Non sugary drinks?

[Hughsie]

HAving given up hope of ds1 behaving normally ever again we have today banned Ribena and it seems to have improved his behaviour - does anyone know of any good drink substitutes that have less sweeteners in them and preferably avoid the E numbers too as I feel today may be a fluke!!

Have you tried organic cordials? I am sure they do not contain E numbers... of course they have sugar. You could just squeeze a bit of lemon or orange in a glass.... or mix fresh juice (not from concentrate) with water.
And what about good ole water?
I also give herbal teas (lemon verbena is a favourite) here

I tried a herbal tea drink but he was not impressed. I may try the juice. He used to drink water all the time until about 22 months but once he knew how to ask for juice that was it as he was exposed to it at nursery so I was impressed at keeping him off it for that long to be honest.

"E numbers" is a bit of a red herring. Harmless things have E numbers too - NB - it's worth getting a book so you can differentiate between good and bad. It's the numbers that are significant, not the E.

We use High-Juice (or Hi-Juice) squashes - but not the light kind, which have sweeteners - 50% juice, sweetened with sugar only, plus "natural" colour and preservatives. (I put natural in quotes because the colour doesn't come from the same fruit as the flavour - I think they use grapeskins for red.) There are at least 10 different flavours - favourites in our house are tropical, apple-and-blackcurrant and apple, also summer fruits and autumn fruits. There is also a blackcurrant version, Ribena-ish, though it's only about 30% juice and more expensive than the rest.

Sainsbos and Tesco do their own, and Lidl do too but a-and-b and orange only, Robinsons are the branded kind but they're dearer.

Hughsie, have a look at this list to be going on with - it highlights the possibly dodgy Es (including many of the preservatives, sadly - the benzoates and sulphurs).

Thanks Janh - Are you just interested in this stuff or did you investigate as a result of need?

Hi, Hughsie - combination of interest and, not need exactly, have just assimilated the information over the years - also I detest the taste of sweeteners, esp saccharine, quite apart from the other implications, and was devastated to find that Robinsons had put them into the Barley Juices and ruined them (IMHO!), so since then have read labels very carefully.

Sugar is bad for teeth, obviously, and for some children affects their behaviour too, but if well-diluted must be better for them in general than sweeteners!

Obviously water is the very best drink and I used to insist on it when I was younger and stronger, but diluted juice is good too - and undiluted juice - but mine get through it at such a rate that the squash is more economical.

I don't see why you can't just offer water Hughsie though.... just buy nothing else.... that's what I do and that's what they get. Juice is for parties.

I was diluting orange juice but as pupuce points out it shouldn't really be the concentrate - it is so difficult as you seem to be almost forced into giving them what is bad.

Thanks so much for the info - I will now become a label junkie!

I know ....I know ....I know pupuce but I have given him alternatives for the last few months so I have made a rod for my own back! I have tried water but he is really not interested - today he had 4 beakers of milk instead which I suppose is preferable.

sometimes we run out and they manage fine...funny how they can!

coddy, I always used to say "are you thirsty or not?" and if they really were then they would drink water - of course. It's true that we get into the habit of giving them the sweeter things when they would be better off without.

OK - make me feel guilty then.....bad mother thread here I come!

I have just looked at the Ribena bottle and apart from clourings I cant see any mention of the E numbers or the word for them on it - are they allowed not to list things or is ribena not a bad offender?

You're not a bad mother but we can all get wrapped up in giving juice because we'd prefer avoid a tantrum or make sure they drink plenty of fluids- I am sure we've all been in there

I did feel positively saintly in the past as i seemed to be the only mum in my baby group that insisted on water and at the time ds drank more than any of them - they have always given juice but their kiddies are nnot crazed like my 'Damien'

I've got a carton of Ribena here and I don't think it's that bad - the ingredients are listed as: water, glucose fructose syrup, Blackcurrant juice, Sucrose, Citric acid, vitamin C. So there aren't terrible additives but it is a fairly high sugar content. I wouldn't feel too guilty though Hughsie, I think there are many worse drinks - I wouldn't touch Sunny D with a bargepole for example. The others are right though, the very best thing is water or pure proper fruit juice (not from concentrate as it doesn't count towards your daily portions of fruit) with no additives. I seem to remember that Roo Juice is ok from reading the label when a friend had some but I've never bought it so might be wrong. Janh, I can taste Saccharine too and really can't drink anything with it in, it tastes disgusting to me.

Hi there#
I'm a bit worried now as I always give my daughter fruit juice made from concentrate mixed with water - could somebody please tell me what's wrong with concentrate?
Thanks

Yes - I would like to know what's wrong with concentrate too - it's not excluded on my list of good fruit and veg portions as produced by the British Heart Foundation.

Well, I'm guessing here, but I think it's because it doesn't count towards one of your five daily portions. Apparently only non-conentrate does. I can't imagine it can do any actual harm, so don't worry!

So are they saying that the process it goes through to make it concentrate destroys the vitamins etc.?

Presumably the process of making concentrate destroys the vitamins? Incidentally the BHF list is based on the "give me 5" stuff although for heart patients it's 7 a day. I fear an expensive upgrade to fresh apple juice coming on. Either that or it's back to water or milk for us.
(PS - apologies if I seem to be repeating myself - I posted earlier and it hasn't come up yet).

... that always happens ...

jude, Lidl have pressed apple juice, "not from concentrate", for 69p a litre. But it's not chilled - so must be pasteurised or something - I don't know where this fits into the 5 a day thing.

Hm - this is from the Food Standards Agency - it doesn't differentiate between juice from concentrate and the other kind - only between juice and squashes etc.

Mind you another page says that in future juice from concentrate is going to be labelled like that - not just as "juice".

The main difference is in the taste - I think!

The difference is that concentrated juice has more (natural) sugar, because it's concentrated (i.e. less water content). DS only gets water at home because I won't buy anything else, and juice for a treat when we go out, but only if he insists! I find if he has juice with a meal he will drink this first and feel full, so won't eat his food. Undiluted juice gives him the squits too, so for me I feel there's not much choice really. Also makes me feel less bad about all the sweets he eats, from a tooth decay point of view!

ds1 does not really get sweets at all apart from at parties so I feel the juice he wants is ok really -I favour giving the concentrate watered down and he likes it but I too worry that he fills up on that and doesn't eat as much as he should - he also loves apples and pears (not the stairs!) which I indulge as it is better than sweets and crisps although I know they have natural sugar. i feel lucky that he likes fruit this much so am happy to provide it.