Overview

As your child grows, you'll witness a lot of firsts. There are too some developments that parents themselves need to initiate. Moving your child from chest milk or formula to other foods and drinks is i of those developments.

It can exist tricky for parents to know when to get-go offer, and how to offer, their child drinks such as juice. There are also many different kinds of juice bachelor, making it difficult to know which i to choose.

Hither's a await at what you should know near introducing your child to fruit juice.

AAP historic period recommendations

Children don't need to drinkable juice, but juice is one manner to introduce them to new flavors. It can also provide them with a good dose of vitamin C.

The biggest problem with fruit juice is the corporeality of sugar it contains.

Even "all-natural" fruit juices incorporate a lot of sugar. That's because fruit itself naturally contains sugar. Because of this, it's best not to give juice to children under a twelvemonth old, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

The AAP used to consider it fine for children as young as 6 months to potable juice with their regular meals or snacks. However, they changed their recommendations in 2017.

Vegetable juices may not accept equally much carbohydrate as fruit juices, but they exercise contain a lot of table salt.

How to serve juice

Juice should only be given to children who are able to sit up and drink from a cup. It should never exist given in a bottle.

Moreover, your child shouldn't be allowed to carry juice around with them in their cup to potable throughout the twenty-four hours. That'southward because the high amount of sugar can cause damage to their teeth.

Some fruit can exist acidic, too. This can also be damaging to the teeth if children drink from a sippy cup filled with juice throughout the solar day.

The amount of juice you give your child should exist depression, no more than 4 ounces per solar day. It'south too best to give juice during a regular mealtime, when they're eating other foods. This volition assistance to reduce tooth decay.

Tips for introducing juice to your child

The best fourth dimension to give your child juice is when they're sitting up at a regular mealtime. It should always be given in a cup and taken in a single sitting.

H2o it down

Information technology may help to water down the juice a little. Aim for i office juice to 10 parts water. At first, your child may have had a very limited introduction to food flavors. The flavor of juices might be a piffling overwhelming. Kickoff with mostly water and a lilliputian juice.

As your kid adjusts, you tin gradually add together a lilliputian less water and a little more than juice if you lot want to, but continuing with diluted juice is fine, too. Cutting the juice with water will also cut the calories, saccharide, and acid establish naturally in fruit juice.

Choose the right cup

To avoid exposure of acrid and saccharide to your child'south teeth, consider not using sippy cups with juice. It'due south better simply to offer diluted juice in an open cup, and supervise your toddler to avert spills.

Types of juice yous tin can give to your child

In that location are a lot of different juices and juice drinks in your grocery shop alley. This can make choosing the best one for your kid challenging. The virtually of import thing you tin do when choosing a juice for your child is to read the label.

Even if a juice claims to exist 100 percent real fruit juice, information technology might contain other ingredients. Read the list of ingredients. The best juices are the ones with the shortest list of ingredients — and ingredients yous can pronounce.

Things to look for when choosing juice for your child include:

  • 100 percent pure fruit juice
  • 100 percent pasteurized
  • mild flavors; apple or pear are practiced ones to commencement with
  • no sugar added

You'll want to avoid any juices labeled "cocktail," "drink," "drink," or "-ade."

Giving a child juice for constipation relief

If your toddler experiences constipation, 100 per centum pure apple tree, prune, or pear juice may assistance.

Constipation can sometimes occur when a younger kid (under a year one-time) starts eating solid foods. However, you lot should contact your babe'south physician if your baby is constipated.

If your baby has bug with constipation earlier 1 year of age, your pediatrician may still have you lot requite them a modest amount of juice.

The doctor will be able to tell you lot the correct corporeality and the all-time method for giving juice to a child under a yr one-time. Discover boosted remedies for constipation in babies here.

Drawbacks of giving your child fruit juice

While fruit juice sounds salubrious, it's not every bit good as feeding your kid the actual fruit. Toddlers need two to three servings of fruit per mean solar day. No more than ane of these servings should come from juice.

There are some things to be cautious of if you add together juice to your child'southward diet. Too much juice can crusade:

  • weight bug
  • diarrhea
  • decreased ambition for nutritious foods
  • diaper rash; this is ordinarily acquired by citrus

Takeaway

In general, children don't need to have juice. If you would like to replace one of your child's daily servings of fruit with fruit juice, be certain to limit the amount that they drink.

It's too a good idea to talk to their pediatrician before irresolute their diet, no matter the circumstances. Be sure to follow the pediatrician'due south guidelines.

If you're concerned about the corporeality of sugar in fruit juice, you tin ever dilute information technology with h2o. This will all the same requite your toddler a new flavour to explore while limiting the calories, carbohydrate, and acrid they consume.