Coffee for Kids?

I am a coffee lover. In fact, I do take an average of 2 cups daily. As I’m not really after the caffeine, I’m perfectly ok to go the ‘decaf’ option. Or probably that’s just an excuse to get more cups! My husband likes it too so we normally have coffee after dinner.

Getting Started
My daughter RD is starting to get curious on coffee. We make her a cup of hot chocolate drink whenever we make our coffee. And as the curiosity grows, she would start asking us to give her choc drink a ‘hint of coffee’. While we haven’t really allowed her to have a full cup, on a few occasions, she would work hard to convince us to let her take a sip.

So Mom, when did you start drinking coffee?
So when can kids start having coffee? I can’t remember exactly when I had my first cup as a kid. Maybe there is no such thing as ‘right age’ to have coffee. Wait until one becomes 18? Probably not. Most ‘now’ parents probably had theirs earlier.

Weigh your coffee!
Why do parents keep children away from coffee? It may be attributed to a list indicating ill-effects of coffee. On the contrary, just search around the web and you’re sure to find a long list of health benefits it has to offer. Some of these are probably unknown two decades back. Needless to say, the ‘image’ of coffee is slowly but surely starting to get better. Though we must be reminded that anything in excess will potentially be harmful. Same is true with coffee.

Mom, can I have my coffee?
Okay, some research do point out coffee in moderation have benefits. So should I give my kid a cup for breakfast? I think the parental reflexes will know! Surely we won’t give coffee to a 3 year old, or a 4 year old, and so on. I think the bottomline is that we keep kids away from coffee because we want them to focus on foods with more nutrients in their growing years. There will come a time when we’ll know that we, parents and children, can bond together with frequent talks over a cup of coffee.