Thanks for the recipe, Dangerosa!
Children diagnosed with ADD can benifit from caffeine. I’ve heard of one boy who prefers to drink a cup of coffee every morning instead of take Ritalin. He’s been doing this for about ten years.
I’ve been drinking coffee since I was very young. My aunt’s a dietician and threw her hands up in horror when she discovered I refused to drink milk. Making it into coffee solved the problem. I don’t drink tea, incidentally. Can’t stand the stuff, though most of my friends like it. They all take their cups of tea into their classes in the morning, and I’m the only one sitting at her desk with the mug of coffee. 
I limit caffeine/sugar consumption in my kids. Soda, coffee, sugar, chocolate. I wasn’t allowed to drink “real” coffee until I was a teen, and thus the tradition is continued in my own children. My ten-year old loves coffee! He’s always been the one who tried to sneak a sip from my cup when I had my back turned, so we finally bought him some instant de-caffeinated coffee.
And being in Canada, Mountain Dew has no caffeine (I believe). Not the my kids like it much.
Wow. Canadian Mountain Dew doesn’t have caffeine?
We were allowed to drink coffee occasionally as a special treat. Even then it was mostly warm milk and sugar with a dash of coffee. It made me feel so grown-up and sophisticated.
We seldom had soft drinks either. Those were reserved primarily for picnics. My mom would fix cold fried chicken, bread-and-butter sandwiches, and Cokes. Our everyday beverage choices were juice or milk.
Caffeine makes you stay awake for longer. Why would any parent want[* that* for their kids - they stay up long enough as it is! Plus, caffeinated drinks make it more difficult for the body to absorb vitamins and minerals; not good for an adult, worse for a child. I am a Diet Coke addict, but my daughter isn’t allowed anything like that. The effect it has on me is not the effect I would like to see in my child, and frankly she just doesn’t need it.
Additionally, at 5 years old she still knocks her drinks over quite often, so any hot drinks have to be handled carefully with her.
I started drinking coffee with milk and sugar when I was four. My grandfather had coffee every day in the afternoon, and I would have some with him. We’d have crackers and cheese and then watch cartoons. I was about the quietest, most sedate child you can imagine, so it didn’t seem to have made my hyperactive.
In elementary school, I only got it on the weekends, when I’d have some with my parents. In junior high, my mom left me a cup of coffee before school every morning, and in high school I’d set the coffeemaker timer at night and have at very least a cup before school.
When I went to college, my aunt and uncle gave me a little coffeemaker. It’s been well used.
Who are you calling a Junkie!!!???
If coffee’s an “adult” beverage, I guess I’m a lot younger than I look; I’ve never developed a taste for the stuff.
Coffee’s like celery, for me- I can’t understand why people like the stuff. shudder