Does your toddler drink coffee? Know what could be the ill-effects

Your munchkin is sitting right beside you while you have your early morning dose of coffee. Looking at you, he starts crying, what's the easiest thing to do? Let him taste it, right? WRONG.

Aishwarya Iyer | Published: August 10, 2018 7:45 pm

Not that I am not a coffee lover or that I profess to never let my baby drink coffee but, worryingly, this whole idea about letting your cutie patootie drink some amount or rather any amount of coffee every day could not be a great idea. The thing about caffeine consumption is that, as adults you and I can kick off the habit as and when we want, in case we are veering off the permissible limits but sadly, your toddler cannot.

If a 2015 study by the Boston Medical Center is to be believed, about 15 per cent of toddlers consume about 4 ounces of coffee every day. This measurement is about half a cup each day, irrespective of the age of this child. The study was concluded that roughly 2.5 per cent of one-year-old’s drank coffee and this number went up by the age of two.

Is coffee safe for your munchkin?

We understand that, as a parent you’re definitely not forcing your kid to have coffee or caffeinated drinks. But when you play the role of a parent, you are setting an example for your kid. Paternal ethnicity and accessibility to coffee could be some reasons as to why your toddler is having coffee. However you justify it, it isn’t safe for your kid- not when he/she is a toddler.

What happens when your tiny tot gulps coffee?

A study by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in 2014 found that there was a rise in the consumption of caffeine in children. In their report, they pointed that most kids drink caffeine in some form of the other- soda drinks being the most obvious. After soda drinks came coffee, followed by energy drinks.

As of now, AAP hasn’t set any guidelines on how much caffeine your kid to have and when its permissible for a baby to have caffeine in any form, but AAP specifies that they do not recommend any kid before the age of 12 to consume caffeine in any form. Many studies have proven that consuming caffeine, clubbed with lifestyle habits could lead to many negative effects such as:

Obesity
Sleep disturbances
Stomach problems
Depression
Nervousness
Anxiety
Dehydration
Diarrhea
Elevated heart rate
Difficulty in paying attention or concentrating

Well, well, well, as a parent, it is quite impossible for you to say that your kid is obese. We all want our kids to be happy and healthy- but, remember that being healthy and being overweight are 2 different things. Your caffeine or coffee addiction could easily be the reason for your baby to like it and have it- which by the way could cause him obesity.

According to studies, toddlers who drank coffee in between their meals actually had more chances of being obese in kindergarten than those kids who never had them. Do not forget that as toddlers, they have less body mass index and their body cannot adept to caffeine like your body can and hence, they are more likely to face the negative effects faster.

Tip for parents:

Don’t give in to the demands of your crying baby and give him a spoon of coffee daily. Understand that much isn’t known about how caffeine could affect your toddler and you don’t want to go wrong with the development of your child.

Published: August 10, 2018 7:45 pm

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