Are your kids drinking too much juice for their own good?

How much juice should your baby, your toddler, and your teen be drinking? Experts say less is more.

INFANTS. You shouldn't give your baby any juice for the first six months. Stick to breast milk or formula, which is much more nutritious, advises the American Academy of Pediatrics. After six months, if your little one is drinking from a cup, you can introduce some juice into his or her diet. Don’t give juice in a bottle, and never put your baby to bed with a bottle of juice—the sugar can lead to cavities. Four to six ounces a day is plenty. Or get your child to chow down on mashed-up or puréed whole fruits and vegetables.

TODDLERS AND SMALL CHILDREN. Fruit juice is sweet, and many kids will overindulge if given the chance. Don't give your tot a sippy cup full of juice, or a juice box, to walk around with all day. The prolonged exposure to sugar can cause dental problems. Instead, offer a cup of juice as a treat or a snack.

TEENAGERS. It can be hard to get a teenager to do anything you want, and drinking too much juice probably isn't a major worry. But at least one study has argued for a link between drinking more than 12 ounces of juice a day and obesity, though other research has indicated otherwise. One hundred percent juice is certainly better than soda, but try to encourage your kids to eat whole fruits instead and to limit juice to about 12 ounces a day.

Read more on ways to keep your child at a healthy weight.

Comments

[Amir]

A good strategy for my 30 months old child (we've always done this) is to mix juice with water. Even at 25% juice + 75% water he never complains

[Jade]

We do the same thing with our toddler - part juice, mostly water. We like giving him V8 fusion, which is a mix of fruit and vegetable juices, and it has such a strong flavor to begin with that it needs to be diluted (and so it's much easier to make a blend with just a small amount of the juice).

[Ed]

While diluting the juice with water may lower the caloric value, it will not significantly reduce the risk of tooth decay. The most important relationship between tooth decay and sugar is the frequency of consumption, not the quantity of consumption. In other words limiting the amount of time spent drinking juices is far more important than limiting (diluting) the amount of sugar in the juice.

Want to avoid tooth decay? Avoid giving your child juices as a regular part of their diet.

[Health Nut]

I knew that if you drink a lot of fruit juice it should not be too much of a worry with teenagers. Of course there's the sugar factor to watch for.