I have never drunk coffee; I think the constant smell of Folger’s in the house ruined it for me forever. However, my supervising teacher swore up and down that coffee would help our superhyper student with ADHD calm himself and focus. She would often give him two cups of black coffee in the morning and it did seem to help.

As for giving coffee to my children, my oldest is so picky that I doubt he will ever ask to try. My youngest has, at the ripe old age of 2.5, tried coffee and declared it yucky. He does like ice tea and soda which I don’t want him to have. I have had to stop ordering sodas for myself in order to keep it from him. Caffeine does make it harder for him to sleep.

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I also have no problem with my children having coffee. Cafe au lait was a regular feature of my childhood, and I suspect a few ounces of coffee with warmed milk has very little caffeine, and it tastes wonderful, so why not? I would definitely much rather they have coffee than cola, although I don’t freak out about that, either. I just make sure it’s not something I buy and keep in the house.

This is interesting. I think it’s based on the individual child and how much caffeine they are consuming. It sparked the thought that many countries allow children to drink wine and other alcohol at a very young age. And it’s really a non-issue. You could argue red wine offers health benefits to children and teens. And takes the edge off making it taboo. So I’m not sure caffeine would be much different depending on how it effects that child.

I’ve also known many people who fall asleep after a huge thermos of coffee. So stimulants do different things to different people. My guess (though not backed by anything) is that caffeine is probably better for most children than sugar.

I give my son milk with a little bit of coffee in it, but my husband’s family is from RI, so therefore it’s not weird.

Linda,

I’m pretty sure parental consent meant something a little different there. This was a BIA boarding school. Students who boarded were under the care of staff and that included the administration of medicine, seeking medical care, food, bathing etc. We took students to the doctor, to the eye doctor, on field trips, to religious ceremonies (traditional.. not Christian) etc. without specific consent forms because that was all consented upon registration.

I do not know if my supervising teacher was advised to do so under the care of a doctor or not. I DO know that culturally giving coffee to children was considered the norm there.

This particular child’s mother was an alcoholic who was impossible to locate and was frequently in trouble with the law. I once visited their home. It was one room, not insulated (and it gets COLD there), with a single bed and no running water or electricity. No bathroom. At the ripe old age of 8, he ran loose when not in school. Pencils and paper were a luxury to him. He was smart but had a horrible time focusing and could be very aggressive… except when he had been given coffee. You may be disturbed by this but she was acting in what she perceived to be his best interest.

Linda,

He was neglected and abused. So many (most?) of the children in that school were. It always amuses me to see people who say they came from nothing pointing their fingers at me to say I don’t know how privileged I am.. when they have so much more than many.

As for institutionalized.. I guess you could call it that but I wouldn’t. It was a school.. not an institution. The kids were warm, fed, clothed, clean and cared for. They were educated and exposed to a greater world. That’s more than their parents were capable of doing for them. There was one girl who was enrolled at 4 with her older sisters because her parents couldn’t feed them. We took them skating, to pow wows, and to museums.

The coffee helped.