When you are planning to incorporate juice into your child's diet, we recommend the following approach:
- Make sure it is real fruit juice. Fruit drinks that are not 100% juice usually contain added sugars and / or sweeteners that can increase tartar and calories.
- Do not introduce children to juices until one year of age and do not provide them in bottles.
- Avoid allowing your child to drink juice (or other liquid containing sugar) for a long time. Either use a bottle, a toddler's glass, or a regular glass, as exposing your teeth to sugary fluids for too long can lead to serious tooth decay.
- Consider diluting the juice with water.
- Encourage your child to eat whole, fresh fruit whenever they are available.
- Whenever possible, provide juice with pulp (pulp) for added fiber.
- Make sure juices do not take away your child's attraction to milk and water.
- Buy only products that have been pasteurized (shelf-stable juice, frozen concentrate, or marked refrigerated juice) to avoid infections that cause diarrhea.
- Note that it is good to give juice within the appropriate age range (do not give juice to children under 6 months of age, and no more than 120-180 ml a day for toddlers and children)
- Watch for signs of excess juice consumption such as tooth decay and "toddler diarrhea." Children who tend to consume excess juice are at risk for developing new tooth decay from drinking juice over a long period of time, and children between the ages of 2-3 tend to have the highest juice consumption. In some cases it even results in prolonged diarrhea.
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