A Juice-free Toddlerhood

It's indeed possible. 

Isabelle was just a few months old when I began reading about monitoring juice intake closely.  I quickly realized that the easiest and healthiest thing to do would be to avoid juice from the very beginning.  To juice or not to juice is a hot button issue right now.  The American Academy of Pediatrics has even issued a policy statement titled "The Use and Misuse of Fruit Juice in Pediatrics."  In it, they provide specific guidelines on how much juice a child should drink in a given day.  I was surprised to read that children from 1-6 years of age should only consume 4-6 ounces per day. 

Hopefully it won't offend some of you if I tackle this issue and share my approach, which is very different than most people's.

Why Drink Juice?
Let's first look at the reasons why parents give their children juice.  The "juice junky" problem is a relatively new one.  Our parents and grandparents probably only drank water and milk all day long.

Here are some reasons why parents give their children juice:

• We want our children to be properly hydrated.  Juice is sweet, so children are likely to drink plenty of it and will stay hydrated.
• Juice can, in fact, replace a serving of fruit for your child if its a good quality juice.  If you do give your child juice, make sure you educate yourself on it so that you know what you're buying.  The AAP says to only give your child 100% pasteurized fruit juice.  But if you do consider juice to replace a fruit, do know that it's still not as healthy as eating the actual fruit because it lacks the fiber and added vitamins contained in fruit.

Many parents I know cut the juice with water to dilute it.  This is definitely a great way to handle juice and keep it from being too sweet. 

Why Avoid Juice?

• Obesity:  I think the biggest reason that the AAP issued a statement and magazines are devoting articles to the issue is because obesity is such a problem in the U.S.  While this can be a compelling reason to avoid juice, I wasn't too concerned about it with Isabelle.  She's been in the 5th-10th percentile for both height and weight, and I don't see that changing, especially since we eat relatively healthy meals at home.
• Cavities:  If a child sips on juice all day, it can wreak havok on their teeth, for the same reason that a child shouldn't walk around with a bottle or cup of milk all day.  The sugar simply eats away at the teeth.
• Sweets:  I've also read that the juice habit can easily lead into a soda habit for an older child.  Again, good family self-discipline can prevent this from becoming an issue.  But it's true that you should encourage your children to have a taste for water instead of sweet drinks. 
• Poor Nutrition:  This is one of the primary reasons I decided to avoid juice.  Drinking juice can easily drown a child's appetite for food, so your toddler may not eat the foods that will provide a variety of nutrients. 
• Sugar:  This is my other main reason for avoiding juice.  I first heard about the effects of sugar on the immune system before Isabelle was born, when I listened to a CD by Shaklee in which Sherrie Attilla discusses how to build your child's immune system.  When I read The Vaccination Book, Dr. Sears discusses the importance of keeping a strong immune system by avoiding sugar.  He points out that, as a pediatrician, the busiest time of the year at his office is the week after Halloween.  Why is that?  When you consume sugar, particularly in large amounts, your white blood cells aren't as effective at killing germs.  In fact, with 100 grams of sugar, your white blood cells can be 40% less effective, and this can take place in as little as 30 minutes after consumption.  So when you give your child a cup of juice and drop them off at the church nursery, you can bet he or she is more prone to picking up any germs that anyone has to offer.  Sugar makes your child susceptible to other issues as well.  If your child is finishing up a round of antibiotics and ends up with a diaper rash, the rash is more likely to become a yeast rash if your child consumes lots of sugar and white flour, because candida thrive on both of these.  The antibiotics throw off your child's natural balance and the sugar and flour add to the problem. 

So should you give your child juice or not?
That, my friends, is a personal decision.  I wanted to share this information with you simply to let you know that there is another way of doing things.  Much like sharing my cloth diapering stories with you.  I just want to let you know that you can do things differently than the status quo if you want.  But I promise, I don't consider you to be a bad parent for giving your child juice. 

When it comes to parenting, I like to take a long term perspective.  For example, with the juice issue, here's one question I asked myself:  Which adult is healthier?  One who drinks soda (we say Coke here in the south) or other sweet drinks all day long, or one who primarily drinks only water all day?  Definitely the one who drinks mostly water.

How do you end up with a teenager or adult who drinks primarily water?  You start with childhood.  The way we've ended up with a juice-free toddlerhood is simply by only offering water and milk.  If you don't give them juice, they won't know what they're missing.  And it's incredibly convenient.  I can put half-empty sippy cups in my diaper bag and know that it won't be a problem to fill them up at church or a restaurant because all we need is water, which is free everywhere.  Isabelle has recently started calling her drinks "juice" sometimes because she's picked up the word from other kids.  She thinks of it as a synonym for drink.  But I still just give her moo juice and water. 

Most of the friends that I respect as parents give their children juice. Part of this is because the problems with juice have only been publicized in the past couple of years. I've heard some parents say they'd do it differently if they could. Regardless, I'm not in the habit of making judgments on your parenting skills based on what you put in your child's sippy cup.

So where do you fall on the juice issue? 
 
On a more positive note, here's one of my favorite Veggie Tales Silly Songs: