After trying various foods, your toddler may start sampling different drink flavors. One that they might enjoy is sweet, refreshing tea, especially when served with ice cubes.
The Impact of Drinking Sweet Tea Too Often on Children
Tea does have benefits, such as helping to improve digestion, boosting the immune system, and reducing the risk of certain diseases.
Unfortunately, the metabolism of adults and toddlers is quite different, including how they respond to the components in tea. The WHO recommends that tea should only be given to children over the age of 2. Drinking sweet tea too often can cause your little one to experience the following health issues, Moms.
- Sleep disturbances
As we know, tea contains caffeine, similar to coffee. Drinking too much tea can cause anxiety in children and make it hard for them to sleep. This applies to both homemade tea and packaged tea. - Frequent urination
Tea has diuretic properties that can make your child urinate more often. This indirectly lowers their sodium and potassium levels in the blood. The caffeine content in tea can also increase stomach acid production, raising the risk of stomach pain and ulcers. - Impaired calcium absorption
Toddlers who drink sweet tea too often are at risk of calcium deficiency, which can interfere with calcium absorption in the body. If not limited, this could also affect brain function, muscle function, the nervous system, and bone growth. - Low nutritional value
The sweet taste of tea can make your toddler feel full, which may cause them to skip their main meals. This could lead to a nutritional deficiency, increasing the risk of vitamin deficiencies that could affect their growth and development. - High sugar intake
As the name suggests, sweet tea contains sugar. Drinking sweet tea too often can raise the sugar levels in your toddler’s body, putting them at risk of diabetes and obesity, leading to other dangerous health conditions.
Limit Its Consumption
Actually, tea itself isn’t harmful to children if consumed in moderation. However, to prevent the health risks mentioned above, here are some guidelines Moms can follow when giving sweet tea to your toddler:
- Make sure your little one only drinks sweet tea once a day to maintain their overall health.
- Tea given to your toddler should be brewed for just 1-2 minutes to maintain the proper strength of the tea.
- Tea bags should only be used once, and the leftover tea should be discarded afterward.
- Avoid giving tea at the same time as meals, or after drinking milk, to prevent it from interfering with the absorption of vitamins and minerals in their body. Also, don’t give tea before bedtime; it’s better to offer your toddler milk.
- There’s no need to add too much sugar to your toddler’s tea. Just use as little as possible (half to one teaspoon). You should also set a good example so that your little one doesn’t consume sweet tea too frequently.
