To ask what squash/juice you give your children to drink?

[Littleonesgettingbigger]

My two daughters aged one and five, drink about 1 litre of diluted squash a day (they do not drink milk or water it anything else). I am happy with them drinking squash as at least they are drinking (which is very important due to constipation problems with youngest). I used to give them watered down fresh apple juice but the dentist mentioned this was too acidic for their teeth to have throughout the day. So I changed to apple high juice (not sugar free), the dentist at this times checkup said this was basically like giving them sugar water to drink and is bad for their teeth and advised me to change to sugar free squash. I am reluctant to do this due to asparatem? What do you all give your children to drink (those of you that use squash/juice)? Thank you in advance

ALso little chunks of fruit in a drink, are always popular too.

Kiddies pimms so to speak.

Very weak juice/water concoction with little chunks of apple, strawberries etc..

You are just going to go round in circles on here OP. Mumsnet children only drink water or milk because they have strong mothers who haven't offered anything else. Fact. The fact that your child has medical issues is irrelevant I'm afraid. Just to let you know for the future, you haven't cooked meals from scratch if you haven't made your own stock with water gathered by hand from the Himalayas and bones from hand raised free range chickens. HTH.

What about thinking outside the box. Cucumber water or lemon water. Try different natural flavours in water. A few slices of orange, lemon or cucumber, some mint maybe. Might be that water is 'boring' or it might be that they are addicted to the sugar, who knows until you try

We are water or milk here but it is by DD's choice, not my parenting! She loved fizzy water (not flavoured) at that age.

DD2 had constipation problems and eating prunes did nothing, however when we got some organic pure prune juice and gave her that it really worked (and quickly!)

Pahahaha! Only on Mumsnet. Mine have Robinson's R. It really is one of the least of my concerns. I even let them have the occasional Froot Shoot. FFS.

Justwhy I hope that water is unicorn tears otherwise you are dead to me.

Robinsons double concentrate no added sugar is what we use here.

I'm sorry your littlest has had such trouble with constipation and I completely understand why you've been giving juice. Mine only have water due to teeth problems but I would also give juice or squash if the alternative was chronic constipation. I think the thing is to keep an eye on it. Personally I would rather give diluted fruit juice than squash - but get it as dilute as they will tolerate (you could start off 50/50 and then gradually add more water). Also with tooth problems it is often frequency that causes the trouble, so sipping at fruit juice between meals is much worse than having one large glass with a meal. Will they have a bit of water afterwards just to rinse teeth? This would help. And finally, I find straws are useful, both because they encourage them to drink more, and it transports the drink to the back of the mouth so helps teeth avoid it slightly.

DSL will only drink milk or water.....lemonade for treat if he is at the cinema etc.
DD (13) will only drink bottled water and so has very weak Watrose high juice squash....normally Apple or black current.

Both she and I get instant headaches if we drink anything sugar free (with sweeteners) and so I would rather give very weakened high juice with no additives than her not drink.....she is prone to constipation and UTIs.

She has lovely teeth, as. Does DS. And We don't have a single filling.

Just water here.

We use a nuby cup with a built in straw. If I put just water in the "juice" bottle it gets thrown! Not drunk. I should perhaps be clear, my dd has ds and chronic constipation is a common symptom. A lot of children with ds and sn take movicol for constipation and drink diluted juice. For their health.

You might get a better response in children's health, rather than lots of people outraged by you giving diluted juice. Your daughter's chronic constipation is more serious than drinking juice. 2 dentists have said the same to me and told me that diluted juice in a cup/bottle with a straw is fine.

Ds is the same will only drink juice or milk I never gave him juice until he went to his grandparents now refuses anything but. Sometimes I squeeze fresh orange juice into water.
He will drink water out of our water bottles from the shop I think it's the novelty so I've taken to leaving one near him.

You can't get squash where I live. We occasionally have cordial (the full sugar version because that is what you get in the shops here) but they mostly drink water, or fruit juice with breakfast. I've never watered it down.

UK squash tastes weird and a bit chemical-y to me now but that's just because I'm not used to it. The kids don't like it.

DS will sometimes squeeze half a lemon into his water - which makes me cringe to think about - but he is weird about acid tastes.

My ds was only ever offered water and milk. He refused milk as soon as I ditched bottles, I tried every design of cup ever made. So I gave water. And he hardly had any. Wouldn't drink it. Then a hot summer and he got really badly constipated so doctor said give him dilute sugar free squash.

We get sainsbury's, comes in loads of flavours.

justwhy haha yes I am noticing this! Oh well I will ignore those people who are stupid enough not to understand how serious chronic constipation lasting 6 months is!! I am not going to keep explaining it, you are right I will be going round in circles! It's funny doctors think squash is fine but not some of the mumsnetters! Lol

Another vote for Sainsbury's squashes here - all are sweetened with sucralose as opposed to aspartame. I also don't like giving DD plain water all the time, especially in summer, as she just won't drink enough and gets dehydrated.... She gets plain water with meals but in between its either Sainsbury's stuff or sparkling water with or without a slice of lemon... She loves her "water with bubbles"! :)

I prefer sugar squash to sugar free, as I'm not keen on artificial sweeteners. But they don't drink it often. I'm not sure how I'd feel in yoru situation.

Do you realise that the squash itself is less of an issue with meals/snacks ? It's better if it comes at a time when the teeth are already dealing with exposure to sugars/food rather than as an extra exposure. Is there the possibility that they could be taught to drink larger amounts at those times? Especially the older one who doesn't have the health issues? Even if not, if they are having squash it's much better for their teeth if it isn't lots and lots of little sips, but bigger drinks more widely spaced. I realise that might not be the priority if little sips is all the little one will have.

mrsterrypratchet the cucumber and orange water etc is worth a try thanks

I have looked up the sainsburys no added sugar drinks and they look good, thank you. I will be stocking up on those and some straws :)

Ignore all the parents who are lucky enough to have kids without health problems, or kids that don't refuse drinks.

Check supermarket own-brand squash. A lot of it is unsweetened and doesn't contain aspartame, you just need to read the label. Another option which PP have mentioned is fruit in water. If they like the taste of orange or lemon, try slices in water, it might take away from the "Boringness" of plain water. Or maybe slices of cucumber?

There are caffeine and tanin-free teas that might be a solution as well.

Good luck!

Waitrose hi juice, no aspartame.

The summer fruits is beaut.

Dd had chronic constipation from potty training to the age of about 11 so definitely don't worry too much about giving dilute juice. You are right, as long as it's not really strong, chronic constipation is far worse than a little sugar.

Oh they do only drink at meal/snack times so I guess that is good. They have 5 cups of 200ml a day, one at breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner time. They never wake for drink in the night unless they are poorly.