Do you limit your child's juice/squash intake?

[justlookatthatbooty]

My DS refuses water but I've just found a small cavity on the front of one of his teeth. Am horrified as we are not sugar eaters, he never gets sugary snacks or deserts and the squash and juice he gets is fruits sugars only. Do you limit the juices etc? Does your 18 month old drink water etc?

[RuthChan]

I try to limit the amount of sugar my DD (33 months) takes. Water is the only drink she is offered apart from her morning/evening cups of milk. She knows that other children sometimes have juice, but she doesn't push for it. She jokes that her water is her 'juice'/'beer'/'coffee' etc. If water is the only thing available, will he not accept it?

[BiscuitStuffer]

Fruit sugars are very sugary (just to state the obvious!). Smoothies are slightly better in that you get the fibre of the fruit too but the sugar content is still very high obviously.

We let them have juice if we go out for a meal but other than that it's a choice of water or milk with breakfast and water or 'pop' (cheapo own brand fizzy water at 37p per 2 litre bottle). That choice only comes in to play once they're old enough to talk

[BiscuitStuffer]

oh and obviously water is available all day as a matter of course!

[colditz]

it's the acid in juice that causes the problems, also in citrus fruit.FWIW, I DON@t limit sugar, and both of my children have perfect teeth, no cavaties.Some are just lucky.

[morocco]

ds1 has a cavity and enamel erosion from too much juice/squash. I've let it slide over the hols but we'll be back on our new rules of squash first thing then water the rest of the day

[Meglet]

You need jasper IIRC she's a dentist.

2.10ds has diluted smoothie or fresh orange juice at breakfast and thats it, he downs them so fast they are hardly in contact with his teeth. After that its water all day.

If anyone offers him juice I don't let him have it, I'm a mean mummy.

[Hulababy]

When DD was little she used to refuse water, so we gave her diluted juice. I gradually increaded the water amount and diluted it more and more She then started to take water gradually.

DD is 7y now and still choses water most f the time. We never have squash in the huse and she only drinks that or lemonade when out. We have juice in but generally over the weekend only (it goes by then) and sometimes smothies.

[weegiemum]

Mine get juice or squash with meals only.

Apart from that its water all the way, and in fact there is quite often only water with meals too.

Ds doesn't like anything else and even chooses water in MacDs (or he would if we ever went ).

My kids are bigger - 5, 7, 9, but I do find that either keeping the water cold in the fridge or adding ice makes them drink more.

[BiscuitStuffer]

The other thing we do sometimes is to make ice cubes out of fruit juice and then add a couple of those to a glass of fizzy or tap water. they love it. Oh and a straw.....!

[Sycamoretreeisvile]

I have never limited DD's juice intake...but she has always had fresh fruit juice (from carton thingy) diluted with water 1/4 to 3/4 or 1/3 to 2/3 water.

She drinks, drinks, drinks. She'll down her sippy cup in one. She'd 4 now. Took her to the dentist today and he says best teeth ever - not a blemish.

Have always been rigorous about brushing, and dropped bottles at 12 months.

Is he drinking from bottle or cup?

I second the straw idea for water, and/or putting ice in - very exciting for kids!

I don't given them squash.

DS is 2 but hasn't been to dentist yet - he def has more sugar than DD did at his age though

[Sugarmagnolia]

Yes, DS (6) would drink juice all day long if i let him. He is typically allowed two cups/cartons of juice a day then water and he's totally ok with this. DD drinks mostly water and the occassional smoothie out of choice.

Two concerns - 1)if you let them drink unlimited juice they will fill up on it and not eat enough real food. 2)if they drink a lot of sweetened drinks between meals it IS bad for their teeth.

If your main concern is teeth then limit sugary drinks to meal times as eating other foods helps remove the sugar from their teeth and get them to drink with a straw. My dad is a pediatrician and to this day i can remember the photos he used to have in his office of babies who were allowed to take a bottle to bed to suck on indefinitely - these were pictures of two year olds with totally rotten teeth!

[diddle]

My boys have diluted 50/50 apple juice for their first drink of the day and the rest of the day is water. They are 3 1/2 and almost 2 and sometimes they moan but they don't get more juice. We have a friend who's dad is a dentist and i just told them that x's dad says he can't have juice at all, and then they feel lucky for their one cup

[paisleyleaf]

I've also heard that the sugar in milk can be a problem....so it's best to brush teeth after evening milk from a cup.
(apologies if that's something you know already - just a friend of mine's DC has a cavity and the dentist said to her about the milk in a bottle after brushing not being good).

[RuthChan]

The other thing many people don't think about is fizzy drinks. Not just pop, but also fizzy water. They are extremely acidic due to the dissolved CO2 and are a major cause of tooth decay, even when sugar free. Fruit teas are also apparently really bad even though people tend to think of them as a sugar-free healthy option. (Maybe not for such small children though!)

[ohnelly]

When they do have juice they should have a straw as this is supposed to be better for teeth than drinking from a cup

[tummytickler]

We usually only ever have water or milk on offer at home - occasionally i buy apple juice, but i have 4dcs so a carton only stretches to one drink each and i dilute it 50/50. They would drink it all day long if i let them.
I let them have juice sometimes if we go out, and the odd milkshake, but not very often, and i absolutely NEVER allow fizzy drinks, ever. They are 8,6,4 and 2 and will always refuse when offered. I have said when they start going to school (secondary) and walk they can buy it if they want using their own money, but i will never buy it for them. Hopefully by the time they are 12 they wont be interested in aquiring a Coca Cola habit.
saying that ds6 had a filling at his last dentist trip and i thought we were very careful about sugar/tooth brushing etc as dh has very bad teeth - i was sooo embarassed.

[danthe4th]

Mine all have watered down juice or the bare all squash or water or milk which has no additives but something you shouldn't do is brush teeth within half hour of drinking juice as the enamel is soft from the juice. Also I put juice in the pack lunch sometimes but I always put a chunk of cheese in as it counteracts the acid.

[ilovehenryboy]

henry only has water and milk.. nearly 16 months... so proud!!!!!!! he loves his water