Since our oldest son was two and a half years old his morning breakfast routine has been the same: on the couch in his pajamas, the TV turned to PBS, a waffle or ½ a bagel in one hand and a sippy cup filled with PediaSure and a splash of coffee in the other. Initially the shot of Folgers was just a way to trick him into drinking the PediaSure since he’d been begging us for months to have some coffee.
At the time he was only in the fifth percentile for weight and the doctor told us it was an effective way to extra calories and vitamins in him so we figured we’d risk the caffeine addiction if it meant he might someday weigh more than Calista Flockhart. Now that he’s five years old though, his morning cup of Joe has become more of a habit than a surreptitious way to supplement his diet and I’ve recently been questioning whether I should switch him to herbal tea, decaf or simply phase out the dark roast flavor shot altogether.
Parenting Magazine recommends parents avoid giving caffeine to a child in any form until they are at least six as it is a more potent stimulant to children than adults with even the smallest amounts making them jittery and raising their heart rate and blood pressure even several hours later. Even beyond the Grande Skim Triple Shot Caramel Sippuccino we ply our child with during Curious George, Parenting Magazine reminds us that caffeine lurks in other places, like chocolate, sodas, coffee-flavored ice cream, and yogurt; And for the record Dollar Store Energy Drinks that taste like room temperature fermented apple cider cut with Triaminic also have caffeine in them.
Admittedly the boundaries of my caffeinated permissiveness with my brood (brewed?) were tested when Starbucks began offering new drinks and smaller sizes to appeal to a younger clientele and also when they marketed plastic kid cups that exploded into an adorable dirty bomb of bite-size polyethylene shrapnel when dropped, but it wasn’t like they were establishing kiosks in my son's elementary school next to the book return outside the library, right?
So what’s your position on coffee and kids? Bottomless Sippy Cup? No more for me thanks? Free Refills?
