How much juice do you moms give your toddler? And how much water? My son (20 months)is a picky eater and I've realized that part of the problem can be that I give him too much juice, mixed 50/50 with water with every meal, I thought since it has Vitam C it's good to give it to him. How do I get him to sometimes drink milk instead? If he sees white liquid he won't drink it, doesn't matter what cup it's in. So I still give him a 7-8oz. bottle of milk before bed and he sucks that down in minutes.
My daughter is 4 1/2 years old, her first time having juice was in preschool and thankfully she did not like it. I have never given her juice, it's just a bunch of sugar. This could also be part of his eating issues as the juice fills them up.
My Daughtet only drinks water or 2% milk.
Try to get him off the juice, or water it down even more.
I usually cut my son's juice (he's nearly 3) about 1/3 or 1/4 juice, and the rest is water. I really don't see any redeeming nutritional value in drinking juice. He asks for juice sometimes when I think he should have milk (our rule is generally one cup of juice must be followed by a cup of milk - and we never have juice with meals). I just say, 'no, we have milk today" and leave it at that. There's no point in trying to reason with a kid this age, IMHO. Sometimes he drinks milk and other times he drinks nothing.
Once you give them juice, it is hard to go back since it tastes so good. My son never had juice until he was closer to 3. Now I regret ever giving him any. That said, I try to only give him water at meals since he does get juice at school. He gets milk before nap and bedtime.
They are supposed to have no more than 4 oz a day, which really isn't that much. A juice box is at least 6 oz.
Hi B.,
I am a nutritionist and I give my 20m old only water or rice milk. Milk at meals and water in between, unless she has been sick, I give her smart water (with electrolytes, again save the money and buy this instead of pedilyte). You'll save yourself some money by omitting the juice, if you are to give juice it is only 4oz per day, diluted..and it must be 100% juice like Juicy Juice. So it is milk or water and that is her choice, but there is not much nutrtional value in juice, just sugar water basically, if he is guzzling down his bottle before bed, aim to give him more milk during the day, no more than 16oz per day, or he will not eat food. If he is eating at least 3 servings of fruit per day (which is about 1/3c) then he does not need juice. (think about it; it takes about 10 oranges to make 1/2c of juice..would you eat 10 oranges at once? It's a lot of fruit sugar to have in one sitting, even for a little tyke).
J. W. MPH
Wellness Educator in Maternal and Child Health
My little one doesn't get any juice. She will be 2 in May and she only drinks whole milk. I think the picky eating is just part of their age. My little one ate everything in sight until she was about 14 months old and then she started to be very picky. She eats lots of fruit and cereal and yoghurt but getting a vegetable other than potatoes into her is a challenge. I get the morningstar egg florentines that have spinach in them and I tell her they are chicken nuggets. She also will eat fish sticks if I tell her they are chicken nuggets but if you hide a veggie in something, she will track it down and take it out of her mouth to give to you. I would just go cold turkey on the juice and only offer him water or milk. There is one juice that is made for little ones that is carrot and orange and has no added sugar. I sometimes try that to get the carrot into my little one. Good luck.
I don't give my kids any juice, just water and skim milk. Juice is for the birds..it's expensive and full of sugar and useless. My kids like milk, so it isn't an issue, but if they didn't like it, I wouldn't care. They get enough calcium from other things. I would definitely lose the bottle, there's no need for it at that age, especially if you are just giving it to him so that he gets some milk in. If he is eating other things with calcium, don't fret.
For a "treat" I will give them Costco's vitamin water.. I think it's called Vitarain or something like that. No sugar, no artificial flavors/colors, etc. Zero calories. They think they are getting a "treat" of juice, when they are really just getting flavored vitamin infused water. Just don't give the kids the orange flavored one, it's the only one with caffeine in it.
I've never given my kid juice. There's really no reason to unless there is a dehydration issue - the juice is just empty calories and sugar that does nothing for their growth and development. If you want to cut out the juice, just keep watering it down until there is very little to no juice left. If you want him to drink water or milk, then only offer it to him. The first few times he might balk or refuse but when he realizes that milk or water is his only option he will drink it. If your goal is to get him off the juice and drinking water/milk then you need to be consistent. If you give in, he learns that all he has to do is scream and mommy will give him the juice.
An idea for him drinking milk is to have it at dinner. We have dinner together as a family every night and we all have milk or water. This is his time of day to drink some milk. He doesn't really like it but he is slowly learning that it is what we have at dinner every night. As for juice..he only gets very diluted OJ in the morning. This works great since it is a morning only thing and he isn't badgering me all day for juice. The rest of the day is water only!
