How Much Fruit Juice Should Our Children Drink?

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While 100% fruit juice offers greater nutritional value compared to fruit flavored drinks, punches, drink ades or soda, there is some concern by Pediatricians that even 100% fruit juice can be overused by parents and children. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics was alarmed enough by the misuse of fruit juice that they issued a “policy statement” about ‘The Use and Misuse of Fruit Juice in Pediatrics." Here are the relevant highlights:

• While there are greater dangers with respect to keeping our children healthy, the AAP believes drinking too much juice can create unnecessary problems. Exceeding the recommended amounts of fruit juice can result in weight gain, cavities, and gastrointestinal problems such as diarrhea, gas and bloating.
• Even with 100% fruit juice, the (natural) sugar and calorie content outweigh the nutritional benefits provided by the juice when more than the recommended allowance is consumed.
  • While the AAP encourages children to eat fresh fruit, they realize that it is sometimes easier said than done. Rather than having your children miss out on the recommended food pyramid guidelines for fruit, the AAP says that it is OK to give children a limited amount of 100% fruit juice a day in replace of fresh fruit.
  • However, it is important to point out that from a nutritional standpoint 100% fruit juice does not necessarily equal a serving of fresh fruit. Therefore they further suggest that you don’t substitute more than half of your child’s fruit servings with 100% fruit juice.

    So, What Are The Recommendations For Fruit Juice Consumption?

    AAP recommends limiting 100% fruit juice by age:

  Children between the ages of 1 to 6 years old no more than 4-6 ounces of 100% fruit juice a day.

  Children between 7 and 18 years of age should drink no more than 8-12 ounces of 100% fruit juice a day.

  What Other Beverages Can We Give Our Kids?

  Water!

  While there are no formal guidelines on how much water kids should drink it is quite clear that in addition to adults, children need to drink water. Not only is water good for hydration it is believed that children who are introduced water or diluted fruit juice early in life are less likely to turn to sugary, empty-calorie drinks such as soda and fruit drinks as they get older. With that being said it is often a challenge to get children to drink straight water, especially when their palates are so accustomed to a lot of flavor. Here are a couple of suggestions:

  • Dilute fruit juice with either water or sodium-free seltzer. You might need to experiment with the proportion. If you can get the right ratio your kids will feel like they are drinking fruit-flavored soda – only much, much healthier.
  • Create fruit juice ice cubes they can slip into their water.

  There are a couple of water beverages on the market that provide greater flavor with at least half of the calories of juice. BEWARE – several of these brands claim to be naturally flavored water, but in fact they contain high fructose corn syrup or "sucralose" (i.e. Splenda). The brands I tend to avoid are Capri Sun Roaring Waters and Minute Maid Water Falls.

  The brands I prefer to use include:

  Wadda Juice. Wadda Juice is an all-natural blend of 100% fruit juice and water. There are no added sweeteners, sugars, preservatives or artificial anything and it contains half the calories of juice. These are great for my kids lunch boxes because they are packed in spill-proof sport bottles. Wadda Juice comes in a variety of flavors including a sugarless sports-ade. They are a little expensive and tough to find, but worth the money for our on-the-go needs. They have