Fruit juice?

Hello,

At what age you started giving your LOs fruit juice and how often? Also kindly specify the variety of fruit juice you give your LOs.

Many thanks.

 

Mine get yogurt juice prolly 1x a week. Its 1/2 serving yogurt and 1/2 serving fruit. Otherwise they get milk and water in their sippies. They eat fruit with every meal and thats why I don't give them juice. My MIL gave them watered down apple juice one time and they poooooed for DAYS!!! Right now they just don't need it but in time I'm guessing it will be a good on the go fruit serving for me

 

I don't really give my kids a lot of juice. In the first year, they rarely, if ever, got any. Now, I would say the most juice that any of my kids drink is a glass once or twice a week and that is watered down by half. They mostly drink milk & water, with the occasional yogurt drink.

 

I am using about 1/8th juice to 7/8th water in their sippy cups right now, trying to teach them how to use them. I prefer the gerber juice, the little bottles are perfect I split one little bottle in their sippy's, and right now we are just using apple or white grape. When they get older I'll switch to juicy juice.

My two older kids (7 and 3) both still drink watered down juice, 1/2 juice 1/2 water. It's a rare treat to get a full glass of juice here!

 

I haven't given my boys juice yet and with my first little guy I didn't start giving him juice until he was almost a year. When I did I gave him pear juice that was mixed with 3/4 water. I choose pear because it helped him with his constipation. Even now when he is three he doesn't get to much juice because the sugar makes him a little crazy so I still water it down and also look for the juice with less caloried and less sugar.

 

I didn't give any to the twins until they were about 18 months, and they rarely drink it even now. My older kids drink more milk than juice. The juice I do give is watered down. I mix a can of the 100% concentrate with a full pitcher of water, which, I think, is twice the amount of water it calls for.

 

I use the same Gerber juices. The girls love them and they are the perfect size to split between the two. We buy the big box of little juices from BJ's because it's cheaper and lasts a lot longer. It comes with white grape, pear, and apple. All which are perfectly fine for babies to drink. They get half water half juice and they get it once a week. DH and I started at about 7 months just so they could learn out of a cup. They actually will drink a whole cup of water before they will drink a whole cup of juice. They just like water better especially when it's cold.

 

Juice has no nutritional value! It is higher in calories and sugar than soda and you can get more vitamins from fruit. DD gets prune juice occasionally (1-2 oz) ONLY because she has a tendency to get constipated but I wait until she really needs it (tends to get it about once to twice a month). I do not plan to give them any juice and when I start sippy cups they will get water. Juice in our house will be a treat only. I see it as a "gateway drug" for soda and koolaid!

 

Exactly! My pediatrician recommends water or milk only for these reasons, with juice being an occasional treat. It also fills them up, leaving less room for more nutritious foods. My 1st born didn't get juice until he was almost 2, I think. And still, you need to read labels. As mentioned, most juices are full of bad stuff and light on nutrients. Our juice of choice right now is Motts for Tots. Minimal ingredients.


Eve

 

:thanks: a lot for all your replies. However, I just would like to clarify that by juice I mean freshly squeezed juice we do ourselves (apple for instance), not the baby juice we find in the market.

 

Well, that is a little healthier but I still would only recommend it on special occasions as all their fluid needs are taken care of by formula. If they get juice regularly they will learn that they need something sweet when they are thirsty.