These tips can help a child to actually enjoy the process of drinking an herbal tea remedy. As always, check with your doctor before adding any supplement or medicine to your child's treatment plan.
Refer to Herbal Tea as a Treat, not a Medicine
If you call your child's hot mug of herbal tea a medicine, he will most likely turn his nose up at it without giving it a second thought. However, if you talk about it as if it is a special treat, like candy or ice cream, it will make the experience much more appealing for both of you. Reverse psychology works wonders for children.
If you use this route for getting your child to drink herbal teas, check with an herbalist or the manufacturer for additional help on dosing guidelines. A few herbs can cause negative effects (although usually not severe) if they are consumed in mass quantities by children. Be aware of the potential for a problem and monitor your child's intake if he takes to his new "treat" very enthusiastically.
Chill and Mix with Fruit Juice
One highly effective method for getting children to drink herbal teas is to mix the teas with sweet, natural juices. Herbal teas can be prepared in large one- or two-liter batches, chilled, and then mixed with fruit juice in a fifty-fifty ratio. Iced chamomile tea mixed with apple juice is irresistable to most children, and most bitter herbs are offset by the richly sweet flavors of dark grape juice.
Bear in mind that, if you have mixed your child's herbal tea to a fifty-fifty ratio, he will need to drink twice the amount to get the same dose of the herb. This will probably be easy to accomplish if your child has a particular affinity for the natural sweetness of fruit juice.
Add your Own Spices and Flavors
If your child especially likes the flavor of cinammon, vanilla, or any other common spice, there is nothing wrong with adding a dash of it to your child's herbal tea mixture. Sweeteners like honey, brown or white sugar, and turbinado are all also tasty additions to herbal tea and are usually greeted with joy by children.
Unless your child's diet already contains very large amounts of refined sugar, the sweeteners and flavors you might use in a small cup of herbal tea will be only a minimal part of his daily diet, so there is little need to worry about the implications that the sugar might have on his blood sugar or routine. If your child is diabetic, hyperactive, or overweight, however, you may want to consider using a natural, low-glycemic index sweetener like stevia, xylitol, or agave nectar.
Get Children to Drink Herbal Tea: Mix Herbal Teas with Hot Chocolate
A particularly ideal method for getting a child to drink herbal tea in winter time, the hot-chocolate method is a wonderful and easy way to hide the bitter or unpleasant flavors of herbal tea, making the drink appealing even to the pickiest of children. Hot chocolate is already sweetened and flavored to offset the bitterness of cocoa, so the same flavors are a good complement to herbal teas.
To use this method, simply brew the herbal tea as usual, and, while still piping hot, add your child's favorite hot chocolate mix. If your hot chocolate mix calls for milk or soymilk instead of water, consider steeping your teabags in hot, steamed milk-- it will be equally effective and can add a rich, creamy flavor, making the unusual taste of herbal tea unnoticable to the child.
Herbal teas can be very effective and safe medicines for children when they are given with the guidance of a medical practitioner or qualified herbalist. With a little ingenuity, you can make giving herbal tea to children a painless, easy, and even enjoyable experience for everyone involved.
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