Should children be allowed to drink coffee?

Great Debates
21

I’ve been drinking Café-au-lait (I guess that’s sorta like a latté - dark roast espresso + LOTS of warm milk) since grade one, with breakfast. It didn’t really affected me negatively- I wasn’t hyperactive to begin with… I loved the taste of coffee when I was little (still do). In French culture, children drink café au lait and watered-down wine. I remember doing that from very early on.

At the same time, mind you, I ate kick ass lunches my dad made every day. We’re talkin’ gourmet in a lunchbox (much the envy of my peers) and rarely got any “junk food”.

Meh. Who knows. To each his own.

22

High caffeine intake curbs appetite, which leads to less food intake. Sorry, to distress but I’m not just blowing steam…I’ll see what cites I can find.
Also, caffeine use in children is not advised if they are taking medication due to adverse drug interaction.

Pregnant women are advised to not use caffeine because of possible birth defects.

It’s not completely harmless. It’s also not heroine…w/ moderation and good dietary practice, I don’t have a problem.

BTW my wife and daughter both have MD. We have had to have cysts removed due to caffeine effects crossed with drug interaction. My master’s in clinical psych with emphasis on pharmacology helps.

Don’t get defensive w/ me regarding caffeine and YOU. I’m referring to folks who let their kids eat whatever is available and don’t see that they ALSO eat what they should.

I do all of the cooking at home and we do NOT do fast food except on rare occasion and then I’m really particular.

Example: My son has no MD…he is top of his class in all courses. Learned to read at four y/o. Excels at sports, music, public affairs.

Eagle scout at 14, ham radio license at 9, already accepted to several universities, top 1% in national testing, numerous awards for every field of endeavor etc. the list goes on.

My daughter despite her physical challenges, she maintains honor roll status and is extremely healthy considering the doctors told us she might not live to be twenty. She is 15 and while frail she does not need her wheelchair full time. She is a ray of sunshine in every life she touches.

My wife refuses to let this thing beat her. I do practically every household chore and all errands to give her time to rest. She is unable to work full time and I wish she wouldn’t work part time but like I said…

Caffeine is not available here for the most part, as per doctors orders and common sense. Good nutrition combined with a nurturing environment…now that’s priceless. :slight_smile:

23

http://www.ochsner.org/news/FL_03-01.html

http://abcnews.go.com/onair/2020/2020_000216_caffeine_crreports.html

http://www.google.com/search?q=caffeine+harmful+children&btnG=Google+Search&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

http://www.compwellness.org/eJournal/2000/0522.htm

Just a few off the top. Yes I know you can cite links that contradict these, that’s cool. That’s why it’s debatable.

Note that many or most reputable counter sources claim caffeine is NOT harmful when used in moderation. This should be a warning to you.

It is also considered to be addictive, including withdrawal symptoms and a graduated tolerance level.

Sources also state that one coke in a small child is equivalent to you or I consuming a two liter coke or a half a pot of coffee. That is abusive to a rapidly developing mind and body. Combine that with a diet consisting of less nutritional value and what do you get?

A person who is less developed than their potential would allow if properly nurtured.

Just the way I see it. :slight_smile:

Peace

24

But everything is harmful when not used in moderation. Are you saying that appetite suppression is a bad thing in this day and age of excessive obesity in children and adults. Drug interactions can be caused with several food stuffs, should we avoid giving children grapefruit juice because it can interact with MAO Inhibitors, or should we just avoid giving grapefruit to children that take MAO Inhibitors.
Try a search on .edu sites to see how much research supports the notion that caffeine is in general harmful to children.
Nutritionally lacking food is what harms children, to point a finger at caffeine seems to me dangerous as it may lead to the false belief that someone was being conciencious in giving a child a Burger French Fries and Caffeine free Cola. People are easily confused by food information, for example the otherwise intelligent friend who worried about “Carbohydrates, aren’t they bad for you?” after being innondated with info about Atkin’s diet.
I think I’m just saying that caffeine is a very minor problem compared to high fat high sugar low fibre low vitamin stuff that passes for food these days. So I agree with your sentiment t-keela and obviously with your families avoiding caffeine due to your families particular health background, just not your priority. :slight_smile:

25

How many nutritionally sound foods contain caffeine? I can’t think of any off the top of my head.

In any event, even a can of caffeine-free soda like Coke or Sprite can fill up a child and supply empty calories. One can of sugar-sweetened soda contains 150-160 calories, all of it from sugar. Even twelve ounces of diet soda can fill up a child, lessening the appetite and making him not want to eat. (This is why some diets have you drink water before meals. You’re full on the water, so you don’t want to eat so much.)

The upshot of it is that soda is not the wisest choice for a child, caffeine-free or not.

Robin

26

I agree with you in part. So, how much of an addictive possibly harmful drug do you consider moderate or acceptable when dealing with children?

Especially kids who basically are raising themselves. I propose that caffeine abuse is in part responsible for obesity. Rather than eat a good meal, the child is seeking food that fills the craving that caffeine and sugar demands. It just so happens that these snacks are filled with loads of fat and way too many (nutritionally) empty calories.

Without a true energy source to thrive on the child is unable to burn off the fat that is consumed. ie:cyclical sedentary lifestyle resulting in obesity. Just one result and/or reason.

and I’m not sure that I agree that everything is harmful when not used in moderation.

Like I said, it’s y’alls business. I just choose to not gamble with my kids welfare on questionable statistics.

The OP asked whether children should be allowed to drink coffee?

The safe answer is NO…although in certain situations maybe, if you as a parent think you can actually control that intake.

Fine roll the dice, Johnny can’t read’em anyway.

27

If by children not being allowed to drink coffee, it is meant that children should be persuaded against taking high doses of caffeine, and paerents should be educated about possible problems with children drinking coffee. Then I would agree with you 100%.
If what is meant, is that Children should not be allowed by force of law to not drink any coffee, or pehapse not drink any caffiene containing drinks, I would be in extreme dissagreement.

I wrote that everything is harmful when not used in moderation because I couldn’t think of something which is not harmful if used immoderately. Moderate is defined as “Within reasonable limits” by my Webster’s College Distionary, and so immoderate would be outside reasonable limits which sounds pretty harmful to me.

28

Been a coffee drinker since I was a little over a year old and grandma managed to get it into my bottle/cup/whatever.

I don’t start a day without coffee and will regularly go through a pot of it myself in a day, and I’ve been doing the coffee for breakfast thing since I was in first grade.

The only abnormal thing I’ve noticed is that I am an engineer…

I can’t tell anyone else what they should feed their own kid, but those are decisions every parent should be making for themselves.

29

**Even children who typically consume 28 milligrams a day (less than an average soda) felt symptoms. “Children can in fact become dependent on caffeine,” notes Goldstein (A. Goldstein and M.E. Wallace, “Caffeine Dependence In Schoolchildren,” Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, Vol. 5, pp. 388-392 (1997)). **

Just a little something I came across today. It reminded me of this thread.
It goes on to describe symptoms, both physical and mental, side effects of caffiene usage in adolescent children.

Children suffering from caffeine abuse are sometimes misdiagnosed as having ADHD which may then result in prescribed medications and behavioral modification.

As many of you probably already know, Ritalin (methylphenidate) speed is given to kids with ADHD to help them focus and to calm their behavior. This is opposite from how it alters behavior in children without ADHD. Some of these kids wind up in trouble at home , school and publicly. Some will be expelled from public school and placed alternative programs and in juvenile facilities.

I think of the few that I have known that wound up in “boot camps” or even worse, prison and/or cemetery.

My god, I shudder to think that even one child that I taught suffered this possibility. All because he needed a fu**ing coke and got into trouble at school.

I used to teach troubled kids in alternative education. I swear some of them simply had a bad day and it got worse. Somehow they wound up there.

So we apparently have a large number of OUR children that are being punished/abused whatever you want to call it. Why?
I think I’m going to pursue this line of thought. Children misdiagnosed with ADHD due to caffeine use and/or abuse.
I’ll get some figures and see what’s up.

Sorry to beat a dead old horse. I just thought someone might be interested.
I don’t really think caffeine is EVIL. Just something that should be taken a little more seriously.

:slight_smile: