Weaning a baby, Water or juice?

[CantThinkOfAGoodUserName]

I know the guidelines are water or milk before 1 is that right????

But what do the majority do? I've only given DD water but ALL my friends say yeh that's what they say but all give really weak diluted juice or something.. Is this normal or is it just my irresponsible friends? :)

Water avoid the sugar as long as you can get away with it. She will thank you in the future!

Just water here. I have 3 DC; DC 1 (age 9) drinks water or milk - with occasional fizzy drink at a party, DC 2 (age 5) likes apple juice but probably has it once a day with water the rest of the day, DC 3 (age 1) drinks water or milk only.

The other interesting thing that our dentist said was that some people have teeth with naturally occurring 'holes' in them. Meaning that however much the child avoids sugar and religiously cleans their teeth, normal food will get caught in the holes that are unreachable even with flossing.

So the best policy (he reckoned and he wasn't touting for business) is having them 'sealed' when the child's teeth are fully grown and before the rot sets in.

Me and my sis had our teeth sealed when we wee teens and that was 30 years ago, think is the norm?

Water, I have a non water drinking 13y, she just about admits she's a pain.

Because she BF forever and hated milk, I let her have squash or juice with meals or if I wanted to go out in an evening DH would give her juice and yoghurt.

I wish I'd insisted she had water sometimes, but she simply didn't drink enough as a toddler, small child and I worried.

Interesting re sealants, as I mentioned to my dentist about DDs and she said they don't like to seal as a general rule( only when obvious potential problems) as it can bring more problems later.

Mine are 8 and 5 and still just have milk or water. Still sometimes raises an eyebrow at parties etc, which surprises me.

The benefits for the teeth / health have been well covered, but don't overlook the fact that when your child is carrying drinks round with them it's WAY better to have water leak everywhere than squash / juice or, God forbid, milk.

Water. We were pretty strict with water but even at 2.5 squash and juice is creeping in, I'm not entirely sure how I'm blaming the grandparents

By which I mean that juice, sweets etc do slowly creep into your kids diet as they get older, so it's best to start with the healthiest option so you have some room to slide downwards. And then the more sugary drinks can hopefully be seen as a treat, so you can keep a limit on them.

My baby won't drink plain water. She's nearly 4 months. This heat has caused me to cave and mix 1 part baby juice (already diluted) and 3 parts water. I'm dreading getting her to drink water when she's older but a baby who's drinking very dilute juice is better than a dehydrated baby.

Jolleigh, why would a 4 month old be dehydrated though, if they are breastfeeding on demand or having sufficient formula? A breastfed baby doesn't need water at all at 4 months, and a FF baby would only need small quantities in very hot weather.

Because giving her formula when she's just thirsty (ie, has been fed recently and doesn't seem hungry) isn't advised according to my health visitor, who agrees that dilute juice is better than getting no water down her at all in this weather.

Fair enough if your HV has advised it in your situation. I don't think it would be very common for this to be the case though, generally.

It's rarely advised I think, but the HV came round several days consecutively to try to help me with her hydration, and after countless attempts had to accept that despite never having had anything other than formula and some early breast milk, my DD just will not take water alone. She's been coping with the heat loads better now I'm managing to get extra fluids down her.