On Juice...

[Lorah]

In another thread a few comments were made about giving their babies/children juice.

I was wondering, what everyone's definition of "juice" is. and whether or not they give it to their kids.

We do not do "juice" per say. Meaning we only give Maverick fresh fruit, but in many sizes, shapes, textures, and forms; including a juiced form. So basically, we give him an orange, but we blended it into a liquid (so he can get it all easily). Same with any fruit that we can blend smooth. No sugar added of course, and only sometimes we add water....like when making an all fruit smoothy and its getting thick.

Same with veggies. It's really hard to get a 11 month old to eat enough veggies by chewing them, so blending them to a liquid is so much easier.

Anyway.... So we don't give him "Juice" but we give him "liquid fruit" hehehe make sense?

What do you do? How old where they when you started any kind of juice or liquid fruit.
No judgement btw, I am just wondering what everyone does.

[LMS]

we give juice. For our family, I see no problem with it. He only has 1 glass a day (unless it's a super hot day and milk would curdle before ever getting where we are going) and it's 50% juice, 50% water.

[Lorah]

we give juice. For our family, I see no problem with it. He only has 1 glass a day (unless it's a super hot day and milk would curdle before ever getting where we are going) and it's 50% juice, 50% water.


Sick...warm milk....nasty! Totally agree that juice is better than that!! :)

How old was he when you started the 50/50 mixture?

[Sara]

My kids get juice. I'm picky about what I buy, get only 100% juice and prefer TJ's stuff espcially the organic ones. They get it VERY watered down, either 50/50 or more. I don't buy juice boxes and never give it to them whole.

[Luckylove]

We don't give juice at all. She has only had it twice. Ava just doesnt need the extra sugar. I WOULD give it to her once in a while if I werent afraid of her rejecting plain water afterwards.

We do give her fruit but not "liquid fruit" (ie juice). I would rather she doesnt get used to juice and its better for her to get the whole piece of fruit for the extra nutrients and fiber. We never had problems with her eating softer fruit or pureed fruits and veggies when she was younger.

[Lorah]

... its better for her to get the whole piece of fruit for the extra nutrients and fiber. We never had problems with her eating softer fruit or pureed fruits and veggies when she was younger.

Cool that she ate the pureed stuff! Mav just doesn't like that texture, and we want him to get the fiber etc. so we just blend the whole thing ourselves to a puree and then add water....that way he doesn't lose any of the nutrients.....that is what I meant by "liquid fruit" as opposed to Juice....they are different...or at least I was trying to make the distinction...
does that make sense? hmmm

[Kellie_MO5]

My kids have juice on an infrequent basis... usually 2 or 3 times a week they'll get a glass of juice (though we do keep fresh fruit in the house for them, too) but I've never had any problem with them eating their veggies, either... luke, too (he loves veggies ;) ) Luke get's juice maybe a couple times a month, and then for him it's about 75% to 50% water, and the rest juice...

[Lorah]

My kids get juice. I'm picky about what I buy, get only 100% juice and prefer TJ's stuff espcially the organic ones. They get it VERY watered down, either 50/50 or more. I don't buy juice boxes and never give it to them whole.

Ohhh Which ones? I LOVE TJ's juice...for me. I also get the Just cranberry too....man its bitter, but its soo good for you.

[Sara]

Ohhh Which ones? I LOVE TJ's juice...for me. I also get the Just cranberry too....man its bitter, but its soo good for you.

We usually get just the apple or white grape for the kids. The Macintosh apple is really good too. For me, I love the lemonades especially the organic blackberry lemonade Yummmmm!

Kathleen: I wish I would have stood up to juice, I didn't even realize I could ;) My kids don't drink much water, Mia does sometimes, but Jacob rarely does.

[colleen&Kail]

i give kail juice but it is liek 90% water 10% juice they are always no sugar aadded or organic juices.....and it sitll tastes A LOT liek juice even if it is watered down. i usually give him apple and thats after he wakes up for a nap. but he LOVES water probably because eh always wants what i am drinkign and i usually have water so he lieks it.

[becky]

my girls are huge water drinker so we dont do much juice in this house. when they were little though they did get the 50/50

[jellybeanmichelle]

we give juice. For our family, I see no problem with it. He only has 1 glass a day (unless it's a super hot day and milk would curdle before ever getting where we are going) and it's 50% juice, 50% water.

Same here. Just doesn't have the high frutose corn syrup in it. Like I posted on the other thread.
She has Soy milk at breakfast and dinner. She has no problem drinking water.
She thinks anything in a cup is milk anyway.

[Lorah]

Ohhh here is another question...

What about tea? DECAF of course. We dont drink it much at all, but I remember my mom giving my youngest brother really really weak decaf tea in his bottles....we called them Tea-Ba's. He still LOVES tea. He is 18 now.

And

Is the reason you don't give juice from concentrate or fresh squeezed or tea or whatever.....because you don't want to limit water?

We don't do juice from concentrate because we don't want the added sugar and we don't want to lose the nutrients (that's why we make it from the entire piece of fruit). We also want him to get the water he needs, so we do the fruit (or puree with water i.e. liquid fruit or smoothy or whathave you) at the table with meals....cause that is where we would have him eat a piece of fruit. And we do water the rest of the time.

I am jsut kind of thinking through all this juice, fruit, water, milk business and seeing what everyone does and why...it is intersting to me to see everyones reasons and all. :)

[LMS]

we do 100% apple juice mostly. Occasionally we'll do the fruit splashers gerber juice if i get a really good deal on it, but normally it's just regular 100% apple juice. Sometimes we also do lemonade (no sugar added) 50/50 with water.
Brendan is really... laid back, i guess? In that he can have one thing and just flip back and forth to other things so it's never been a problem for us to change it up a bit. If he was more picky, I think i'd be more inclined to just nix all juice to save myself the headache of needing one kind in the house at all times.

[Lynette]

I usually don't even buy juice, not because I am against the 100% juice, just because all of us in the house would drink it first over water probably. We don't drink milk at all so it is really water or iced tea and Alaina is fine with both. Occasionally Salina and I will have a soda or a frappicino and yes, Alaina has had sips of those and shockingly, she is still in one piece ;) When she was younger I watered down any juice she had but don't anymore but she doesn't get it much so it isn't a big deal. Fruit is always in the house but I never pulped it for her, she has always just eaten it in its natural form, same with vegetables. We don't do "fake" juice at all or juice boxes either, the time I brought some to Jackie's going away play date was the first time Alaina had ever had a juice box and she became a little obssessed for the next day or so :rolleyes

[LMS]

brendan has sips of my passion ice tea from starbucks and loves it.

[Lorah]

Mav has had sips, and I do mean little sips, Hanson's natural soda, and I'm sure a few other things I just can't think of. I'm not stressing over a little tiny sip of something. And just as Lynette said, "shockingly, [he] is still in one piece ". Hehehe

[colleen&Kail]

brendan has sips of my passion ice tea from starbucks and loves it.

kail loves the black iced tea! LOL he grabs at teh green straw!

[Marisa]

Brianna will drink anything. Mommy's juice (Ice Tea)... Daddy's Juice (soda)... coppee (which we both drink in the AM)... we have to be really careful where we leave our cups. For her, I ask her what she wants and she has the choice of milk, juice or water. Lots of times she picks water or milk over juice but when she asks, I usually don't have any qualms about giving it to her... unless she just brushed her teeth for bed or something. We water it down about 50/50.

[LessasLashes]

Alessa ate tons of fresh fruit when she was around 1, so we didn't do juice at all. Once we moved here (age of 2) she started getting dental rinse cups of juice at school. I sent her in with sippy cups with anywhere from 1/4-1/2 100% organic and if it's in stock from TJs pure apple juice (not from concentrate), or the Tree Top (reg. grocery store) 4 apple juice blend (not from concentrate) so that it's pure juice.

Alessa solely drank water or Soy Milk until this past year when her daycare didn't refrigerate their lunches. I try to restrict what I can.. but honestly.. once she started getting "served" snack at school and although they abide by my restrictions (she's allergic to anything with pineapple, orange, lemons, strawberries, etc.) it was hard to keep her from all of it and having to give these long lengthy reasons why...

So long ramble..but I waited until she was about 2 to permit diluted juice.. If she's given straight juice.. it's like a martini to her...

[TaivensMama]

I am not a juice drinker so it was never something I had in the house until recently when Taiven started asking for it after seeing kids at school drink juice boxes. He is allergic to apple juice so he gets Odwalla (or the like),cranberry juice, lemonade, or the mega boost vitamin juice from TJ's a few others if he so desires. I have no idea what tastes good as I HATE juice... He hates it watered down and he has a juice every now and then...He is a HUGE water drinker and often has Icecubes through out the day. I think with Skye she may end up being offered juice younger because we will have juice in the house since her brother and dad drink it sometimes.

[justamom]

My kids are older, so thinking back my son was offered juice at around 18 months. I did not realize back then how much sugar was added.

Then my daughter came along and was offered juice around the same age. It was short lived as we started on a health kick. We no longer bought juice by the time she was 2.5, and my son was 5.5. With the exception of this one type of Apple Juice we used to buy at the health food store. It was pure organic apple juice with no sugar added. It tasted like you were biting into a freshly picked apple, yum.

Now if we are at a function that has juices the kids are allowed to drink them, but I won't buy them at all. The only drinks I buy for the kids are water, rice milk, and about twice a month I will buy one of those carbonated juices in a wine bottle. We will toast with the kids with it.

They are allowed to drink non water drinks on weekends, and only if they have drank 4 cups of water first.

If given a choice between, juice, soda or water my son would pick soda or juice, while my daughter picks water every time. Then tells me how healthy she is with a big smile.

Tea...we are a huge Tea Drinking family. My husband's Mother is Bulgarian/Turkish, and spent a good part of his childhood living in London. Turkey and England are huge Tea Drinking cultures for the most part.

I grew up on sweet sun tea on ice. My husband turned me onto hot teas when I was pregnant with my son. I drank a ton of Mint Tea to help with nausea during pregnancy.

The kids will drink the flavored non cafeinated fruity teas for pleasure/taste and when they have tummy troubles they drink the mint tea, and colds they drink Echinacea Tea. We have an entire drawer dedicated to a variety of Teas.

Last year when we bought our van we did not notice till after a couple of months that the word Tea is in the license plate. When about a month prior I had begun making and selling Tea Wallets, and had been doing quite well with them. Very ironic.

[meeg124]

Caden does drink juice on a semi-regular basis. I do alternate buying 100% fruit juices with vegetable juice. Caden drinks tea also and I'll make sun tea from an herbal tea for him occassionally. Neither Scott or I drink coffe but my mom will slip him a sip of milky coffee if we go out to eat with her.

I don't remember the particulars but I wasn't able to drink any juice as a little kid and as an adult, I never developed a taste for juice... unless there is alcohol in it ;) I've got a bladder infection right now and I'm trying to drink a lot of cranberry juice and I keep thinking that it would taste much better with a shot of vodka in it :lol

[JeriAnne]

I give Austin and Ryan juice, but it's watered down...probablyt 85% water and 15% juice (maybe even 90/10 just depending on how much juice I pour, I never measure but I know it's not less then 85/15).

Oh and we do the no sugar added 100$ treetop apple juice.

[Lynette]

I keep thinking that it would taste much better with a shot of vodka in it :lol

LOL! Well, you know in a pinch they pour alcohol on wounds to kill the cooties, so why not?! :D

[LMS]

megan: we didn't have juice like at ALL growing up. It's funny how habits are formed. My mom gave us lots of milk and still to this day I drink a TON of milk. Jr on the other hand... his mom couldn't afford sodas when they were teens or much milk when they were kids, so they almost always got koolaid style juice (not really koolaid, but the kind where you mixed in the powder) so he drinks a ton of it still. HabitsI now have to break him of. lol

[Theresa]

We do drink juice, the no sugar added/organic ones. I water it like 90/10 for Caty and Alexis 50/50. And at times when they get 100% juice it totally is like they are enjoying a martini. Both kids drink milk and lots of water, so juice really is like a treat or afternoon snack. They also eat lots of fruit and veggies so I don't worry about it.

[Shanta]

I feel much better now that I read this. I have been fighting a few family members who think juice is fine. But Logan is already super active. I don't want any extra suger added to his diet.

Thanks

[khanson]

I rarely give Taylor juice. Maybe a couple times a month. Always 100% juice with no sugar added. I also water it down about 50/50.