Caffeine Content in Coffee Ice Cream

[michele cindy]

I try to avoid giving my kids caffeine. It makes me hyper, it makes my kids super hyper. The caffeiene content in coffee ice cream can be as high as in a can of coke, or a cup of coffee. Both of which can zoop me for an entire day. I love coffee ice cream, I just can't have it at night. Below is a link to a caffeine content chart.
http://www.stuartxchange.org/Caffeine...

[Kater]

I am puzzled by this culinary taboo. I give my child all the coffee ice cream that he wants. Then again, I also let him have coffee. It doesn't affect him in the least.

I think in the age of the Starbucks McCoffee craze people frequently confuse their reaction to the extraordinary amounts of sugar in those beverages with a reaction to coffee!

[michele cindy]

Please take a moment to read this in regards to kids and caffeine. I'm very sensitive to caffeine and when I don't drink coffee or tea for even one day I get really bad headaches, I'm tired and become really cranky.
http://kidshealth.org/parent/nutritio...

[Kater]

thanks for the article, while I can't say it has changed my mind about coffee (I would never give my child soda!) I think it is really important to learn as much as we can about everything we feed our children!

[queencru]

I don't think there is a one size fits all solution for every child. I had caffeine as a child with no ill effects. I think parents just need to watch their children to see what happens. Some will react badly, others will not. I am not sensitive to caffeine, nor have I ever been. I was extremely underweight as a child, so obesity also wasn't a real concern. For other children, having too much caffeine/sugar may be a problem. It just seems like these days parents just get too concerned about giving their children any sugar/caffeine.

[michele cindy]

Agreed - each parent knows their child best. For my kids caffeine is a no no unless I want to be tormented by 2 tween girls who can't fall asleep. Last night against my better judgement I let my 10 year old eat a big piece of Devil's Food cake, she couldn't fall asleep and kept her younger sister up talking until I had to finally go in and tell her to just be quiet.

[mom22tots]

Ditto the espresso brownies at Starbucks...

[Querencia]

You have broken my heart. Farewell, Baskin-Robbins Jamoca. Caffeine gives me heart palpitations and keeps me awake until 5 AM. How carefully I managed not to see the connection.

[KTFoley]

I'm looking at the link from the original post, and a few tidbits might be relevant for the folks who are reading this thread.

The OP says "as high as in a can of coke, or a cup of coffee."

The two are not equivalent. Per the OP's link, a typical cup of coffee contains 135mg of caffeine. A 12-oz can of Coke contains 45mg -- one third of that.

Further, the link uses a full cup as a serving size for ice cream. Check the nutrition panel on your ice cream carton -- doesn't it say half a cup? The standard serving size of any of Starbucks coffee-flavored ice creams has 20-30 mg of caffeine. That's a half to two-thirds of a can of Coke. It's not even a quarter cup of coffee.

If the coffee ice cream has an adverse affect, perhaps the person has no tolerance for caffeine in ANY quantity or form. Either that, or the caffeine is taking the blame for the usual culprit: sugar.

[Atomica]

135 is the highest. A cup of coffee can have a lot less. The breakdown:

Drip 115-175
Espresso 100mg of caffeine (1 serving - 1.5-2oz)
Brewed 80-135
Instant 65-100

[KTFoley]

Yep, hence the qualification "per the OP's link."

[Atomica]

I was responding to the thread, not to you in particular, so no need to feel singled out.

[michele cindy]

I'm the original OP. This entire discussion stemmed from another post in a previous discussion on the home cooking board. This person was thinking about giving coffee ice cream to children. This one part was moved here and it has morphed to something not in context of the original discussion. I agree with Carb Lover, you should not give caffiene to young kids if you can help it.

[Dommy]

I bought McConnel's Turkish Ice Cream once, SO who is caffine sensitive got a TOTAL buzz off of it, it was NOT pretty...

--Dommy!

[Carb Lover]

Yes, that flavor is very jitter-inducing! We had some at a late-night diner once and def. felt it. Starbucks does the same for me...I love coffee ice cream, just not too late at night!

To address this topic, my parents didn't allow us kids to drink coffee or buy us any coffee-flavored treats til we were much older. I probably didn't even explore coffee til college. Somehow they lumped coffee in w/ other substances like alcohol, cigarettes, etc. No, my parents weren't "cool" enough to let us sip wine during a nice meal either. :-(

I don't have any kids of my own, but can see myself being cautious about caffeine w/ kids. My jaw still drops when I see what looks to be a 10 y.o. kid w/ a supersized coffee drink from Starbucks. Coming from my upbringing, it seems downright illegal. :-)

[Katie Nell]

That's really funny! Now that I think about it, I'm not very sensitive to caffeine, but the *only* thing that has ever made me jittery was one of those frapuccino-type-thingys from Baskin Robbins (I forget what they're called there!) I couldn't blink for an hour afterwards! Maybe it's the combo of sugar, chocolate, and coffee?

[SaoirseC]

Would you feel the same way about a kid eating some dark chocolate? Just curious- not that I care what someone else thinks of my parenting choices, but...
We're dark chocolate fans in this house (except my husband, who only eats white chocolate). My 6 year old is just discovering milk chocolate, he's used to the 70-88% dark chocolates.
IMO, caffeine has been unfairly demonized. It doesn't stunt your growth, and in small amounts it doesn't really have any negative health effects (certainly there are special circumstances). But then again, I am the type of parent to let my kids try out certain types of alcohol.

[Darren72]

Here is a page with all of the info on caffeine:
http://www.cspinet.org/new/cafchart.htm

With a few exceptions, the coffee ice creams surveyed have between 40 and 60 mg of caffeine per cup of ice cream. An 8oz cup of coffee has 135 mg. Note that other ice creams that have a higher proportion of air per cup will consequently have less caffeine per cup.

If you type "caffeine coffee ice cream" into google you will get a number of other useful sites.

[Infomaniac]

I've seen coffee ice cream made with decaf. coffee...not sure who made it...might have been Baskin-Robbins or maybe Hagan Daaz.

[foodieX2]

My son LOVES coffee ice cream and so far (he's almost five) I have never seen an adverse reaction. We don't drink any soda so I can't compare his reaction if he drank a coke or mountain dew.

However I think serving size may be the key. The most icecream (any flavor) he has eaten in one sitting is a small scoop either in a cone or dish. Maybe if he ate a full cup he would have a reaction?

[michele cindy]

this was meant to go as a reply to someone, not it's own message. sorry - just getting the hang of stuff...

[hatless]

[I think it got moved from that thread.]