need advice on "juice"

[eleanorsmum]

keep being told to give dd "juice" at mealtimes now she is fully weaned and eating three good meals a day. have tried water but she wont take, have tried cow and gate summer fruits juice but nope (i tasted it and yuck). Can i give her diluted sugar free squash or watered down fruit juice?
Also how can i encourage her to drink this juice from a cup - have bought a no spill cup and one from avent but she wont suck to get anything. thought about putting milk in them - is this a good idea ?

u can put milk in them. tbh i wouldnt worry if she wont take juice, its not important. milk/water is better for them anyway.

i avoid suger free juices as i hate sweetners and dont want my kids being punped full of asparteme/sacchrin. makes me feel ill so cant face giving it to my kids.

Watered down (6 water:1 fruit) fruity juice is ok, some people would say hold off on orange juice (allergies) though.

Squash has aspartame in it which has all sorts of health questions hanging over it, alleged to be a neuro-toxin, I personally would try to avoid...

The AAP (Am. Ped. Assocn) say that too many toddlers have too much fruit juice which itself is not very nutritional & contributes to tooth decay... they suggest a max of 4 fluid oz (pure juice) per day before the age of 4yo (or maybe 5yo...). Anyway, i reckon more like 1 oz/day for under 1s, 2 ozs/day for under 2s,etc. Just dilute it down lots.

Have you tried fluids from a cup? DS2 really couldn't the hang of beakers, but he drinks lots of water out of cups. I'm happy just to give him water -- he gets my milk, too. I don't know if you're formula-feeding, but you could offer that in a cup if you wanted.

how do they drink from a cup? she is 6mths.

hold it for them, or try a drippy spout one, like we used to have as kids. doidy cups are meant to be good as well.

Make sure they have a bib on, too!

i'd say 2 or 3 bibs lol.

and just a nappy.

It's interesting they are telling you to give juice. DS only had prune juice when needed for constipation otherwise water or soya. I did finally break down and let him have a sip of orange juice the other day now that he is 17 months (I think it's any time after 12?) but am saving that as a special treat from mommy not ever in a beaker or anything.

Personally wouldn't have fretted at 6 months. By all means offer her a cup but don't expect her to take much from it for another few months and until it is warmer. Non-spill, valved cups are really hard for them to learn to drink from anyway, how about using a free flowing one to begin with ?

Many people make the mistake of assuming that apparent rejection of plain water automatically means they need to sweeten it up but I found that by persisting mine would take water if they were thirsty. Remember at this stage their solids contain a lot of liquid too.

Hienz cups are very good. Have used them with all of mine. Around here you can only get them in Boots and then not all of the time though

watchin this with interest. my dd is 6 months and wont take water or juice form an avent cup or the anyway up cup... not suprised at the anyway up cup - i cant even get anything out of that! she is on 2 solid meals a day and 3-4 bottles of formula milk

I was told that if I was going to give squash to avoid the sugar free ones. I give dd very watered down High-juice squash as she doesn't seem to like water and there's no aspartame in that.

Juice really has very little nutritional benefit, I'd keep offering water. DS1 (3y3m now) has never had juice on a regular basis, and happily drinks milk or water. (He will drink juice if it's offered.)

Sometimes I do cooled herbal tea for him (chamomile, or fruity ones), with nothing added, which is a nice change with nothing bad in it.

thanks for all the info guys. will persevere with water and try a free flow cup. boots here we come! thanks!

i use to finely grate fruit ie. very ripe pear and mix that with a bit of water

I give DD (6 months)a beaker of water once a night before her bath. I use an avent cup minus the valve, she could get it out with the valve in though sucking but wanted to teach her to drink and was told valves bad for their teeth, anyway most of it ends up down her and shes loves spitting it out but it's more like fun just now we treat it as a game drinking practice.

no not squash .. and certainly not anything with sweeteners in it

just buy juice .. apple juice .. and then put the tiniest spash in a cup of water (no more than 10% .. I certainly use a lot less)

DD won't drink water (she's 8 months) .. and DS did with no problems at all .. I think it depends on the child .. some babies simply won't drink water

DS uses the 'free flow' Tommee Tippee beaker. Easy to use and cheap. Only has water tho'.

I have started my nearly 5 month old on trying a cup at lunchtime. A little time drop of formula milk in to get it used to drinking from one. I decided to use a tommy tippee without the lid as the baby was mainly breastfed and didn't want to introduce beaker type cups. Managing to drink the little drop of milk really well. Have now purchased a special cup from NCTsales which has a slant to the cup and baby really enjoys taking the drop of milk from it. Still use a bottle as well but trying to introduce the cup slowly.

???
who advised juice?
my dd is 28 mths and has only had juice about 3 times!
I too am anti anti sweeteners they are not recommended for such young children I don't think.
For a cup we used the lid of an avent bottle and dd has always been very good after a spilling start at about 6 mths
She has never had a spouted cup which has saved me loads!