEM end up losing their teeth by mid-childhood, and the dentists said it was strictly linked to the Mountain Dew. Scary.
June 19th, 2009 at 11:50 amPeople in my low-income neighborhood have pop in their bottles all of the time. I was drinking coffee at 14, and by 16 it was a daily habit, first thing in the morning. I didn’t know that was a big deal.
June 19th, 2009 at 11:58 amWe have three choices:
water
milk
sweet tea (hey, we ARE from the South)
Energy drinks are loaded with sugar. Ditto juice. Yes I let mine have a soda now and then. And once they got ahold of some Mt. Dew. It was frightening how that stuff affected them 30 minutes after drinking it!
June 19th, 2009 at 12:18 pmWe do not have a huge problem with soda but our children rarely have it. We do allow them to have coffee and tea. Energy drinks none of us LIKE…so I guess that is a non-issue.
June 19th, 2009 at 12:25 pmVickie-
The difference between energy drinks and coffee is the horrid amount of sugar in the energy drinks and I am not positive but I think the caffeine is amped up in the energy drinks as well.
To the person who commented on the non-cake party goers, I don’t think it has anything to do with conditioning. My 9 year old son doesn’t care at all for sweets other than the occasional ice cream. My 7 year old daughter would eat sugar out of the sugar bowl with a spoon. But neither of them eat the cake at parties. But hey! More for me!
June 19th, 2009 at 12:25 pmI was a major soda addict. In January, I swore off it (well, anything with high fructose corn syrup), and now I can’t stomach it at all. I switched to tea instead. I’m not a coffee drinker, but my husband is. Big time. Eating an apple provides a morning pick me up so we eat a lot of apples at our house in the morning. The kids think coffee is gross, and that’s just fine with me.
P.S. Soda is kind of a special occasion snack at our house now.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:42 pmI’ve let the kids have coffee before but just straight black. I don’t want them to get all addicted to foo-foo coffee. I’d rather just have them not like it until they can drink it black. Much better.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:48 pmWe buy soda periodically, and if it’s around, the kids can have a glass a few times a week. I agree with the all good in moderation theory. Since we’re big tea drinkers in our our house, my 13 year old son likes to have a cup in the morning, with lots of milk and unfortunately way too much sugar. My 11 year old daughter mostly drinks water and fruit juices. By making soda available with guidelines, we don’t have anyreal conflict.
Energy drinks are so not allowed. Which to my son is like waving the red flag. So we continually discuss this ban. But I think he just likes to yank on my chain by asking.
June 19th, 2009 at 1:50 pmMy kids actually don’t like soda. They don’t like the carbonation (”Too spicy!” says my four year old), though my 9 year old did discover Sprite at a neighborhood party last Christmas, and thought it was great.
Our objection to soda as a regular thing has more to do with the high fructose corn syrup than the caffeine. We don’t keep soda in the house. I drink an iced coffee in the morning–but my husband can’t tolerate caffeine at all, so he doesn’t drink anything stronger than lemonade or a caffeine free root beer. So they’re not seeing us suck down Starbucks all day while we deny them; I think it works out well.
June 19th, 2009 at 3:36 pmYou youngsters need to learn that CARBS are bad. It doesn’t matter whence they come. It’s the carbs. I personally believe, though, that a little sugar does not hurt children. By that I mean enough to sweeten iced tea, which has caffeine, or to sweeten coffee milk for the young children. I did not have sodas around much when my kids were young. I knew the coca cola addict in the house was me and I sure didn’t want my kids going down that road. We did have iced tea and koolaid. Even one as old as I am was brought up on koolaid, always with at least six lemons in it. So I suppose it was really flavored lemonade. Amazing when I compare with today, how cheap lemons were. As long as you are worrying about sugars (carbs) read the label on Kashi, it has more than Life cereal much to my daughter in law’s dismay when I pointed it out to her. ALWAYS read the labels and check for carbs! And don’t make me come back there.
June 19th, 2009 at 4:58 pmMy kids are 7 and 9. Yes to occasional soda when we’re out (although in hindsight we shouldn’t allow it), absolutely not to coffee & energy drinks.
June 19th, 2009 at 5:23 pmMy 14 year old has recently discovered Mt. Dew. UGH! I definitely limit him on how much he can consume but it’s harder as he gets older. I personally don’t mind the caffeine as much as all the sugar. I would rather my kids have a cup of coffee (which they don’t drink, ftr) than pop or juice. Oh and “energy” drinks are totally banned from my house.
June 19th, 2009 at 5:45 pmGrowing up my mom was the opposite: pop was allowed every so often, but NOT coffee. (”Energy” drinks weren’t really around then, or if they were, they weren’t as popular). I didn’t drink coffee until into my 20s, and I had to train myself to like the taste.
A lot of pop doesn’t have caffeine, so if that’s the only issue, then my mom’s pop-but-not-coffee mentality makes sense. But, the fact is pop has lots of OTHER not-so-wholesome things in it, especially diet pop– which I am addicted to.
With my kids, I’m more of a you can have anything once in a while, but everyday drinks are milk, water, and OJ/apple juice. But, meh… we all draw our lines somewhere.
June 19th, 2009 at 6:45 pmI let my kids drink soda, but require them to wear helmets. To each his own.
June 19th, 2009 at 10:42 pmWe don’t do coffee at our house. The kids get soda when we go out to eat. Very rarely do I buy it for them for home.
June 19th, 2009 at 11:38 pmI think I’m in the minority. Personally, I can’t stand coffee, so that’s a non-issue here. My husband drinks it and the kids have tried it, but they think its disgusting like I do. And none of us drink energy drinks. But the pop …. my gosh, am I addicted to the pop. I tell myself its ok because I drink caffeine free diet …. so basically its just brown water, right? (shhh, I know it’s not true, but don’t burst my bubble) And its difficult to tell my kids no to soda when they see me drink it so often.
So what I started doing is every month (I only go grocery shopping once a month) I buy each kid their own 12-pack of soda, their choice. Then they have to make it last all month … which is really only one every two or three days. If they want to suck it all down the first week, then its water, milk, and smoothies the rest of the month. (They are 9, 11, and 12, btw) …..
Do I think this is a great solution? Probably not. Does it work for us, right now? Yep.
June 20th, 2009 at 1:22 amCaffeine for our kids is a huge medical no-no. Our son has major cardiac issues and it is used as part of his treatment when he is in hospital. They have limits as to how much they can give him and if he has built up a tolerance to it, the therapy would be ineffective. I also think juice is horrible for kids teeth, nothing but sugar, however, our children drink it (mostly oj and lemonade) because they will no longer drink the children’s nutritional supplement drinks, like pediasure, and they so underweight (4 yrs old 24lbs with clothes and shoes)that they are not to have anything that doesn’t have calories. I want my children to be healthy, relatively anyway, and it is hard when the medical advice you are personally getting seems to go against well published medical advice. In our house it is no caffeine but if they want a stick of butter for lunch, then they should just have at it. sigh.
June 20th, 2009 at 9:54 amOur daughter drinks milk or water and the occasional glass of organic juice that has been REALLY diluted with water.
My husband and I do enjoy soda when we go out to eat, and we don’t give it to her, we tell her it is for grown-ups,
’nuff said.
I will admit I have once or twice allowed her a sip of my root beer.
I will never allow energy drinks, and to answer the question of the previous commenter, the difference between coffee and energy drinks is that coffee has a minimal amount of caffeine as found in nature. Energy drinks contain “energy” provided from chemicals and ridiculous amounts of sugar. Most energy drinks even have warning labels on the sides which direct that children and pregnant women should not consume them, and require a person to be a certain age before they can purchase them from a store.
June 20th, 2009 at 2:44 pmI used to drink coffee every morning until about 8 months ago. My 3rd child would find my half-drunk cup of coffee and finish it off when I wasn’t guarding it. He loved the taste, evidently, and he was only about 2 yrs old. One time, he was slurping it when I came around the corner. Sheepishly, he asked me, “Is this decaf, Mom?” (like he knew what he was talking about).
June 20th, 2009 at 3:24 pmI was really shocked at the baby bottle with softdrink in it, that is lazy parenting and a disgusting thing to give a small child. I only buy diet de-caf soda, zero sugar and zero caffeine and my boys never complain, they don’t know any better. As for coffee, it’s a drink for adults not kids. Maybe when they reach 15/16 and are up late at night to study for exams they may need caffeine in the morning but I’d rather them have an extra half hour in bed and I’ll drive them to school instead of them getting the bus.
June 20th, 2009 at 6:29 pmThis is totally not related to this post but thought this was a good comeback:
A man boarded a plane with 6 kids.
After they got settled in their seats a woman sitting across the aisle from him leaned over to him and asked, ‘Are all of
those kids yours?’
He replied, ‘No. I work for a Condom company. These are customer complaints.’
June 20th, 2009 at 9:49 pmWe are soda drinkers but usually limit it to one meal if that a day. I’m a huge coffee drinker and my two young adult childre (21 & 18) both love coffee as well. I really don’t see the big deal with it. What makes me laugh are the moms gasping at the soda drinking. Its amazing how many moms load their kids up with fruit snacks and lunchables. Hello sugar and sodium! Its all about moderation.
June 20th, 2009 at 10:51 pmMy daughter is three and a half and laughs at me when offer her a sip of coffee! She says, “no, mommy! When I am big, I can drink coffee and make the fires.” (She really wants to strike a match to light a candle) So. . . I keep the matches safely locked away and don’t burn many candles anymore for that matter. She did try my coffee once and didn’t like it. I wouldn’t mind if she grabbed a sip here and there but she doesn’t care to. I grew up on Coke, but don’t keep soda in the house and don’t drink it anymore unless I go to In-N-Out ’cause ya gotta have a Coke with your Double-Double, duh. My daughter’s eyes lit up just a few weeks ago when I let her try it–she still talks about it! I teach her about healthy eating by feeding her and our family healthy foods and I firmly believe that treats now and then (like that Double-Double and Coke) are all part of that “moderation” we all talk about. Not everyone can survive on Tofu and whole wheat tortillas all the time, sometimes you have to just live it up! Go crazy. I think it was Elmo who once said, “Cookies are a sometimes food.” Wise one, that Elmo. Therefore, once in a while, my daughter will be allowed to sip my soda, and I’m talking about two or three swigs. If she’s lucky enough to be around me when I order one.
By the way, I also never ever serve my daughter fake juice–the stuff in the box. That stuff grosses me out. I have a juicer and I make her fresh juices. I just think the sugar and additives they put in those boxes and bottles are hideous. I know, I know–the stuff in Coke is worse, so I contradict myself. Whaddaya gonna do? Sigh. Being a mom is tough.
Oh, but come on–soda in a bottle???
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June 25th, 2009 at 2:22 am