I buy juice boxes for outings. I’ll serve juice if we are having a special breakfast. I even bring Tang packets with us when we go camping, because sometime the water doesn’t taste so nice. Mostly my kids get milk, chocolate milk or water. If I were you I’d save the juice for outings. I’d rather my little one get used to water. A while back my sons had a couple of friends over for lunch. I asked the six year old if he wanted milk or water with lunch. He answered “juice”. I said “we have no juice, milk or water?”. He answered “soda”. Again, I said “we only have milk or water.” He started to cry. His brother informed me that they “don’t have to drink milk or water at home.” Not a good habit to start!
You are the one doing the right thing. But, I might suggest making a pitcher of watered-down juice and keeping it in the fridge, and let your husband give this to your daughter. Less harm and less fighting.
Water is gross. Especially chemical filled, bacteria and virus contaminated -from the tap- water. (swab and culture your sink taps and you may just throw up… Feces, rotting food articles, e.coli, anthrax, amoebas… The average kitchen sink has over 100 pathogens festering and colonizing in its tap. The average toilet has far less and in lower volume… Aka it’s cleaner to drink from your toilet than your kitchen tap in nearly all cases). While many people clean their sink daily, even more don’t… And almost no one takes apart the faucet (that’s being splashes with hands being eased, dishes, raw meats, etc.) and sterilizes that.
I’m FAR from a germaphobe, but most people who would be grossed out by drinking from their toilet don’t even bat an eye at their faucet. Seriously. Unscrew it and wipe a Q tip around the rim. Get any slimy brown? Yum.
(Gag)
And that’s just the contaminates from your own home. City water has additives and 50-100+ year old pipes that are being added to the water, plus chemical spills, sewage crossover, etc. my aunt was on the water board, and you do NOT want to know what’s in city pipes!!!
But it (nearly all) tastes disgusting as well. For people who arent super tasters I don’t know how to describe it other than noxious. Also REGIONS vary in water taste. On top of its natural flavor, southern water is brackish, northern water has a vomit note or melted/burned plastic note, SoCal water tastes like dirt (actually, fill up a pool but leave the filter off and you’ll get a couple inches of silt in the bottom, so at least it’s ‘honest’ dirt flavor), Seattle water tastes like garbage on a sunny day, Illinois/Montana water tastes salty… The list goes on.
Do I offer my son water? Heck no, not if I can help it, although I’ll get bottled water from time to time. Milk or juice, sure.
The upside to juice, is that the tree filtered the water to a fair thee well, and companies have strict cleaning and pasteurizing protocols that kills off the yuck from pipes, taps, etc. Go ahead and sample juice/milk/soda… Even the ‘worst’ of them is less gross than tap water.
My son has juice if he’s at a party, on holidays, or at grandma’s. He is also allowed when we go out to eat (once a month) or if we are outside for a long time. I would say that it ends up being about once every other week. He doesn’t go nuts for juice, either. He never even finishes the cup. He’d rather have a piece of fruit.
Riley: You do know that juices have tap water in them, right?
If you are Cruella, I’m your long-lost sister. I worked in daycares that served juice as a serving of fruit, mainly because they didn’t want to do the work of prepping produce, and a can of Sysco juice costs less than the apples needed to fill their tummies. We weren’t doing the kids any favors. Empty calories.
We never have juice in the house, unless we fresh-squeeze an orange.(and that orange is usually being squeezed to make into a bird feeder!) Seriously. My son, at two, learned about ‘fizzy whoa’ (bubbly water) because we wanted a ‘choice’ for him, but not juice. We eat plenty of whole, fresh fruit.
And frankly, we notice that his behavior plummets when we offered juice. Usually this was apple juice…definitely a sugar spike. The nice thing is, because we don’t offer it, he has tap water, fizzy water, rice milk or cow’s milk, or even a cold fruity herbal tea with a little honey to choose from. And he doesn’t really ask for or complain about it. He does get a natural soda for the occasional treat when we are out at the pub-- the funny thing is, he never finishes it.
Oh, and our tap water here in Portland is superior (small brag), and we just had Pex pipes installed a couple years ago, because of the gunk. Pretty happy with our water-- it ‘tastes’ better than bottled.
Actually, juice doesn’t have nutritional value. All the nutrients are cooked out and the manufacturer adds in vitamins that can’t be assimilated by the body. Sure, juice is better than soda and such, but it’s not great. Unless you juice it yourself, which we sometimes do. If your husband knew how many apples it took to make a cup of juice, he might change his tune.
My kids get juice when their blood sugar is low. They have Type 1 diabetes and it’s a fast bolus of sugar into the blood stream. It serves it’s purpose for that, but juice for a beverage spikes their blood sugar even when paired with the exact insulin to carb ratio.
All that to say, I agree with you, E.S!
@Riley, our water tastes amazing and we have had it tested for all the nasty bugs and it comes up clean. Not all water is as fetid as you make it out to be. 
@ Michelle, I stand by my answer on the nutritional value of juice. Cooked and processed can’t compare with raw fruit, even if it’s 100% juice, it’s still processed. Much like canned green beans aren’t even comparable to fresh or frozen. It’s common sense!
Our pediatrician said from the start:
“Three liquids in this order: Water. Milk. Calcium-fortified orange juice (for extra calcium, D and C). That’s it.” She refers to apple juice in particular as junk. No soda-- that’s a given.
Water, milk and limited orange juice are all my daughter (now 11) had until she was about six and since then she does have sometiimes an organic juice box or organic lemonade by a brand she really likes. No extra colors or sweeteners. The huge plus in doing this – as you will find yourself – is that it does help prevent kids from developing a taste for sweet drinks. My daughter can’t stand it when she’s given something like a Capri Sun or other juices at an event or someone’s house because she says it’s too sweet for her. She greatly prefers milk and water to all else.
If kids don’t learn to drink water early they will not want it later. My niece was never given water, allowed to refuse it and given whatever she liked, and now claims she hates it and “it’s too thin and gags me.” But she guzzles sweet drinks all the time and isn’t in great health.
Push the water and the milk and get all other juices out of the house so your husband doesn’t have anything to give your child when she begs for juice. If it’s not there he can’t give it, can he? If he starts to buy it on his own just to defy your wishes, well, you have a much larger problem with respect that is another posting altogether…
I would enlist your pediatrician’s help here. Talk to the ped in advance and explain the problem, especially his attitude toward portions (several cups a day? No!) and be sure the ped will tell him what you want. Yeah, prime the doctor on this one. But I feel sure most peds will agree that most fruit juices are not good especially as they lack any of the fiber that comes with eating fruit. Then get your husband to agree that he will adhere to what the ped says, since he is not listening to you. And have the ped tell him it’s water, milk and limited OJ.
As for the post about how gross tap water is, well, there’s always bottled water – but much of that is just tap water that companies “purify” (ha!) and bottle to sell for more money. Bottled water also does not contain fluoride except in a very few, very pricey brands. You can live with zero food far longer than you can live with zero water. Other fluids don’t replace water in the diet. And municipalities have a vested interest in ensuring water supplies are clean. I don’t get the paranoia. And believe me, if anyone should be paranoid it’s me – I’m a bit of a germophobe who cleans produce like crazy and even washes the exteriors of bags of veg because they were lying on the grocery store checkout belt!
I’m with MzKitty. My kids are pre-teens now and STILL will only drink milk and water. They have never liked juice and still have no interest in soda.
This, of course, is perfectly fine with me. Saves us tons of money and trips to the dentist!
My thoughts are that you can only do so much. When your kids will get older, they will make choices that are healthy or not healthy regardless of what they have been taught. I’d prefer to teach them moderation so they don’t go nuts once they are out on their own.
I agree with you, if you are against it, don’t keep it in the house. Out of sight, out of mind…
You are NOT the evil juice mom, I am. My son had NO juice when he was 2. He is now 6-1/2, When we stay at a hotel, he may have orange juice at the restaurant IF it is fresh squeezed (honestly, what is the point of those sugar laden empty calories if they don’t even taste good). We buy a gallon of fresh apple cider in the fall and he can have a small glass each day until it is gone. Since we generally use it for a Halloween party, that is only a few days. If we go out somewhere nice for brunch, he can have fresh squeezed - that is maybe 3-4 times a year. He drinks milk and water and EATS his fruit.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends AGAINST all juice. Their 1/2 glass a day for toddlers is their compromise - read it - it states - if the parents still want to give juice despite the recommendation, this is the limit.
We do not (never have) keep soda in the house and DH has still never tried it. Soda is a HUGE contributor to childhood obesity - why even go there?
OMG - watered down juice. Really? Wouldn’t that just taste gross? Sorry - I would MUCH rather drink water than that.
Our water is fine - it is clean, tastes fine and we read the water safety report for our township every 6 months - no problems. Water is WAY healthier than soda or juice. We do NOT drink bottled water because of its HUGE negative environmental impact. The amount of fossil fuels needed to truck water around the country plus the amount of plastic used is truly disgusting. For a product that simply comes out of the tap.
Hi E.S.
I’m with you all the way. Not so much juice. Really bad experience happened to my stepson. His mother was like you husband juice won’t hurt. By the time he was 18 months he had lost his front 2 teeth. The teeth had gotten soft due to the excess sugar from the juice. I think that was the problem but the juice was the blame. He did get his normal teeth in around 7 yrs. old Just giving an example of what could happen. Hope this helps convince your husband. Good luck and good health for you daughter. Holly
Your doctor could clear this up easy! I think it’s 6oz a day? They seem to put it in the same category as soda…
i give milk and water. sometime i’ll give them a juice drink, but it is not a common thing around my house. i like enough ‘bad’ foods (my kids love candy. i also limit the sticky kind. Chocolate is better for the teeth than starbursts in my opinion.
My kids have never had a cavity (i can not say for sure it is from limiting juice and no soda).
My daughter would have 2 to 3 small sippy cups a day of diluted calcium fortified orange juice when she was that age, but she was also on a “milk strike” - she was going through a phase where she didn’t want to drink milk. The juice was only in the morning, and she would have water the rest of the day. She did eat cheese and yogurt, so when I ran it by her pediatrician, she didn’t see anything wrong with this, since she was getting the calcium she needed and she wasn’t sipping on juice all day long, AND we were religious about brushing her teeth. And guess what? SHE’S FINE. She’s not overweight, she’s got perfect teeth, and she still drinks juice in the morning, but then milk or water the rest of the day. She’s never had soda or lemonade or other similar sugary drinks - she doesn’t even like them. But the juice hasn’t hurt her any.
Seems to me, based on this, and your other posts, that hubby likes to tweak your buttons!
My boys get juice if we go out and milk is not an option. Other than that…we just don’t drink it. I don’t even think I made a conscious decision, I just would rather have them chomp on an apple and drink water.
Laura
My kids never had juice at age 2. Now at ages 9 and 14 they don’t particularly care for it. My kids are huge water drinkers and they like to flavor it with lemon or lime. (They would drink soda all day long however and I never gave them soda at age 2 either:). I agree juice has no nutritional value… Just empty calories.
I’m like you. With our son (our first) we didn’t ever buy juice. I think he only had water and milk till he was 2. As he got older he started getting juice at birthday parties. He never really cared for it and he usually asks for milk. He is 8 now and still is a milk and water guy. Our daughter who is 2 is a juice fanatic. She also is offered milk and water but she BEGS for juice every single day, all the time. We now buy juice and she is allowed one cup of juice a day. She never wants milk. My husband is like yours…he’d just happily give her juice all day long if I did not make him follow the one cup a day rule. It’s just unneeded sugar that will fill them up and then they don’t want real food.
It’s best to give them water so they will like water as a refresher for the rest of their lives. I know so many adults that say “I dont like water”. I think that is so awful not to like water. The sugar in juice is addictive. Stick to your guns.
My 17 yr old daughter is still not a big juice drinker because I never had much around. We as a family never had much so it is norm for her.
She still loves her bottle of water at all times and her milk at meals. Of course she now drinks some sugary drinks, not sodas because we didn’t drink them either, with exception of hubby… He’s a huge coke drinker.
You set the tone when they are young. If they start out with good habits they usually continue them.
No you are not Cruella. You are protecting your child’s overall health, including teeth.
I’m the same way. I can’t control everything they intake since they are at camp and grandma’s sometimes. 4 oz of juice a day maximum; I water it down. Apple juice is good for helping them poop. The Trader Joes watered down juice boxes are what I send to school. It’s the only way I know my older kid is drinking anything at school. He is not much of a drinker.
Now OUR problem is that the older one won’t drink white milk so he gets chocolate, but I “water” it down with white milk.
When they were 2, I didn’t give them any juice for the most part.
We try to stick with just 4 ounces per day as suggested by our doctor, but we aren’t rigid about that rule. My kids may drink 8 oz (or even 12 oz sometimes, but that is rare). They love the juice, but also love fruit and a variety of other drinks such as milk and water. Often when they are playing hard, nothing beats ice cold water to quench thirst so it isn’t too much of a battle. I do try to watch their sugar and salt intake but believe me, we are not saints when it comes to following that rule. It is in flippin’ everything!
Angie