To not understand why most people in the UK give their toddlers and small children 'diet' drinks? Is it a fad?

[Bellarosa1234]

I have lived in the UK for several years and now have a toddler DD. I have noticed all my English friends feed their toddlers diet drinks? Like robinsons squash, supermarket no added sugar squash, no added sugar flavoured waters etc. Am I missing something? Why do toddlers and children need diet drinks? When I lived at home we would dilute fresh fruit juices at meal times for the children? I did that infront of a friend and she made me feel like a bad mother. She said fruit juice is bad and full or sugar? I went to have a look at some "squash" in the supermarket and it seems like it is a con? My friend said it was kind for children's teeth but it still has fruit juice and added acid. Am I missing something? Obviously I want to do my best by my children but I just can't understand why people think diet drinks are great for kids, can anyone enlighten me? Thanks in advance!

[PurpleDaisies]

there is a difference between needing fluid because your fluids are low, and needing fluid because your fluid is over concentrated. Water won't rehydrate you in the first instance,(for example if you have been sweating) but will help in the second.

You clearly do not have any understanding of basic physiology. If you are sweating your body's compensation mechanisms mean your "fluid" will become over concentrated. In either case water will work as rehydration.

If you have been sweating profusely you've most likely lost electrolytes too but under normal circumstances the body corrects this using the kidneys.

[Longlost10]

personally, I drink tap water, and I like it, but I don't rely on it in hot weather. I give my kids low sugar squash. None of them can tolerate milk.

[2rebecca]

I go for full sugar no artificial sweeteners squash. I think watered down pure fruit juice tastes a bit yuk. I'd rather have a glass of fruit juice followed by a glass of water.
All you folk who think kids should only get milk (which my kids and I dislike) or water are very puritanical. I think children should get a range of drinks and food just like adults. Just in moderation. My kids rarely had fizzy drinks but that's because I don't buy them because I don't like them (except tonic water, and lemonade to go in Pimms). My son now age 19 like Irn Bru but he rarely had that in the house because I think it's vile. He now drinks lots of water, maybe because he wasn't force fed water and denied other drinks as a child.

[Tanaqui]

Yes, I got from your second post (while I was typing) you hadn't meant all water. I am happy with my "unnatural" cholera free tap water!

[Fortybingowings]

Mutant? Primary lactose intolerance is very rare in the UK, and secondary intolerance usually only a transient problem after D&V

[Heatherbell1978]

There's some strange opinions on this thread. Water FYI is probably the healthiest drink there is. My toddler has water and milk only and long may that continue. I was brought up on Ribena; pretty much all I drank until I was a teen. Guess what? I have zero enamel on my teeth. Dentists have used me as a study case. So yeah...avoid the sugary drinks....

[RhiWrites]

This thread is really full of superstition and garbled data.

I suppose the answer to the OP's question is fashion. The current fashion is to think fruit juice is bad and squash is good. Some people still follow the previous fashion for milk.

I think "squash is closest to river water" is one of the oddest things I have ever read on mumsnet!

[PurpleDaisies]

I think "squash is closest to river water" is one of the oddest things I have ever read on mumsnet!

You've never tasted certain brands is squash...

[badtime]

As a previous poster said, the stereotype of British people having bad teeth is mostly a result of American preferences for a very specific look, and the use of cosmetic dentistry to achieve it.

The preferred aesthetic in Britain is traditionally for natural looking teeth, which to an American who is brought up to prefer 'perfect' teeth, might appear yellow and crooked.

Studies actually indicate that overall, in terms of decay etc., American teeth are more likely to be 'bad' than British (probably as a result of wider access in Britain to free or low-cost dentistry).

[Longlost10]

I think "squash is closest to river water" is one of the oddest things I have ever read on mumsnet! as in isotonic to, and a natural healthy water potential, unlike tap water

[PurpleDaisies]

Where are you getting this from longlost?

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Yeah. I would love to see the studies that show that water is bad for you and squash is better. Funded by Robinsons no doubt!

[Basicbrown]

I was brought up on Ribena; pretty much all I drank until I was a teen. Guess what? I have zero enamel on my teeth. Dentists have used me as a study case. So yeah...avoid the sugary drinks....

Yeah me too and I have perfect teeth.

[ShelaghTurner]

I don't know about river water but I can testify that a bottle of water with lemon and lime squash which has been left in the car all day has the temperature, colour and taste of this morning's washing up water...

[Cagliostro]

We just stick to water at home mostly

[Cakescakescakes]

Alas my ds has autism and will only drink one particular type of squash. This is not about refusal that I can control as my other DC drink water only. At his nursery they only permitted water so he didn't drink anything there - 4.5 hrs a day for a full year, including the height of summer, and he wouldn't take a single sip of water. So it's not always the case that kids will drink it if there isn't an alternative. He is now as a special school where he is permitted a glass of squash with his packed lunch and he doesn't come home parched every day.

[Fairuza]

Alas - when he goes to nursery/school I imagine he will drink the absolute minimum water he can get away with until he gets home and has a proper drink of squash.

My under 3s have certainly had plenty of free will!

Tanaqui - some children are never happy with just water or cow's milk.

[Tanaqui]

But how do they know? I mean, I understand when they are older that they are aware and will have tried other drinks! But as little toddlers, what else do they know? Mine probably only had milk, juice or water till 3 or 4 when parties might have had squash or lemonade, it's never been a routine drink at home.

[Fairuza]

How do they know what? That they don't want to drink water? They know, just the same as some of them know they don't want to eat brocolli.

[Tanaqui]

Yes, but at some point they have only drunk milk, or milk and water? Or they would be dead! So presumably they don't reject it till they have had an alternative- so when do people first give them that? I am just wondering if I live in a bubble of late starting on squash, or if things have changed (DC are teens now).

[pigsDOfly]

But if a toddler is only given water to drink Fairuza then that's what the child will drink. He/she will only stick out for something sweet if they've been introduced to it.

Quenching thirst is instinctive and necessary to survival and water is the natural thing to use to achieve that. Eating broccoli is not instinctive nor is it necessary for survival.

[shrunkenhead]

Water and milk are fine as drinks for kids. I dont know why people even start giving their kids anything else in the first place. My dd is seven and doesn't like any fizzy drinks, probably because I didn't sit her down with a glass of tooth-rotting coke at age three. Same goes for those vile E number-ridden Fruitshoots. I think the general consensus on Mumsnet is that they are the work of devil!
Why make life harder for yourself? Milk and water are just fine.

[Ionlyusethisnameforthis]

Ingredients in Aqua fresh milk teeth:
Aqua, Hydrated Silica, Sorbitol, Glycerin, Xanthan Gum, Titanium Dioxide, Aroma, Sodium Saccharin, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Methyl Cocoyl Taurate, Sodium Fluoride, Contains: Sodium Fluoride 0.221% w/w (1000 ppm Fluoride)

But we still clean our kids teeth (I hope).
Everything is chemical!