Good juice drinks for kids

notanewuser

maman wrote: »

Ideally you'd just give them milk or water. All juices contain sugar whether added or natural it's still sugar. As a compromise go for no added sugar squash, well diluted or flavoured water.

It's a compromise to give them artificial sweeteners instead?!

flubberyzing

Fruit Shoots are repulsive things. Soooooo sweet!


Try them on increasingly weaker squash. Which is also much cheaper than the cheapest of "juice drinks". Think, we never had these "juice drinks" as kids ourselves (I'm in my 30s now), and we managed just fine on squash, milk or water. A pure fruit-juice was a treat in my house growing up! Reserved for when family visited, or special occasions such as xmas or easter, when a single carton of OJ or apple juice concentrate would appear on the table.

terra_ferma

notanewuser wrote: »

It's a compromise to give them artificial sweeteners instead?!

They are just chemicals that have been shown to trigger more sugar cravings and hunger.
You really need to get them used to drinking plain water, even flavoured water (e.g. volvic) has sugar in it, and if you add lemon it can get too acid and no good for their teeth if drunk regularly.
I agree with the trick of using increasingly weaker squash to get them used to plain water gradually. Maybe water with a splash of lemon and sugar as a treat every now and again but not all the time..

nic_nac_

Don't think there's any "good" juice drinks for kids. When I spoke to my daughters orthodontist about drinks she said the only completely safe drinks for teeth are plain water and plain milk. Definitely no fizzy juice and just to limit no added sugar diluting juice to meal times.

stephen77

terra_ferma wrote: »

They are just chemicals that have been shown to trigger more sugar cravings and hunger.
You really need to get them used to drinking plain water, even flavoured water (e.g. volvic) has sugar in it, and if you add lemon it can get too acid and no good for their teeth if drunk regularly.
I agree with the trick of using increasingly weaker squash to get them used to plain water gradually. Maybe water with a splash of lemon and sugar as a treat every now and again but not all the time..

I rather just have plain water over weak squash.
Either full strength squash or water. No in-between.

maman

nic_nac_ wrote: »

Don't think there's any "good" juice drinks for kids. When I spoke to my daughters orthodontist about drinks she said the only completely safe drinks for teeth are plain water and plain milk. Definitely no fizzy juice and just to limit no added sugar diluting juice to meal times.

I'd agree with that as I said in an earlier post.


I don't find the one glass a day of no added sugar Ribena that I drink at breakfast instead of juice an excessive chemical intake. Its personal choice.

notanewuser

maman wrote: »

I'd agree with that as I said in an earlier post.


I don't find the one glass a day of no added sugar Ribena that I drink at breakfast instead of juice an excessive chemical intake. Its personal choice.

Your post read as if you thought it okay for them to be drinking artificially sweetened squash instead of water. My 3 year old sips water all day long, and has a fresh fruit smoothie with her lunch. As a grown adult of several decades the impact of one artificially sweetened drink a day on you will be far smaller than several drinks on young, rapidly growing bodies.

Cornucopia

psarinuk wrote: »

Capri Sun, Fruit Shoot, Tropicana, Innocent, and big cartons of Rubicon, Del Monte...

These are different types of products. Unfortunately, there's no substitute for understanding the different product types and their ingredients.

Broadly, they are these....

- Pure juice e.g. Del Monte
- Juice Drinks (Juice with water and sweetener - usually sugar)
- High-Juice cordials (usually higher in natural sugars)
- Standard cordials "squash" - sweetened with sugar
- No Added Sugar cordials - with artificial sweeteners
- Flavoured water sweetened with sugar
- Flavoured water with artificial sweeteners
- Plain flavoured water without sweeteners
- Fizzy drinks with sugar
- Fizzy drinks with artificial sweeteners.

The market (particularly for "children's drinks") is constantly changing, and there are own brand equivalents for most of the above.

Medical advice is also under constant change, too. This make it difficult to know what is best. Certainly, when I was a child we only had standard cordials that included sugar, and no harm resulted - AFAICT.

The advice at present is that there are no good options for flavoured drinks - children should be encouraged to drink only water and milk.

Sugary drinks are deemed to be a problem from the POV of dentists and more general health. Artificial sweeteners are now thought to encourage hunger leading to over-eating (apart from other concerns about long-term intake).

Based on the above, I wouldn't be surprised to see a new class of product based on natural low-calorie sweeteners, but those would probably be too expensive to be classed as a "children's drink". (Use of quotes intended to express my dismay at the very concept).

notanewuser

Out of interest, OP, what did you wean them on? Water or "baby juice"?

dandelionclock30

One of my friends had to have 2 adult teeth pulled out at the front due to drinking lots of that Oasis drink.
OP if you want your children to keep their teeth then give them water or the odd drink of milk.
They will get over it.
I dont know if you know,but if little children lose their milk teeth young then the adult teeth come down soon after. You dont want them having dental issues and having to wear plates etc as children.
I'd encourage them by drinking water myself and getting my partner as well to set a good example. Its hard but worth it. Good luck.