why shouldn't you give a child fruit juice?

[LizziePizzie]

Seriously? You can give them a whole orange, but not the juice squeezed from an orange? What's changed? I am not asking about fruit juices that contain added sugar like Ribena, but my Dad's freshly squeezed apple and blackberry juice.

Can anyone give me a valid, understandable reason why all the advice is that you shouldn't give them fruit juices.

pure orange used to upset my daughters tummy when she was small. Hence why I didn't give it to her until her she was about two.

You can give them fruit juice. In moderation like anything else.

I think you've just got to remember that fruit juice is still very sugary (fruit sugar) so if they drink a lot, it has the potential rot their teeth.

Also it has a lot of calories in and it's easy to consume (more so than say an apple which takes some effort) so children may end up comsuming a lot if it's freely available. So it's probably best to limit it for this reason too.

I think that the ideal is just water or milk, and perhaps a watered down fruit juice once a day. It's due to the sugars in the juice being bad for their teeth, and that they tend to drink more than necessary of sweet drinks, thus filling them up so they don't eat a proper meal.

(It doesn't work like that in our house - but think this is the reasoning behind it)

The whole fruit still has all the sugar, but unlike the juice it also has all the fibre and all the nutrients. The juice is just mainly sugar, but it's still okay to give them it in moderation.

i took dd to the doctors when she was around age 2 because she had had a runny bum for ages but seemed well - turned out it was from my letting her have fresh orange/ apple/ pineapple/ whatever was in the fridge juice, its too strong a concentrate for them to digest.

if you give it, dilute it like you would squash, thats the advice i was given at least :) tho it was a bit hard to do when dd was used to helping herself!

dilute orange juice for uder 2's by 3-4 and apple by 2,

I am a dentist and too much fruit juice will erode enamel on teeth, particularily if you brush straight away, fruit juice is best with meals and for a fussy child fruit juice and smoothies can up fruit intake when they don't do bits,

despite my best efforts and knowing all the background my DD will not drink water; she would not drink all day and she will only drink milk warm not cold or on cereal she is only 22 months so i hope it will change so she does have very very dilute juice but if too dilute she refuses to drink, but otherwise diet fine and it is in cup not bottle

so when you give fruit juice it should be with a meal, diluted in a cup, not so they can sip at it all afternoon

fruit juice is acidic and full of sugars and rots teeth, eroding the enamel, and some parents go daft and insist on brushing straight after....thereby brushing away enamel in the process.. Only way fruit juice could be worse is if someone makes it fizzy.

We do have it in our house as it is a valuable way to get vitamins, but we drink it with, or before eating to minimise prolonged contact with teeth. (our dentist advised this along with demonising fizzy drinks so much the kids don't want "rotted teeth")

Typed a long post then read the others. What they said.

The difference between eating an orange and drinking just the juice is that when you eat an orange the pith which is alkaline counteracts the acidity of the orange. With the juice you just get the acidity.

Also an orange contains ..... the juice of just one orange! Orange juice by the carton can contain many more.... So if you want your kids to eat 3 oranges one after the other - imagine the acidity levels in their little tummies...... as well as say 3 times as much acid as one orange on their teeth.