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Preventing Problems
How do you prevent problems from drinking too much juice? One easy way is to not introduce juice
until your child is six months old. And when you do begin to offer your infant juice, give it in a cup
and not a bottle.
Older infants and toddlers generally drink too much juice when they always have a sippie cup in
their hands, or if they are sucking on the cup like they would a bottle. Although sippie cups are
convenient and it is nice to prevent messes, if you child always has one in his hands, then he is
probably most at risk of getting cavities, since his teeth will always have sugar on them.
To prevent your child's cups from becoming a security object for toddlers, it can help to restrict
them to meals, when you offer milk, and snacks.
It may also help to change to a "sport's bottle" type cup, which can also prevent spills and messes,
but aren't as easy to drink out of as a regular sippie cup.
The Juice 'Problem'
One of the main problems with drinking too much juice, is that it is filling and will decrease your
child's appetite for other more nutritious foods. While your child will still get a lot of calories, they
will mostly be from sugars or carbohydrates, and not from fat or protein, which can contribute
to a poorly balanced diet. Also, fruit juices generally don't have a lot of vitamins and nutrients,
although they do have vitamin C and some are fortified with calcium. Also, if you child is drinking a
lot of juice, then he probably isn't drinking much milk, which is a good source of calcium and other
vitamins and nutrients
Does Your Child Have a Problem With Juice?
In general, if you child is eating a well balanced diet, including some fresh fruits and vegetables, is
drinking 16 to 24 ounces a day of milk and dairy products, and doesn't have problems with cavities
or being overweight, then he likely doesn't have a juice problem, even if you are exceeding the AAP
limits.
Take our Fruit Juice Poll - How Much Juice Do Your Children Drink?
If your child is exceeding the AAP limits and is a picky eater, has a poorly balanced diet, cavities,
diarrhea, chronic abdominal pain or if he is overweight, then you should consider taking steps to
limit his intake of juice. You should definitely avoid letting your child fall asleep with a bottle or cup
of juice, since that is probably the biggest risk factor for getting cavities. Also avoid giving 'fruit'
drinks or 'fruit' sodas, since they may actually have very little fruit in them.
The Benefits of Juice
After all of this talk about the "juice" controversy, is there any reason to give your child juice at
all? Many kids don't like eating fruit, so offering fruit juice is one way to get your child the 2 (for
younger kids) to 4 servings (older kids) of fruit that is recommended in the Food Pyramid Guide. A
6-ounce glass of 100% fruit juice can substitute for (but is not really equal to) one serving of fruit.
The AAP advises that half of your child's fruit servings from the Food Pyramid Guide can come
from 100% fruit juice.
Still, it is important to remember that the recommended servings of fruit juice are actually limits.
Your child does not need to drink any fruit juice, especially if he is getting the Food Guide Pyramid's
recommended servings of fruit by eating whole fruit.
Fruit juice can be helpful for children who are constipated and fruit juice diluted with fluoridated
water is a good way to get your child fluoride if he doesn't like to drink plain water.
Kids love the taste of pure fruit juice, and parents love it because it’s a healthy source of nutrients.
When choosing healthy pure juice for your children, it’s important to note what kind of juice you
are serving and how much you are offering. Here’s what families should know about fruit juice
versus other fruit-flavored beverages:
Choose the right fruit juice
All juices are not created equal – some are nutritional gems while others are sugar water. Consider
these tips as you make juice part of your child’s diet.
Be label savvy. Buy juice labeled “100 percent fruit juice."
• Beware of words like “drink,” “punch,” “cocktail,” “beverage” and “ade.” These are not 100
percent juice – they’re junk fruit beverages.
• Many “junk fruit beverages” are nutrient-void beverages, commonly masked as fruit “juice,”
“drinks” or “cocktails.” Most contain 10 percent or less of pure fruit juice, and lots of water,
sugar and additives. Junk fruit beverages have little or no nutritional value.
• Avoid junk fruit beverages that are disguised as juice “blends” that contain small amounts of
various fruits like grape, apple and pear. Ounce for ounce, these juices don’t have the natural
levels of vital nutrients that 100 percent pure juices like orange juice provide. Plus, they usually
contain added sugars.
Examine the ingredients. Avoid fruit-flavored beverages that have added fructose corn syrup.
They shape a child’s taste toward sweet cravings.
Look at the juice. Generally, the cloudier the juice, the more nutritious it is. If you can see through
it, you’re buying mostly water. Picture a tall glass of 100 percent pure orange juice with pulp.
There should be some sediment at the bottom, which is a reminder of the juice’s origins.
Go with citrus juices. Orange juice is a morning favorite and one of the most nutritious beverages
available. An excellent source of vitamin C and potassium, orange juice also is a good source
of folate and thiamin. Compared to other juices, orange juice is higher in protein, vitamin A,
B-vitamins, vitamin C (it contains more than 10 times as much vitamin C as apple juice), calcium,
iron and potassium, making it a heavyweight among fruit juices. Drinking an 8-ounce glass counts
as one of your five necessary fruit and vegetable servings for the day.
Check if it’s pasteurized. Commercial juices now are required to say if it’s pasteurized on the
label. The new law is a result of non-pasteurized juice-borne bacterial illnesses that are especially
harmful to people with weakened immune systems (such as children, pregnant women or the
elderly). No need to worry, though. A new high-pressure pasteurization method increases the shelf
life and significantly reduces the bacteria count. And, it reportedly does not affect the flavor or
vitamin and mineral content of the juice. The key is to make sure the label on your juice says it’s
pasteurized.
Consider Juice Variety. Another beneficial juice in addition to orange juice is nectar juice. Nectar
usually has more calories, but more nutrients are preserved during processing nectar than other
juices. Apricot nectar is especially healthy, containing a lot of beta-carotene, almost a gram of
protein per 8-ounce glass, and it’s higher than most juices in vitamin A, vitamin B-6 and iron.
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