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

I kept mine on just water and milk for as long as possible. At nearly two she's had juice and squash at parties etc and now I have a toddler who won't drink water.
I give her very weak sugar squash and she guzzles down loads. I make sure she has it with food only and her teeth are brushed but not straight afterwards.
She will drink water sometimes if I'm drinking water but it has to be out of my cup so I make sure I drink water throughout the day in front of her so she'll ask to try it.
I'm sure someone will be along to tell me how terrible it is for her but she will drink sparkling water sometimes if it's in a grown up cup.
I am not too happy about sweeteners or sugary squashes but when she hasn't drank for 12 hours and is asking for it and the above tricks haven't worked I don't want to say no.

We go for the sugar free Robinsons here. DC1 used to not drink water or milk, so this was the only thing I could get him to drink. He's now much better at drinking water and will normally ask for it when at others' houses because I make squash so weak he doesn't like it the way other mummies do it... Eventually I'm hoping I'll wean him off, but I'm not all that fussed about asparatem compared to lots here.

DC2 is only 20 months, so far she's only drunk water and milk. Hoping to keep it that way for a bit longer, although my drinks based failure with her is she'll only have milk from a bottle still, although water she'll have from a cup. I figured that's down to 2 a day (pre-breakfast and bedtime) that it's just not worth the battle if it will mean she stops having milk too (it was when I got rid of bottles that DC1 swiftly started refusing milk, then refused it even when I put it in a bottle - he's a strong willed little thing)

I just buy what is on special offer in the supermarket when we need squash, my dc are now 9 and 12 and I have given them squash since they are toddlers they drink it every day no brands have affected them they both have perfect teeth and their behaviour is not affected.

They both still drink full fat milk every day and drink water throughout the day at school

FFS. I've got to page 3 and the responses are really pissing me off! I can't help because I drink robinsons no added sugar, and my nieces and nephew's drink Aldi double concentrate stuff. Both I assume full of aspartame. Both of which thousands of adults and children drink every day.

Again, not helpful, but if it were my child with the health problems, I would probably go for the sugarfree aspartame stuff. I suffered terrible constipation as a child (not as bad as your child), my drink was Ribena, and I had a lot of problems with my milk teeth.

Maybe if my parents had chosen sugarfree things would have been different?

Good luck, whatever you choose.

Mine are 5 and 7, basically just water and milk at home. Can have pretty much anything though if we are out to lunch or they're at parties etc

How about diluted apple juice?

I think juice is ok as a drink with a meal. It's when it's sipped throughout the day in a zippy cup or bottle and the teeth are being constantly bathed in sugar. My two had water for as long as possible then weak squash and juice with meals and only one cup of juice a day. Always cleaned teeth am and pm, they are now 15 and 12 and no fillings so try not to worry too much.

We all drink water. No milk except on cereals.

Sainsburys sugar free here. Tescos is quite nice as well. They've always drunk it, with no ill effects, just like all the other kids I know.
I drink it myself in the summer.

I just give mine any old sugar free squash. Would never give them juice, only as a treat if we are eating out.

I found the orange juice with bits in was quite helpful for constipation relief OP.

Ribena, orange juice, milk and water. Constipation is a problem with one of my daughters. I just make sure I dilute the drinks a lot.

DS drinks any no added sugar squash. Also drinks vanilla soy milk diluted with a regular milk (1:3). Took us a long time to find the one milk he likes and I am sliwly adding more and more of the regular stuff to potentially wean him onto it, but not in a hurry. He drinks water at night, at school, and when we are out and about.

He also suffers from constipation..

None. Water or milk only.

No juice here, just water. They've never known different though so don't complain . When they were weaning I made the decision that we don't have juice or ketchup in the house.
I've stuck to it and now they're older they sometimes have them if we're out or as a treat and thankfully we've avoided the issues I've seen others have. I didn't realise at the time how much of a good decision that would turn out to be especially when I see children refusing water or to eat anything not smothered in ketchup. I just wish all my other parenting decisions had worked out so well!

Imagine as an adult only drinking water and milk. How boring is that. It's fine to have other drinks at parties and meals out or now and again. Crikey do these mums apply their own rigid rules to themselves i wonder!

Ok, I know you don't want the non-squash drinkers to answer but have you tried giving your DC water with crushed ice. When my DC were little we had an ice dispensing fridge and it seemed to encourage them to drink gallons of squash free water.

Being able to help themselves also meant they drank a lot more.

Milk and water are grim. I've never drunk either, and neither have my kids!

I've also never had a hot drink

I get through tons of generic supermarket double concentrate squash. I think I've got apple and blackcurrant and orange and pineapple on the go at the moment.

I also drink 2l of pepsi max a day. My kids have some too.

I do buy fizzy spring water and mix with squash though for the kids. They have this all the time.

I have far more important things to worry about. They are healthy weights, have no teeth problems, and are happy.

I'd be bloody miserable just being offered milk and water in fact I'd die

If you have a constipation issue with your DC, then I can see why you'd give squash.
We had that with DS, too.
Personally, while I think squash between meals is very bad for teeth, I can't see any reason it shouldn't be given with meals. When DS was constipated I used to give him a big drink of squash just before every meal. My dentist said that that was fine.

I second Sainsburys and Coop squashes - sucralose is the sweetener, which is apparently the one most people are comfortable giving. Remember that whatever evidence there is to incriminate artificial sweetners (and there is very little), there is MUCH more evidence saying that sugar is bad for you.

Captain. I guess I am one of those boring adults because skimmed milk and water is what I drink. I can't handle booze and I am even worse at dealing with hangovers so don't tend to have much that.

I guess for me (outside DD issues with constipation) drinking water is just normal and what has always happened in our household (DH is the same). If I am thirsty I will get/buy a bottle of water.

As for all the "they will drink water if they're thirsty brigade"...

If they are THIRSTY thirsty, like dehydrating, then yes I'm sure they will. Some kids will drink just enough water to not dehydrate. If you have a DC with constipation, though, they need to drink A LOT. Many, many kids will not drink enough to tackle constipation without something really motivating to drink.

So please give the OP a break.

Goog god, it's squash, not plutonium.

OP we drink high juice sugar squash here because the no added sugar stuff tastes horrible. We also sometimes have fizzy drinks as well as water and milk.

We have sainsbury's sugar free squash too. My DS has chronic constipation too and we actually give him movicol mixed with lemonade. Its awful for teeth I know, but we've tried everything and there is no way we could get the quantity of liquid he needs into him if we didn't let him have lemonade and squash. We've just decided it's the lesser of two evils. He's great at brushing his teeth and has an otherwise healthy diet, whereas he has serious continence issues due to his constipation so that's our priority to try to sort. Hope your DDs constipation is sorted soon.