From Nemours Health & Prevention Services: Limit Kids’ Consumption of Fruit Juice
Posted: August 1, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Serving your children 100% fruit juice seems like a healthy choice, right? In reality, drinking too much fruit juice can be a problem. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), overconsumption of juice can contribute to weight gain, tooth decay, and abdominal pain. Among the current recommendations:
- If you are serving juice, make sure it is 100% fruit juice and not fruit drinks (like Hi-C) which contain little or no fruit and lots of sugar.
- Infants under 6 months of age should not typically be given juice. When you do begin to offer your baby juice, give no more than ½ cup (four ounces) per day and make sure it’s in a cup and not a bottle to keep it from becoming a security object.
- Young children between the ages of 1 and 6 years should have only four ounces of juice a day.
- For older children, limit juice to one cup (eight ounces) a day.
Remember: juice is not the best way to have fruit in the diet - children should be encouraged to eat whole fruits.
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