Juice Suggestions

mommymommy wrote: I have a 15 month old who has been drinking Gerber Juice watered dwon 50/50..Does everyone still water down their child's juice? Also, any suggestions on healthy juice that isn't gerber?

luvmykids replied: I didn't water down the Gerber, and I think I quit watering down the other juices around two also. I didn't have a specific brand, just made sure it was 100% juice and not "fruit punch" or those types of drinks.

~Roo'sMama~ replied: I still do half water in Andrew's (3) and Allie's (16 months) juice, but mostly because that way they can have a bigger cup without having too much actual juice. If I give Andrew his juice in a small cup I don't add any water. We don't buy Gerber brand, we just make sure it's 100% juice. Juicy Juice has only 100% juice so you know that one you can just grab without looking at the label. Welches and Old Orchard and most store brands all make 100% juice too, you just have to make sure it says it on the container... if it isn't 100% it's usually only 15% juice or something like that.

Calimama replied: Bella drinks V-8 and I still water it down.

Boo&BugsMom replied: I only buy organic juice, usually. Too much juice, even when it says 100% juice, still sometimes contains the high fructose corn syrup. Blecky. I forgot the brand, but I get it from the organic food market in our town. It may be called Healthy Kids, but I could be wrong. Welches now has an organic line of juices as well you can get at most grocery stores.

holley79 replied: I just make sure it is 100% juice. I quit watering Annika's down when she was 2.

msoulz replied: I give Erin the V8 stuff that has both fruit and veggie juice cut with water.

MommyToAshley replied:
Juicy Juice is 100% juice and that's it, nothing else added. That's what I still buy today for Ashley.

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied: I still do 50/50 for both my kids. Wesley is 2 and Wil is almost 4. And I typically buy unfiltered organic apple juice from Trader Joe's. Sometimes the unfiltered cranberry juice too. Both are 100% juice.

Teesa®© replied: I remember reading once - but don't remember where - that you're supposed to water down juices till they're like 10!! Especially grrls.

I stopped doing it when mine were about 2 or 3, and it depends on the juice. Sunny D got watered down because it was strong tasting, certain apple juices did because they seemed rather acidic. If they needed it, I watered down prune juice, but only because I wanted to just "get their mail moving", I didn't want it causing a flood

I guess technically I still water their juice down now, but only because the juice container is huge and holds about 3 or so cups more than what the juice actually calls for, and I keep forgetting that

Boo&BugsMom replied:
It has always been made with 100% juice, but it actually wasn't until recently that they stopped putting the HFCS in it. Now they market it without it, as well as other things now that more people are becoming conscious of the content of HFCS in many things. I realized this not long ago when my mother bought Juicy Juice and I so happened to read the label before Tanner drank it....and there was HFCS on the label under the ingredients. A couple weeks later, she bought some more Juicy Juice and it was being advertised without it.

I still personally prefer organic juice, because even though the juice used is 100% juice, there are still additives in it on top of the 100% juice. Food coloring is used in many juices as well which sometimes they don't have to list. The 100% juice label doesn't mean it only has pure juice in it, it just means it's made with it. It's actually pretty misleading to a lot of people. Enzymes are a code word for additives, as is citric acid and other things. The food marketers are cleaver at disguising the additives. Just a little FYI. A friend of mine just passed his boards in natural medicine and nutrition...it's amazing some of the things that are right under our noses that we are mislead on.

ETA: this is actually from the Juicy Juice website...

2. What makes Juicy Juice 100% juice?
Regulations allow for the addition of non-juice ingredients to a 100% juice product if they do not decrease the amount of juice soluble solids. Not saying Juicy Juice is bad, we have used it, it's actually one of the only non-organic ones I will use. Just saying that when looking at juice, whatever juice it is, just because it says 100% juice, doesn't make it actually ONLY 100% juice.

boyohboyohboy replied: we dont use juice at all. our ped had told us before with our first son that juice has no nutritional value, and its just giving the kids sugar.
we use it only for when they are having trouble with their bowels and thats just the white grape juice..otherwise its water and milk.
they dont miss it if they dont have it.
and never ever cool aide

punkeemunkee'smom replied: Taylor loves cran-grape juice. I usually add ice so it waters it down a bit. Other than that I quit watering her juice down a long time ago!

MommyToAshley replied:
That's weird, wouldn't they still have to list it under ingredients? I always look at the ingredients (not just for the 100% juice label) and the ingredients would say "Apple Juice." or "White grape juice." ... and have nothing else listed.

Boo&BugsMom replied:
I know, it's almost like false advertising, but as long as they are "legal" I suppose it doesn't matter to them.

Kentuckychick replied: I know with Connor and Caydee at both our house and their own we use either Juicy Juice or 100% Welch's Cherry Grape or White Grape Peach (just because they like those two). We've never watered down any of their juices.

They only get one cup of juice per day though at lunch... Connor gets milk with breakfast and dinner, Caydence gets three cups of milk per day, otherwise they get water.

The children I nanny for are the same way -- they don't necessarily even use 100% juice but they can only have one serving of juice/koolaid/soda (the older two occasionally have a Coke) whatever it may be per day and then they get water or milk.

Bamamom replied: I water it down 50% - all they get is the V8 Fusion so they get some veggie mixed in too but mostly they just drink milk.