Coffee and teenagers?

My son likes coffee sometimes. Ive given him decaf before. Is it okay to give him regular coffee? He does have adhd and does take an adhd pill in the morning. Thoughts?
 

RN0441

100% better than I was but not at 100% yet
My son also loves coffee and drinks it every morning. Have you tried the 1/2 caffeine type or decaf? My son would drink that at times also.
 

Praecepta

Active Member
I feel it is best for kids to grow up drinking water/milk mostly. Avoid sugar to get them used to living without it - their teeth will thank them later in life!

And so far as caffeine, that is a drug. And I feel it is best kids learn to live their life without using any sort of drugs. For example they may like coffee to help the get up and get started in the morning. I feel it is best they learn to do this without the aid of caffeine. Then once they have learned to do things "on their own", they won't "need" these drugs, rather it is an addition to their lives, not something necessary.

This can come in handy later if they want to save some money and just drink water for a while. Coffee and soda pop can get to be expensive. If they can live without it, then this would be easy for them to do.

With that said, I have an adult friend with ADHD and caffeine has the opposite effect on him. It calms him down. He can even drink it before bedtime and it will make him sleep better! So with that I would say use your judgement. Maybe better sometimes to give a kid coffee for medical reasons?
 

ksm

Well-Known Member
Emmy son was diagnosed with ADHD in late grade school. His doctor actually suggested caffeinated pop for a before school drink...

KSM
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
I really don't think caffeine is bad. He is going to drink it anyway. Teens like to chat over coffee. I think its a losing battle...its not in any way illegal and at his age he will drink what he likes even if its away from home. It is not socially unacceptable even amongst the best behaved teenagers. A hard battle if you want to try.

I love coffee. There are properties in it that fight disease. Tea has caffeine in it too. Never thought to restrict coffee from teens. No point
 

susiestar

Roll With It
As long as their diet is reasonable healthy, I see no reason why not to allow it. Not to let it be the only drink, but there are MUCH bigger battles to fight. Back when my dad taught in inner city schools, before adhd medications were so common, he always kept a pot of coffee on in his office. He would pour a cup or two down any of the kids they knew had adhd but the parents couldn't afford the docs or medications. Some kids he gave coffee to before school and at lunch and it seemed to help them.

I would try to limit the Starbucks drink type things as the amount of sugar in them is just unbelievable. Our middle school sold a coffee frozen drink for a while. One of my daughter's friends was sent to the office 7-8 times and to the counselors at least that many times because they thought she was on speed. Before school she would drink 3 large cups of this frozen drink and at lunch she would drink 5-6. Her parents had more money than sense, in my opinion, and gave her an enormous allowance. The school limited the drink to 2 per person per day, but she got other kids to buy them for her. She literally ran around like she was on speed and couldn't sit still, stop talking, etc..... Took a while, but finally the other kids ratted her out and shocked all of the adults. Then someone looked into the calories and sugar per serving and it was 3 times the sugar of any other drink, even of the Starbucks frappuccinno drinks. It also had a huge amount of caffeine, and the lunch room ladies decided it was too unhealthy to serve at school, so they stopped selling it. It was a special fundraiser item for some project of the principal, and he was pretty angry that the lunch ladies wouldn't sell it, but they sold some other item instead.

Other than cases like this, I have no problem with teens and coffee. Few people restrict or think to restrict soda/diet soda, even Mt Dew and Diet Coke which have the highest caffeine of any soft drinks.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Some schools offer coffee to the kids.

If not, jumper would take orders and money and go to Starbucks on her lunch for her friends.She was a very preppy, well behaved girl as were her friends and not one of them ever told her they couldn't drink coffee.

I worry more about the energy drinks. Sonic had heart surgery and Jed doing great but his cardiologist thinks things like Red Bull are dangerous. SONIC WON'T DRINK THEM AFTER SHE TOLD HIM THAT BUt he has regular caffeinated drinks...his cardio is fine with that.

I agree with Susie. From pot to heroin, which has regained popularity, there are bigger issues to battle. And with my one older daughter who abused once, I found I couldn't stop that either. To be 100% honest, ADHD medication was her first drug. She and her friends loved Adderrall and bought o0r stole it, crushed it in a pillcrusher and snorted it alone or with cocaine.

Too many restrictions on teens in my opinion stokes rebellion and doing it behind your back. anyway. Even a loving parent of a friend of your son's may offer your son coffee. ADHD medications are greatly abused by teens, crushed and snorted. That started my daughter on the way to speed of all kind.

By the time your son is 16, and probably earlier, he will eat and drink what he likes, even if its not in your house. You can't control that in a teen. You'd have to follow him everywhere.
 
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jetsam

Active Member
when my son was young the dr. recommended coffee because he said coffee had an opposite effect on adhd children . that it could help calm and focus them.I never noticed a significant difference so i stopped. My son to this day rarely drinks coffee. lol
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
Miss KT was a regular coffee drinker. International Flavors Vanilla Creme. Do they even have that stuff anymore?

It seemed to boost her ADHD medications. After she started driving, it was Starbucks all the way. Now it's some trendy designer hipster coffee that's all the rage.
 

AppleCori

Well-Known Member
I don't really remember when my olders started drinking coffee. I would guess 15/16ish.

They all drank tea well before that. Even my youngest, now twelve, has tea every once in a while. While she is too young for coffee, and she doesn't drink soda (other than root beer floats) coffee is a normal part of my hubbys morning, so I do think she will ask to try it at some point. I would probably rather have her drink coffee at 14/15 than get hooked on sodas, as there seems to be some health benefits to coffee, and none to soda pop.

I would look at two things: make sure he drinks it in moderation, and observing whatever effects the coffee has on him. Maybe it will help him, as it seems to help some kids with ADHD. Worth a try!
 
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