A Jolt in Your Child's Sippy Cup: Toddlers are Drinking Coffee?

Photo via Remembrance Photography/CafeMom

Talk about reinforcing negative stereotypes. A new study from Boston Medical Center reveals that “approximately 15 percent of toddlers (age 2) in Boston consume as much as four ounces of coffee a day,” which arguably backs up the assumption that East Coasters, even kids, are impatient and continuously on-the-go.

Researchers analyzed information from 315 mothers and their babies and discovered that 14 percent of 2-year-olds were given one ounce of coffee daily by their parents. The study, which was published this month in the Journal of Human Lactation, also says some of those children drank as many as four ounces a day.

Aiming to analyze how weight gain after a baby’s birth correlates with his or her body index at age 2, researchers looked at breast milk, formula, water and juice. While coffee wasn’t on the list, many mothers reported that they gave it to their child, not just to try but to drink, noted wellness news platform HealthDay.

At one year the rate of coffee consumption reported was 2.5 percent of children and a jump to just above 15 percent at two years was marked. The average daily consumption for these children was 1.09 ounces.

The US has not provided guidelines on coffee consumption for children but Boston Medical Center states that previous studies suggest that coffee and caffeine consumption among children and adolescents is associated with type 1 diabetes, substance abuse and obesity. One study showed that 2-year–old children who drank coffee or tea in between meals or at bedtime had triple the odds of being obese in kindergarten.

Mike Donovan, store manager of family-owned coffee shop Joe in New York City, argues that the likelihood of obesity is linked to what parents add to their child’s cup of coffee.

“The coffee [or tea] that kids are drinking probably has sugar in it,” Donovan, who works at the company’s Columbia University location, said to Patch. “You wouldn’t give your child black coffee.”

Donovan also noted that caffeine has not been confirmed as damaging to a child’s body unlike the sugar in sodas parents let their children drink.

The BMC study indicated that infants and toddlers of Hispanic mothers in Boston were more likely to drink coffee than those of non-Hispanic mothers. Female infants and toddlers were more likely than males to drink coffee, and children in countries such as Cambodia and Ethiopia sometimes do as well. The results of the study, principal investigator Anne Merewood says, “are associated with cultural practices.”

“Additional research is needed to better determine the potential short and long-term health implications of coffee consumption among this younger age group in Hispanic and other populations,” said Merewood, who is also director of the Breastfeeding Center at Boston Medical Center, said in a medical news release.

Until then, feel free to bring an extra thermos to the park...a colorful one that lights up and makes noises when you open it.