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I am of Cuban descent and grew up drinking cafe con leche. Milk with cuban style expresso shot. Think bottles to sippy cups...lol My kids however are suffering since I only allowed decaf style cafe con leche. I don't allow them commercial soda but do have a soda stream. They make their own flavored water "soda". If we are out for for a meal, I will allow them a sprite/7up. So to answer your question, it depends. I grew up with it just fine but I do limit my own kids' intake of caffeine for health reasons. But if I see kids at starbucks (all the time) it doesn't make me look twice due to my upbringing.
I have a Cuban friend, she was the same way.
We drank tea as children, but not coffee. I didn't drink coffee until I was 20 and got a secretarial job where I had to make it.
My mother drank coffee as a kid. They were poor and there wasn't enough milk to go around, so everybody got some milk in their coffee for breakfast.
I have been drinking coffee since I am 10, mostly milk and very little coffee back then but when I reached HS it was full blown high test for me with milk and sweetener.
Coffee doesn't give normal kids energy so much as it makes them less sleepy and more alert... just like adults... and makes them irritable and interferes with sleep if they take too much... just like adults. On the other hand, coffee calms down some hyperactive kids with ADHD, much the same way Ritalin does.
Second, sugar does not make kids hyperactive. Numerous studies have shown this to be true, but the myth persists. Here's a little lite reading on the subject:
I sampled it occasionally as a kid (at church coffee hours, mostly) but with lots of cream and sugar. I think my coffee drinking parents were just amused, as I just did it to be like the grown-ups, although, in retrospect, I'm sure there were adults thinking, "What kind of parent lets their eight-year old drink coffee?"
This was years before the coffee shop fad took off. I think today many kids/teens might like "coffee" because they associate it with caramel macchiatos and the like --- sweet beverages that are really more milk and sugar than anything. Of course many adults are the same way!
Interestingly, when I lived in the Czech Republic, you could buy "Children's Soda", i.e. colas without caffeine. In school cafeterias kids drank herbal tea, usually at room temperature. Caffeine in any form was considered inappropriate for children. Of course, you could also easily (and illegally) get served beer in a pub at fifteen there...
Interestingly, when I lived in the Czech Republic, you could buy "Children's Soda", i.e. colas without caffeine. In school cafeterias kids drank herbal tea, usually at room temperature. Caffeine in any form was considered inappropriate for children. Of course, you could also easily (and illegally) get served beer in a pub at fifteen there...
I'd sooner accept alcohol for children...anything that makes them calmer
When I was a kid I spent the night at my grandfathers house one night, well the next morning he allowed me to drink some coffee with him (he was easily persuaded), and when I got to school I got diarrhea and pooped in my pants.
The teacher was partly to blame too because she made me wait to go to the bathroom, but no, it's probably not a good idea.
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I don't allow them commercial soda but do have a soda stream. They make their own flavored water "soda". If we are out for for a meal, I will allow them a sprite/7up. So to answer your question, it depends. I grew up with it just fine but I do limit my own kids' intake of caffeine for health reasons. But if I see kids at starbucks (all the time) it doesn't make me look twice due to my upbringing.
