drink options for 12 month olds

:rotflmbo: Help! My twin sons are ready to drink something other than formula. We are transistioning to whole milk now--any suggestions on what else to give them during the day? I have been giving them water. My husband thinks juice is a good idea but I won't allow it because of tooth decay, etc. Any suggestions would be great!!

 

I actually mix my juice with water so its not as sugary - and I only use 100% juice - no added sugar...and they don't get much - maybe an ounce or 2 a day mixed with at least 3 oz of water...

 

We have just transitioned to milk and also soy milk. They like both.

I also do apple juice diluted with water, and just yesterday I tried water for the first time and it went well.

 

I'd just stick with water. We don't do juice here, either.

 

Mainly because one of my boys doesn't like milk, I've been giving yogurt drinks/smoothies in their sippies, but I guess you have to weigh the pros (more calcium, acidophilus) and cons (sugar). Once in a while I also brew some barley tea. A lot of Asian families offer this to their kids. I'm not sure how available barley tea bags would be in your area. You may be able to find them in an Asian market. Here are a couple of links about barley tea in case you're interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mugicha
http://www.vitalitymagazine.com/node/255

 

We gave the girls water and juice diluted with lots of water too.

 

We just do milk and water here, and the occasional juice if they're a little backed up, if you know what I mean.

 

We substituted the morning and evening bottles of milk for sippies at 13 months. Other than that, they got water at meals and snacks. Mine went through a period of constipation around 12 months, so I would give them 1/2 prune juice 1/2 water at lunch. That's about the only juice they've ever had.

 

I give them whole milk with each meal and their morning snack. One of them loves juice so I give her 1/2 juice 1/2 water with her afternoon snack, but the other one isn't a big juice fan so she just has milk for that snack too. I use 100% juice, no sugar added variety.

They both have water any other time of the day and water right before bed. All of their liquids come from their sippy cup (no bottles).

 

we do milk or water and that's about it. BUT...we do mix milk with yogurt to make a 'smoothie' and our kids LOVE it!!! it's a quick & easy way to get the benefits of yogurt without the mess that tends to pop up when they eat it with a spoon (they are into painting with it now, ugh!)

 

We did diluted juice, too. And water. We also did flavored water which they would drink sometimes... They were kinda picky.

 

QUOTE(AmynTony @ May 3 2007, 08:45 PM) [snapback]243055[/snapback]
I actually mix my juice with water so its not as sugary - and I only use 100% juice - no added sugar...and they don't get much - maybe an ounce or 2 a day mixed with at least 3 oz of water...


This is what I do too for inbetween meal times. Once they finish that I just fill it with water.

 

Pretty much water, whole milk and breast milk.. They also have Soy from time to time and diluted juice once in a while (they don't like it)

 

We give whole milk at breakfast & dinner, and water the rest of the time. I have tried juice once or twice when they were constipated, but because they're not used to it, they refused it (so that kinda backfired on me -- maybe I should actually give it more often!).

 

We do whole milk, water and occasionally if they 'choose' to dislike ALL of their food, I'll give them Enfagrow Toddler.

Holly

 

We do 2 sippies of milk (one in the morning and one at dinner). Throughout the day, they get one sippy with juice/water. I use the 100% juice (no sugar added) - about 3 oz. of juice and 5 of water. After they are done with that, they get plain water the rest of the day.

From time to tim, I'll buy the Nesquick chocolate mix and maybe once or twice a week they get some in their milk. But, it's ONLY as a special treat if they ate a really good meal, or we are going out to dinner...something like that. I don't want to get that habit started

 

We only give milk or water. So most of the time during the day they will just have water.

 

We drink:
Whole Milk
Carnation Instant Breakfast(for my tiny baby) all flavors
Koolaid(as a treat very rarely)
Tea herbal and black
Propel
Juice(watered down)
Water
Smoothies
Yogurt drinks

 

Mine get milk and water only. I don't give mine juice unless we're at a bday party or they are sick and it needs to be mixed with pedialyte.