Would you let your child drink coffee? Concerning new research shows many Boston toddlers indulge in a daily cup of Joe.
The findings revealed about 15 percent of children around the age of 2 who live in Boston consume as much as four ounces of coffee per day, Boston Medical Center reported.
The U.S. is yet to provide guidelines on coffee consumption among children and adolescents, but past studies has linked it to "type 1 diabetes, sleep disturbances, substance abuse and obesity," the researchers reported. Another study found children who drank coffee between meals or at bedtime at the age of 2 were three times more likely to be obese in kindergarten.
"Our results show that many infants and toddlers in Boston - and perhaps in the US - are being given coffee and that this could be associated with cultural practices," said the study's principal investigator Anne Merewood, PhD, MPH, director of the Breastfeeding Center at BMC and associate professor of pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine.
To make their findings, a team of researchers looked at data from a prospective cohort study on infant weight gain and diet involving 315 mother-infant pairs. They looked at the babies' consumption of "breast milk, formula, water and juice," and were shocked to find many mothers also reported giving their babies coffee. The findings also showed the children of Hispanic mothers were more likely to drink coffee than those of other ethnicities, and female infants and toddlers were more likely to consume the caffeinated beverages than males. Past studies have shown it is not uncommon for children raised in Hispanic culture to consume coffee.
"Given what the current data shows about the effects of coffee consumption among children and adolescents, 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," Merewood concluded.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the Journal of Human Lactation.
