Can children and teenagers drink coffee: benefits and harms

For many people, coffee is their favorite drink. And if the adults in the house regularly consume this aromatic product in the morning, then sooner or later the children will also become interested in coffee. Not all parents know whether children can drink coffee, and if so, at what age. Therefore, very often children are also poured a tasty drink, which at an early age is of no benefit at all, and under certain conditions can even harm their health. Adults should understand that coffee contains a large amount of caffeine, which negatively affects the child’s body, so before treating your little one, you should think about whether this is really necessary.

What is the benefit

Coffee is a rather specific food product that has gained popularity all over the world. There are many varieties of these products and they all have their admirers. The drink has miraculous properties to improve both motor and brain activity. It helps saturate the body with important microelements and a group of vitamins.

Theoretically, coffee can benefit children, since the drink contains iodine, magnesium and calcium, which are necessary for the proper growth and development of any child. Research in this area has shown that the benefits of coffee are only possible if it is consumed in moderation and without fanaticism. Useful qualities include the following:

The functioning of brain cells and the digestive tract improves. Very often, after drinking a cup of coffee, a child develops an appetite.
Helps relieve fatigue, reduce irritability and increase physical activity.
Helps improve memory; a person easily remembers large amounts of any information.
Reduces the possibility of developing allergies and caries.
Helps improve mood, raises a person's self-esteem and helps overcome uncertainty. This property will be more useful than ever during adolescence, when many children are unsure of themselves.

Some experts claim that people who constantly drink coffee are less susceptible to radiation.

Despite such beneficial qualities of this drink, before giving coffee to children, you should still consult a doctor. In each individual case there may be contraindications.

Can children drink coffee?

Children love to imitate adults, and if they see you drinking coffee, they will want to try it themselves. However, allowing a child under 12 to drink coffee is a bad idea.

pros

Recent studies have shown that drinking coffee may reduce the risk of heart disease and early death. If coffee was previously condemned, today the prevailing opinion is that if it does not disturb sleep , then it is healthy. Research has shown that coffee contains antioxidant compounds, including polyphenols, which in turn have beneficial anti-inflammatory effects.

Minuses

Caffeine is absorbed into the body very quickly, reduces appetite and causes sleep problems. If you consume too much caffeine, your child may experience agitation, muscle cramps, nausea and vomiting, and involuntary twitching. Caffeine toxicity can lead to increased heart rate and irregular pulse.

When can a child try coffee?

Most doctors do not advise children to even try coffee until they reach the age of 7-8 years. It is from this age that the digestive organs are already relatively formed and ready to process such a product, but only to a limited extent. It is better to try natural bean coffee rather than instant coffee. The drink is supplemented with milk and sugar; such a product will be less saturated and easily absorbed by the child’s body.

Parents need to know at what age children can drink coffee and how much of this invigorating drink is allowed to be consumed at a given age.

Children of primary school age - you can drink no more than 50 ml of coffee per month, the drink is supplemented with milk or low-fat cream.
Schoolchildren from 10 to 14 years old - you can drink no more than 4 cups of aromatic drink per month.
Teenagers from 14 to 18 years old can drink one cup of coffee a day.

When you offer your child coffee for the first time, it is worth observing how he is feeling. If there are no health changes within 24 hours, then you don’t have to worry and periodically treat your child with this product. If tremors of the limbs appear and the student becomes overly active, you need to wait before including this product in the diet.

You should not give children any instant coffee. Even the most expensive product in this group contains a lot of caffeine, which does not have the best effect on a fragile body.

What should parents really watch out for?

Many people believe that coffee poses a potential danger to a fragile body. And indeed it is. If a child receives regular uncontrolled doses of caffeine, this is fraught with various unpleasant situations: excessive irritability, agitation, rapid heartbeat, and insomnia may appear.

Caffeine is addictive – regular consumption of coffee leads to addiction.

So, caffeine is found not only in coffee. There is no less of it in:

green and black tea;
cocoa;
chocolate;
"Coca-Cola";
"energy drinks";
beer.

Limiting a child's coffee intake and at the same time allowing him to uncontrollably absorb tea is, at a minimum, wrong.

Another point is that with sweet coffee, children will definitely add pastries, sweets, and chocolate bars. As a result, they have an increased risk of developing obesity and diabetes. Therefore, prepare unsweetened coffee.

Harm of coffee for children

Disputes between doctors and nutritionists are still ongoing about what is more harmful or beneficial from coffee. On the Internet you can see entire communities of people who consider this product harmful and categorically do not recommend giving it to children of any age. Other parents are more of the opinion that small amounts of coffee are even good for health.

The harmful effects of a coffee drink on a fragile child’s body look like this:

With constant consumption, puberty in adolescents is significantly slowed down.
Microelements and potassium that a person needs are removed from the body, causing the heart’s function to deteriorate.
The functioning of the nervous system is disrupted. A person becomes overly active, but after a short time this state may give way to apathy.
The product has a pronounced diuretic effect. Beneficial substances are removed from the body along with urine.
There is a risk of developing a persistent addiction to this drink.

Pediatricians are of the opinion that such harm is possible only in case of excessive and frequent consumption of coffee. Also, negative health consequences may occur in the case of individual intolerance to the product or in the presence of certain chronic diseases.

It is not recommended to give a coffee drink to a schoolchild in the morning on an empty stomach. This can cause serious disorders of the central nervous system.

What do doctors say about coffee?

The opinions of pediatricians and nutritionists regarding the use of coffee by children differ radically. Some believe that children under 10-12 years of age should not be given it at all. Others say that one cup of weak drink a day will not harm the health of a child’s body.

What is contained in the aromatic “adult” drink? From the list of components we can highlight:

Caffeine is the most abundant. Depending on the amount consumed per day, it may cause different reactions.
Tannins – have an astringent effect, promote wound healing, and have bactericidal properties.
Protein – the “building material” of the body – is in small quantities;
Vitamins A and D – needed for growth;
Flavonoids – reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases;
Minerals (potassium, phosphorus, iodine) – maintain acid-base balance in the body;
Organic acids – reduce cholesterol levels, participate in water-fat metabolism;
Amino acids – perform a nutritional function in the body;
Sucrose – about 9%. Decomposes when beans are roasted.

It would seem that there is nothing terrible in this list. However, it’s all about quantity: if you don’t monitor how many cups of coffee your child drinks, then negative consequences will not take long to appear. Moreover, it is difficult to predict what kind of response an excess of a particular substance will cause.

Black coffee has a stimulating effect on the intestines, increases brain activity, and helps to wake up.

Here are some unobvious beneficial qualities of coffee:

Accelerates protein synthesis, helps to quickly restore muscles after sports.
Helps lower blood sugar levels and is a kind of prevention of type II diabetes.
May improve mood by producing norepinephrine and dopamine.
Strengthens the immune system – coffee is a source of antioxidants.
Helps in the fight against cellulite - wraps made from coffee grounds have a beneficial effect on the condition of the skin.
Speeds up metabolism.
Reduces the risk of developing dangerous diseases.

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Contraindications

Consuming caffeine-containing drinks is not advisable for a number of diseases. Parents should definitely know this. The main contraindications are:

ulcerative pathologies of the digestive tract;
hypertension;
chronic liver and kidney diseases;
enuresis;
tuberculosis;
eye diseases;
persistent sleep disturbance.

Give coffee with caution to children who have problems with the cardiovascular system or diseases of the nervous system.

Alternative to coffee and coffee-containing drinks

Many children are simply seduced by the color of beautiful coffee cups, soda cans and their taste, they want to have something in common with the society that surrounds them. So help them find alternative drinks.

There is no alternative to coffee with the same coffee taste. But what about other drinks, such as energy drinks. Of course, decaffeinated soda is an option, but there are healthier options.

We offer the following sugar-free and caffeine-free alternatives:

Flavored water (for example, flavored with fruit essences).
Plain water infused with chopped lemons or berries.
Herbal teas (serve hot or cold).

What consequences can there be after consumption?

It must be remembered that even a weak coffee drink with milk can cause a number of unpleasant consequences in children. The offspring may feel:

nausea, which can then progress to vomiting;
increased heart rate and breathing;
headache that radiates to the temples;
slight increase in temperature.

All of these conditions can develop completely unexpectedly for both children and adults. If your child feels unwell after consuming the drink, you should give him adsorbents and give him plenty of water. When the condition is noticeably worsening every minute, you cannot hesitate, you need to quickly call a doctor.

It is better to give a schoolchild a flavored drink after the second breakfast. But you shouldn’t offer a cup of coffee in the evening; this product can cause insomnia.

What is caffeine?

Caffeine is the most common naturally occurring psychoactive substance found in plants growing primarily in tropical and subtropical regions of the planet. Plants use caffeine as a natural pesticide because it is toxic to insects and other pests.

Early human civilizations discovered that consuming plants containing caffeine had stimulating effects, and in some cases, these plants were even considered sacred.

Expansion of horizons, travel and active trade have led to the fact that caffeine has spread throughout the world, and today more than 80% of the world's population consumes caffeine in one form or another.

In addition to coffee, caffeine is found in tea (48 mg per 300 ml), soda (37 mg per 500 ml), hot chocolate (10 mg per 500 ml) and dark chocolate (10-30 mg per 50 grams). It is also added to various sports products, energy drinks, mints, juices, and energy bars.

Caffeine is found in more than 60 types of plants. Coffee beans, cocoa beans, tea leaves are just the most famous and common of them.

What product is not advisable to give to children?

If a teenager loves coffee, then he needs to choose high quality products. It’s good if these are grains that are crushed immediately before brewing. Doctors do not recommend giving children the following types of product:

Instant coffee - even the most expensive product in a tin or glass jar is not at all suitable for children. Even adults should not indulge in this kind of coffee, since it contains some synthetic components and almost no beneficial microelements.

Instant coffee is a cheap product that everyone can afford, but do not forget that accessibility in this case does not mean anything good.

Without caffeine - such a product can lead to the most unpredictable consequences. And although manufacturers insist on the undoubted benefits of such a drink, it does nothing but harm. With regular consumption, children experience deterioration in heart function, allergic reactions and problems with the digestive system;
Instant coffee in bags and sticks is a low-grade caffeine-containing drink. Such products contain a lot of dyes, preservatives, flavors and a little special tonic. If a schoolchild often drinks this kind of coffee, then he begins to have problems with his teeth and gastrointestinal tract.

You can often see schoolchildren standing near coffee machines. This hobby can explain the large number of gastritis among schoolchildren, as well as widespread problems with tooth enamel in children.

To avoid health problems for a teenager in the future, you need to have a conversation with him about the inadmissibility of drinking instant coffee from vending machines.

Okay, it’s clear with coffee, we’ll drink tea - it’s safer...

Karina Fomicheva:

If parents are afraid to give coffee, but are not afraid to give tea, this indicates their lack of awareness. Tea, no matter whether black or green, is not included in the world's nutritional recommendations for young children.

Yulia Kiltina:

Many parents actually give tea in decent quantities, believing that it is healthier. But there is no particular logic here - it also contains enough caffeine, and caffeine in any form affects excitability.

What's the best way to make coffee for kids?

To minimize the harmful effects on children's health, you should adhere to certain rules when preparing coffee.

For a drink that is prepared for a child, it is better to take lightly or medium roasted grains. You should not take well-roasted grains, as they have a pronounced rancid taste.
For children, do not brew a drink from green coffee beans, as they have a more pronounced effect on the nervous system;
Children are served only a freshly brewed drink, which is first diluted in half with milk to reduce the negative impact on the stomach.
To brew coffee, use high-quality drinking water. After boiling, the drink is immediately removed from the heat and kept covered for several minutes.

When you give a coffee drink for the first time, you should carefully watch your child. If there is trembling in the hands, breathing problems or a change in the color of the child’s skin, this may indicate individual intolerance or certain diseases of the internal organs.

What kind of coffee should I make for a teenager?

For a child over 14-15 years old, one cup of coffee per week will not cause harm. To instill good taste in your teenager, prepare him a drink from selected grains in crystal clear water - tap water is not suitable. Tell us what coffee you shouldn't buy.

For excellent taste and unsurpassed aroma, ground coffee must be poured with cold water, which meets certain characteristics for:

rigidity;
the amount of mineral impurities;
transparency;
smell.

Brew the drink for 3-4 minutes, but no more than 6 minutes. If you continue to prepare the drink, the drink will turn out to be too strong, with a bitter aftertaste.

Modern three-stage water purification filters allow you to get rid of all unnecessary impurities, bacteria, and pathological microflora in the water.

If you do not have the funds to install built-in systems, pay attention to budget options that are available to everyone. We are talking about filter jugs. Such models are portable. They allow you to efficiently remove various contaminants from water, making it perfectly clean.

The decision to install main filters for domestic water is correct not only from the point of view of caring for the health of your family members, but also saving money. A simple calculation shows that such installations pay for themselves in the first year of operation.

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It is best to prepare coffee for a child with milk or cream - it is unlikely that he will like it black. But you shouldn’t make strong coffee drinks.

What can you replace a coffee drink with?

If a young child really loves coffee and constantly asks to make it, then you can try replacing this product with healthier drinks. In stores you can always find instant chicory or a drink made from roasted barley. Both of these products taste very much like coffee, but they do not have a negative effect on the child’s body. Both chicory and barley powder contain many useful substances and vitamins. Some experts recommend periodically giving children such products to prevent vitamin deficiency.

Barley drink is often given in kindergartens. These products are allowed even for young children.

It's hard to find a child who has never tried coffee. And if some children are given this aromatic drink only on holidays and in limited quantities, other parents treat their children to this product every day. It must be remembered that coffee can lead to unpleasant consequences, so it can only be given to children from the age of seven. If your baby asks for a coffee drink at an earlier age, it is better to change it to chicory or roasted barley. Interestingly, most children cannot even distinguish between the taste of coffee and healthier drinks.

And if it’s a couple of spoons of espresso per glass of cream, is this coffee ok for children?

Yulia Kiltina, mother of a schoolchild, therapist, nutritionist

This already turns out to be a coffee drink, since it contains more milk or cream. Therefore, why not.

In general, if we look at international recommendations, WHO recommends giving children under 2-3 years of age only water, milk, juice without sugar, but not more than 120 ml per day. There is no talk about coffee. If the child is over 3 years old, then the acceptable norm is 2.5-3 milligrams of caffeine per 1 kg of weight. This means that if you weigh 25 kilograms, you can theoretically eat about ⅔ cups of coffee.

All the secrets of armored coffee

But in reality, there is no particular point in drinking coffee for a child. The only case is a morning ritual with parents, when he asks “I’ll have coffee too” - you can splash a couple of spoons from your mother’s cup and top it up with cream. This option is quite acceptable.

Sergey Klimenkov:

The option with heavy cream and milk is better, as they significantly reduce the strength of the drink. But even in this case, I would replace natural coffee with chicory.

Beneficial features

The invigorating properties of the aromatic drink are provided by caffeine, which has a blocking effect on neurohormones. While taking it, the production of dopamine, which belongs to the group of “happiness hormones,” increases. Caffeine also stimulates a surge of adrenaline, which gives a surge of energy. Under the influence of the drink, the level of glucose in the blood increases, increasing the activity of the entire body. Having experienced similar effects, adults believe that coffee for children will also bring the following benefits:

the drink helps to get rid of drowsiness faster;
energizes you for the coming day; relieves the feeling of fatigue during work;
lifts your mood and increases physical activity;
stimulates brain activity;
helps to concentrate attention and remember information faster; reduces the risk of exposure to radiation.

Coffee is recommended for asthmatics and allergy sufferers during periods of illness. But only high-quality natural grain products have all the beneficial properties. There is not as much caffeine in it as it seems, but this is good, because the main share comes from more useful components - fiber, minerals and tannins, protein, sucrose, etc.

The effect of coffee on the body

Any product or drink affects the chemical and physiological processes occurring in our body. Coffee is no exception.

What's in coffee?

The main active ingredient is caffeine. It is this that gives your favorite drink an invigorating effect.
Caffeine is part of the group of alkaloids, which includes many nitrogen-containing organic compounds. Caffeine’s “colleagues” are a variety of active substances, for example, nicotine, cocaine, quinine, and even strychnine.
Coffee beans contain protein, fiber, sucrose, many minerals and even tannins.

The chemical composition of coffee beans includes hundreds of substances. At present, no more than half of them have been studied.

The caffeine content of Arabica coffee beans ranges from 0.7 to 2.5%, while the lower-grade Robusta contains 1.5 to 3.2% caffeine. There is 10 times more fiber in coffee than caffeine, and 3 times more tannins.

To be fair, it should be noted that caffeine is the most active ingredient in the drink, and its content increases when raw coffee beans are roasted by about 10-20%. The stronger the degree of roasting, the stronger the coffee, the more caffeine it contains.

How does caffeine work?

It suppresses neurohormone receptors that cause relaxation and drowsiness. Therefore, reaction speed and perceptual acuity improve.
Caffeine stimulates the production of adrenaline, so a person feels alert and energized. The activity of all body systems, including the brain, increases.
This active substance releases glucose and stimulates its entry into the blood, which also contributes to a surge of strength and increased activity.
Caffeine increases the level of the neurohormone dopamine, stimulating its production and release into the blood. Hence the feeling of a good mood after a cup of your favorite drink, because dopamine is one of the so-called “hormones of happiness.”

This is the hormonal-chemical cocktail a person receives with every cup of coffee.
By itself, it does not cause any tangible harm to the body, except perhaps an increase in blood pressure, which may not respond very well to people with a tendency to hypertension. The problem is not so much the caffeine itself, but the amount of it. As ancient doctors said: there is medicine in a spoon, poison in a cup. Small doses of caffeine become an excellent tonic and mild natural stimulant. Excessive amounts of caffeine lead to many unpleasant consequences for the body.

These include dehydration, tachycardia, anxiety, sleep disturbances, metabolic disorders and nervous system imbalance. This also includes developing the habit of regularly drinking coffee, and then the absence of a morning cup of your favorite drink will be perceived by the body as very painful, even to the point of developing depression.

An adult in normal health can drink 3 to 5 cups of coffee daily without harming himself.