I don’t remember a day of my life I didn’t have a cup of coffee mixed with milk at wake up time. It is absolutely normal for a Brazilian child to have it for breakfast as soon as he/she is out of the high chair. But children generally don’t drink cafézinho, the coffee shot that may follow a meal or that is offered to guests – this is rather an adult habit. This reminds me of the way French parents deal with wine. It is offered to kids with moderation, maybe diluted in water, without fuss. And the French, by the way, also offer their children a bowl of café au lait in the morning.
Living in the US, I realized that the child-coffee connection is not universally accepted. More than once I met people who consider hideous offering caffeine to somebody underage.
Check this old Brazilian ads that make a huge effort to seduce very young viewers. Is this wrong, in your opinion?
I started drinking café au lait for breakfast, with toast and honey, as a very small child–and I was just a little Texas gringo. No harm done–yet.
Absolutely nothing wrong with giving coffee to children.
It’s totally cultural in my opinion, if people were worried about cafeine, then they should also worry about sugary sodas and candy loaded with corn syrup, but they don’t, just look at how much McDonald’s invest in children in their stores! 😉