If you do not give juice,

can you explain why?

I was not planning on giving juice but then when people ask why (in horror LOL) I really don't have a good reason.

I thought it was b/c there was too much sugar, but if it is all natural juice - won't it have the same amount of sugar (fructose?) as the fruit itself?

I thought it was b/c it was too filling? But can't the same be said of water?

I am confused by this.

Re: If you do not give juice,

I waited a long time. She JUST started getting watered down juice like once/day at almost 2.

I waited because I didn't want her to have empty calories - I didn't want her filling up on that stuff.

Re: If you do not give juice,

My ped told me juice is empty calories at a young age and not to let dd have it until she eats table food regularly and eats from every food group. That being said I let dd have juice to get her to take her antibiotics.

Re: If you do not give juice,

I think it is the sugar content.

There is a lot more sugar in juice than in the fruit itself.

For example, I think an 8 oz cup of orange juice is the equivalent of having 4 oranges.

When I started giving DS juice I always cut it in half with water.

Re: If you do not give juice,

For us our ped told us it was empty calories and DD likes her food as it is so she didn't need the extra...it's good too bc I hate water and don't want her to hate it as well

Re: If you do not give juice,

Re: If you do not give juice,

Til - we have always been similar....but more & more lately i realize we must've been separated at birth....

i can't 'fully' answer why - but i feel like she gets plenty of that natural sugar and goodness from actual fruit - so why bother adding more with juice...

Re: If you do not give juice,

my dd is 16 months for some reason, i havent asked my ped is not a big fan of juice everytime i ask him if its okay to give juice he tells me very very little and if you do water it down a lot. She likes water but doesnt really drink alot of it.

Re: If you do not give juice,

ive only heard not to give juice because of the teeth.

sugar ~ even natural sugars ~ that are found in juice are processed differently and can cause cavitiies in their little teeth.

i do know people that give juice but they will usually cut it with water to cut down on the sugars.

Re: If you do not give juice,

There is a ridiculous amount of sugar in juice, natural or not. An apple doesn't have the same amount of sugar as a glass of apple juice, nor does it have the same nutritional value. They are happy drinking water and milk, why introduce something that is just empty calories?
I do let them have juice every once in awhile as a treat if we go out, but I always water it down.

Re: If you do not give juice,

Posted by davenjess

Til - we have always been similar....but more & more lately i realize we must've been separated at birth....

i can't 'fully' answer why - but i feel like she gets plenty of that natural sugar and goodness from actual fruit - so why bother adding more with juice...

Re: If you do not give juice,

I think that it depends on the child....Emmy HATES plain water. I have tried cuccs, mint, lemon, lime anything and she refuses. I give her 1oz of white grape juice or apple juice that is 100% juice and has no high fruc. corn syrup with 7oz of water. She loves it and I don't care. Without it she would only drink 2 7oz milk bottles and that is just not enough. I am also a huge fluid person and feel I should never restrict her input, but i'm pretty relaxed about most of this stuff and i'm in the minority.

Re: If you do not give juice,

OK thanks guys!

As usual, I need some ammo in the debate between me vs. DH/mom/MIL/the world



That is exactly what I didn't get - how it could have more sugar than the fruit itself, but I guess it does!

A woman in the supermarket saw my mom with the baby and randomly asked what kind of juice she drank and when my mom told her nothing, she totally freaked and almost made my mom buy juice on the spot so now she is paranoid

Re: If you do not give juice,

I don't give juice bc DS doesn't like it. He'd rather drink water or milk.

When I mentioned it to the ped, they said that is fine!! DS also doesn't eat fruit, so they said, just make sure he's eating other things bc toddlers are so picky.

It was not a concern.

Re: If you do not give juice,

Because of the empty calories and I really don't want him to get "hooked" on sweet stuff like juice. I know for most of the people in my family, it's very hard to cut off the juice and sweets because it's all we grew up on. Health wise, it's not good to drink only juice and that's what we all used to do. So I want to help DS to not get to that point and part of the way is to not give him juice until he's older.

We have a large number of diabetics in my family (my side and DH's) so we'd like to limit the sugar intake anyway, in case, God forbid, DS turns out to be diabetic.

We have given him watered down prune juice to help with constipation and we'll continue to give it to him as necessary, but that's not often, it's always watered down, and it's for a specific purpose. Otherwise, I don't see a need for juice. He likes water and milk at this point, so right now, that's good.

Re: If you do not give juice,

Re: If you do not give juice,

she dosent need it...she dosent want it...i dont give it to her.
her "juice" if for some off chance that she wants it is flavoured water...therefor not juice at all lol

Re: If you do not give juice,

Ryan gets juice - very diluted (like 20% juice, the rest water - if that)

Colin doesn't regularly - he gets it on a rare occasion (mostly when he snags it from Ryan)

I know it's not the best for them so I figure I'll hold off Colin as long as possible. He's almost 18 months and is drinking mostly soy milk/water

I'm not a stickler about it though- he can have it, I just prefer he doesn't.

Re: If you do not give juice,

i have nothing against it but at 11 months, i dont see a reason for it. he drinks water fine and is still on formula. when he gets older I will. just no reason to now

Re: If you do not give juice,

I just don't see the benefits of juice. If DS wants something sweet, he can have all the fruit he wants. If he's thirsty, it's milk or water. That's it. There is too much sugar (even natural juice has natural sugar) and it's not adding any nutritional benefits to his diet. I don't see why people WANT to give their toddlers juice. Maybe when he's older (school age) I won't be so picky, but juice in a sippy or bottle just doesn't make sense to me.

Re: If you do not give juice,

I asked my ped. SHe said that the AAP no longer recommends juice at all due to the high sugar content and little to no nutritional value.
She said I could give it if I wanted, but water it down and don't make it a habit.

I figured, why start her on something sweet? I can tell if I do that she will never drink water again.
Once she tasted fruit she started hating all veges so she has a sweet tooth for sure.

I am going to avoid it.

My parents ask me all the time too- it's an old school thing I think. Kids always drank juice back in the day!

Message edited 4/21/2011 12:51:42 PM.

Re: If you do not give juice,

it's the sugar. An apple would only make about an ounce of juice, so if you give six ounces that's six apples with 6 times the sugar. DS is 2 but we do allow him juice on the weekend cut in half with water. It's funny, but DS totally knows when he could ask for juice and when he cant.

Juice is a treat, water and milk is all he has during the week.

Re: If you do not give juice,

I agree its because of the sugar.

I have been giving DS water in a sippy since @ 7 months. He would take maybe a sip or 2 but that's it. I tried every sippy in the world and nothing.

When he got a bad cold a few weeks ago the ped told me lots of fluids. Since he wouldn't drink the water- I added 1 oz. of juice to a 6oz. sippy of water and he downed the whole thing! We continue it because I want to make sure he's hydrated. I tasted it and it's so minimal so I'm fine with it. We get the organic juice.

Re: If you do not give juice,

People will give you the horror look if you say you dont give juice and then people will look in horror if you do. I've gotten both looks I think water is always better and then they can get used to it. My DD likes both but when she asks for juice I try to give her juice like Boathouse or Naked juices with half water. At least it makes me feel better. But she drinks juice boxes and stuff like that too. I try not to make anything "taboo" because then obviously she'll want it more.

Go with whatever makes you comfortable but you can always blame it on the sugar!

Re: If you do not give juice,

I give DS freshy made carrot juice (carrot celery, kate, sometimes beet or cucumbers), because the nutritional value is extremely high. I also will give organic, unfiltered apple juice if he is constipated. I think the difference between eating the actual fruit versus drinking the juice is all the fiber is removed, so it's nothing but tue sugar remaining.

My ped actually said I could give fresh fruit juice in place of a fruit, but I don't listen to her when it comes to diet & nutrition.