DS is 18 months and we've been wary about giving him juice. Do you think giving babies/toddlers juice is a good idea?
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My lo love love loves fruit, so i really dont see the point in it. He had a juice box once at a bday party because i forgot his water bottle, but i dont buy it for the house.
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I would only give it for constipation (prune juice) or illness if they won't take anything else. Otherwise, I just prefer to give water for hydration, milk for calories, and then real fruit for the vitamins.
But I don't think juice in limited quantities will kill your child or anything. It's just that the actual fruit form of all fruit has more nutrients.
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Miss A is 21 months and only drinks breastmilk, water and cow's milk. I have really bad teeth so I'm try to delay other liquids for as long as I can.
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I just don't see any need for it. Our pediatrician says we should avoid and his personal opinion is that juice drinkers end up with a ton more cavities.
LO did have a taste of Apple juice once when we stopped for dinner out and didn't have a sippy cup or water bottle with us. His reaction was "Yummy! Yummy! Yummy!!!" I could totally see him wanting nothing but juice if we had it at home.
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Same as @Mrs. Lion. I don't freak out if it's offered to her out of the house, but I haven't ever bought it for her. I figure she gets more nutritional value out of just eating a piece of fruit (which she loves).
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We don't offer it because she gets enough fruit throughout the day that she doesn't need another serving of fruit. We also try to limit sugar (our daughter is 25 months) and juice is pretty much pure sugar (natural or not).
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@kemma: I have really bad teeth, too, so I want to give DS as many dental advantages as possible!
@cmomma17: I'm worried that juice will cause cavities, too.
@mrs.lion: @mediagirl: @pancakes: Unfortunately DS is not a big fruit fan. He loves (unsweetened) applesauce and will eat peaches on occasion, but so far that's it.
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Sadie gets diluted apple juice.
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I don't think it's particularly bad but we don't offer it yet. She drinks water really well and eats of fruit, I feel like if she got a taste for juice she might stop drinking as much water.
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@photojane: We've given him diluted apple juice a few times but I think we dilute it so much that he can barely taste the juice!
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I don't think anything is wrong with it every once in awhile. We gave her some a couple weeks ago at a party and she didn't really like it. She wanted her water.
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I don't see it as a bad thing but we are waiting until he is older. DS is 16 months. So far he has had BM, cow milk and water and loves them all. If he hasn't had it he doesn't know what he's missing.
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@travelgirl1: I'm sure it's different for every child, but Sadie drinks juice and still drinks lots of water!
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We don't offer it... He doesn't need it, and he doesn't know whAt he's missing!
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All the papers from our pediatrician say to limit juice and that there's no need to serve juice daily. LO would get it when she was sick and we needed to increase her fluid intake (and diluted). I think it's more important to serve fruit.
I thought someone here posted to a review of a book or study where the author discusses obesity and food issues and this example sticks out in my mind so much - you can juice 5 oranges and give it to a kid and she'll drink the glass and ask what's for breakfast. Where if you tried to make a child eat 5 oranges they'd stop at 1-2 bc they're full. There's a reason fruit naturally has a lot of fiber and when we remove it and take in unnatural amounts of sugar with the nutrients, it's not necessarily healthy for us.
So while I have no problem with juice as a treat every now and then at a party or BBQ, I'm not a fan of serving it daily to a baby or toddler
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Yep, I give DD juice on weekends when we're out as a treat. She loves apple juice!
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I'm always doing the bad things, lol.
DD gets diluted juice every day. She has a water only cup and a juice only cup. The water only gets an ice cube (exciting, lol) and refilled, the juice cups gets filled at meals only. I'm of the opinion, more liquid is a good thing, kid eats like a horse ad definitely gets enough fruit, but it's not a bad thing in our house.
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@photojane: I hope this will be the case for us when she starts having it. She did actually sneak some of my grapefruit juice in a cafe the other day. I expected her to pull a proper funny face but she seemed to quite like it
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I don't buy juice for the house but I don't see any harm in the occasional as a "treat". I know he gets some at daycare too.
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I don't do it unless it's for constipation...or we are somehow in a really desperate situation where it's the only thing available..
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we only do water and almond milk because i don't want her to get a taste for juice and only want to drink that. (heck, i don't want to drink water sometimes because lemonade is so much better!) so we haven't bought it and she's only had sips of other types of drinks. our ped recommends no juice at all.
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No juice for us...too much sugar. I have a friend who didn't realize giving her kids juice caused his cavities!
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I don't really understand giving it regularly/daily instead of just water. We use it if there are constipation issues and it wouldn't be a big deal if he had some out of the house. But he gets almond milk & water as regular beverages and I don't plan on changing that. We all have water as our main drink - cheaper and healthier.
ETA- I also have crap teeth and would like to avoid that for LO. Obesity doesn't run in either of our families, but I think about that too.
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I don't buy the cavity stuff. I'm a juice a holic, always have been and have had one cavity my entire life. It was/is barely a cavity at that! To each their own, maybe I'm ignorant, lol.
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@Beebug: I think some people naturally have stronger teeth/less predisposition to cavities. But any sugar/acidity on the teeth increases risk for cavities, whether it's juice, candy, or soda.
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@Beebug: haha... me too! I'm usually the voice of opposition on all of these kinds of threads.
Sadie's holding steady at 21 pounds, so I don't think her juice is making her fat.
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Only on special occasions for us. Occasionally if my son wakes up from his nap in a super bad mood, I offer him some because I think it might help his blood sugar or something. But usually he's so sour he refuses it anyway!
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We give it to her on occasion. Not every day but we normally have some in the house and she's allowed to have it. Meh. Our ped said it's fine. Everything in moderation. She still drinks tons of water and asks for water.
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Lo has never had it. We never keep it in the house bc we never drink juice. I also don't know why I would give it to him...like what would be a situation where I would choose to give him juice over water or milk? But then again dh an I pretty much only drink water or seltzer at home so I guess we're pretty boring in our beverage choices!
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I don't really understand the point of it. I gave some super diluted grape juice to LO once to try to encourage her to drink from a straw cup and she wasn't a fan. It's not something we have or will have in the house. I'd rather not offer it so she doesn't know what she's missing.
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We don't offer it, but I don't stress about it either. DH and I drink a small glass of OJ and on occasion he will ask for some and we give him a small diluted glass. I let my 3 year old choose for himself at birthday parties and he orders for himself at restaurants and on airplanes and normally just asks for milk but on airplanes he asks for apple juice with ice. We eat a healthy diet, so it's fine to me. When I am out I often get things I don't keep on hand at home, so I am fine if with it on special occasions.
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LO gets diluted juice a few times a week now that it's so hot. He's not that great about drinking from his sippy (he can, but prefers throwing it instead of drinking) so if I add a splash of juice, he drinks more. It's been scorching hot here lately so I think the benefits of increasing his water intake offset the detriments of the splash of juice!
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We don't offer it....I grew up drinking only water or milk or soy milk and we always had fruit for dessert. (Asian family!) LO's nutritionist and dentist both said "no juice".
ETA: LO loves water....especially when it's "mommy water" aka coming from my water bottle!
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Sometimes L will get watered down juice at one of the grandparent's houses as a special treat, but at home we stick to water. This kid could eat fruit all day, so I figure he's getting plenty of natural sugars that way, I'm not going to add more when he's too young to really care or ask for it.
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We dont keep juice in the house really, but LO has gotten some diluted juice. Mostly the Naked juice, DH drinks it on occasion and gives LO some watered down. And she has had some of my lemonade. I dont see an issue as long as it isnt the only thing they drink.
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We don't offer it because I want to make sure she still drinks plain water. Too many kids will only drink sugary drinks.
The only time we really let her have it is when we need to keep her hydrated because we are outside for long periods of time in FL. Usually it's where she's out playing and won't stop to drink as much water as she should so as an incentive we give her juice.
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We give diluted juice and usually only on active days to make sure shes hydrated.
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T gets it occasionally - special treat with dinner out or at a BBQ or when traveling. He's 26 months.
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She's never had it. I wouldn't be opposed at a birthday party or something but I won't ever buy it for our house. Cavities and empty calories. I don't see the need. She drinks a ton of water and milk every day.
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