Can he have carton fresh juice?

[moosh]

Ds1 nearly 5 loves cranberry juice out of a carton but will always mix it with water. Ds2 only 9 months drinks water and watery baby juice, but was listening to a talk from a dental expert who said that if you were giving your children juice then carton fresh juice is the best rather than sugar free and cordial drinks. I never thought to ask till I got home and all the HVs are out of the office at the mo. Can I give ds2 watery carton fresh juice? I would do it the same as ds1, the drink looks like coloured water and has a hint of taste but not sure if ds2 is old enough. Thanks.

I would be really interested to hear any advice on this one. My dd is 10 months old and I do give her carton fresh juice but very watered down. I am pretty certain that I read somewhere that you should use 1 part juice to 6 parts water. It doesn't appear to have done her any harm, although to be honest, she much prefers plain old water, which I am grateful for

I've been giving my 2.2yo twins watered down carton fresh oj and apple juice since they were 4 months old. Didn't bother at all with the baby juice in bottles - gp advised me to do it to help ds's constipation. It was very watered down when they were tiny, now i just slug it in, probably about quarter juice to three quarters water.I think the key things is to give them juice/sweet drinks out of a cup rather than a baby's bottle.I still remember a woman in tesco's opening a can of value cola and tipping it into her 3 year old bottle. They have juice out of cartons with straws if we are having a picnic lucnch/in sainsburys, as i figure its slightly better for them than awful stuff in bottles. Mine won't touch water on its own unless they are very dehydrated, and they are still alive on juice( with no teeth problems either), so i would say go for it! hth

never used baby juice as they're just a marketing con

just dilute cartons of juice and always have

won't give my kids sugar free drinks .. don't like the sweeteners which I think are far worse than the sugar .. but I won't give DS squash either

I've been told that 7up is the best fizzy drink to give if you plan on going that route

Another fan of watery carton fresh juice - gets diluted 1 part juice 3 parts water here (so 25% juice) for ds1, ds2 is perfectly happy having water for the time being, but when he starts wanting juice I shall do the same.

Unfortunately with ds1 in nursery, squash has become a rather more popular drink and I do keep some in for visitors, but in general he'll drink mainly water. If I crack open a bottle of wine with the Sunday roast then ds1 gets watery juice as a treat to match . Nice when they're easily pleased....

Meant to say - I agree with Twiglett that the sweeteners are nasty - I'd far rather dses had the sugar in controlled amounts. Plus natural unsweetened fruit juice has other things in that are good for them too.

Thanks for your replies everyone, like I said ds1 has been having fresh juice watered down since he was 18 months old and had babyjuice before then and water. He is now 5 and has no interest in fizzy drink because he has never been offered a fizzy drink by me.We don't have fizzy stuff in the house and I know sugar free is just as bad for children's teeth so have never bought that either. But he does love his fruit juice and water and he has water only at school. But I will give it to ds2 now after reading all your replies, I just wish now that I had given it to him earlier instead of buying baby juice, just didn't think he was old enough. He loves plain water too but I think at meal times he prefers a derink with flavour.

I think vague rule of thumb is, that if they're old enough to have that fruit to eat, then they're pretty safe having the juice. E.g. if you're not sure you'd give them a citrus fruit to eat (e.g. orange) then don't give them watered down orange juice. We lived on apple juice when ds1 was small because it was something I liked drinking and on the occasions ds1 had it I knew he'd be okay (after all, he was happily eating apple!)