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How To Introduce Juice To Your Baby (Guidelines & Tips)

Giving juice to babies can be a controversial subject, and you may be wondering if it’s OK. And if it is OK for your baby to drink it, when are they old enough, and how do you introduce it?

We’ve talked to doctors, dentists, and parents and have heard all sides of the debate.

In this article, we’ll talk about whether juice is safe for babies and what kind of juice is best, when it’s safest to introduce juice, and how you can go about doing it. We’ll also discuss what to avoid when introducing juice to your baby.

Key Takeaways

Avoid giving juice to babies under 12 months old, as breast milk or formula provides all the necessary nutrients for their growth and development.
Introduce juice only after your baby is eating solid foods, and always consult your doctor before doing so.
Limit your baby’s juice intake to 2-4 ounces a day, dilute it with water (50/50 ratio), and serve it in a cup instead of a bottle to prevent tooth decay.
Choose pasteurized, 100% fruit or vegetable juice without added sugars or additives, and avoid homemade juice made from raw fruits and vegetables due to potential bacterial contamination.

Table of Contents

When Can a Baby Have Juice?
Tricks to Introducing Juice
Homemade vs. Store-Bought
What Should I Watch For?

When Can a Baby Have Juice?

Up until the age of 6 months, your baby’s diet should consist of only breast milk or formula. So, if your baby is younger than 6 months old, they are too young for juice — or water or solid foods, for that matter.

The AAP recommends that children under 12 months avoid juice altogether ⁽¹⁾.

There are many reasons for this, including the fact that breast milk and formula provide babies with all the vitamins and nutrients they need. Your baby’s digestive system needs time to mature, and your baby will have a lower obesity risk if you avoid introducing solid food and other drinks at an early age ⁽²⁾. Exclusively breastfed babies will also have higher immunity.

On top of waiting 6 months to a year to introduce juice, you should also make sure your child is already eating solid foods. If you introduce juice before your baby gets vitamins and nutrients from solid foods, you risk them getting full from the juice and refusing formula and breast milk.

Remember, liquids like water and juice can fill a baby up without giving them any vital nutrients they need to grow and develop. If they do not get the nutrition they need, the risk of malnutrition, failure to thrive, and anemia goes up. These conditions can cause severe health and development issues.

Tricks to Introducing Juice

So, your baby is old enough to have juice. You’ve started them on solids and are confident your baby is getting enough vitamins and nutrients even if you introduce juice throughout the day. Great, we’re so excited for you!

But before you toss some orange juice in a cup and have at it, make sure to read through the following points to prepare yourself. Trust us, your sanity and your baby’s tummy will thank you.

1. Talk to Your Doctor

It’s always a good idea to check in and see what your doctor thinks to make a fully informed decision about when to introduce juice.

They might know something about your family’s history or your baby’s medical history that could make them want you to hold off a bit longer.

2. Treat It Just Like Food

Just as you introduce one new food at a time, you should also try one juice at a time as well. Start with single vegetable or fruit juices and work your way up to combinations.

New recommendations state that it’s no longer necessary to wait two to three days after introducing a food before trying another. However, introducing one item at a time will make recognizing adverse reactions easier for you ⁽³⁾.

3. Treat Foods and Juices Separately

Grapes and grape juice are two very different things. The same goes for tomatoes and tomato juice.

Because of this, you should treat them as separates when introducing them to your baby. For example, you can try grapes out this morning and introduce grape juice tomorrow. This is just an extra measure to make sure you can identify any allergies your baby might develop.

4. Offer Juice Only With Meals

Juice can fill babies up, making them less likely to eat the things that will provide them with essential nutrients.

Offering it only at meals makes them less likely to chug it down and get full from the juice alone. Instead, they will get the needed vitamins and nutrients from the food on their plates.

5. Give Juice in a Cup Instead of a Bottle

Liquids from bottles will sit on your baby’s teeth longer than liquids from sippy cups ⁽⁴⁾. That is why dentists say you should avoid putting your child to bed with a bottle because the sugars in the liquid sitting on their teeth are likely to cause tooth decay.

If you are going to give your baby anything in a bottle, make sure it is not juice. The acid from juice is even worse than the sugar in milk, breaking down the enamel and causing decay faster than other liquids.

6. Limit the Amount

You should only give your baby 2 to 4 ounces of juice each day ⁽⁵⁾. Too much juice can not only make your baby feel full, but it can also lead to obesity and short stature in children and has been linked to failure to thrive ⁽⁶⁾. Juice should add a complementary flavor to your child’s diet and not be treated as a substitute for what they need.

7. Don’t Forget To Dilute

Diluting juice is important both because of its sugar content and its acidity. To help prevent tooth decay and tummy issues, dentists and doctors recommended you dilute juice to a 50/50 ratio with water.

Homemade vs. Store-Bought

Homemade is always best for your baby, right? I mean, it’s packed full of vitamins and nutrients, after all. But hold your horses; it’s a little more complicated than that.

While juice made from raw fruits and vegetables does provide vitamins and nutrients, it should not be allowed to touch your baby’s lips. Why, you ask? Because along with the vitamins and nutrients that come with raw produce, there are quite a few bacteria that come with it.

Unless juice is pasteurized properly, something that is hard to do at home, it can be dangerous to your baby.

Pasteurization is the process of killing bacteria by heating it to a specific temperature for a certain amount of time. Unpasteurized juice can contain higher numbers of bacteria, such as E. coli, Cryptosporidium, Salmonella, and Norovirus ⁽⁷⁾.

These bacteria have been known to cause symptoms such as:

Diarrhea.
Vomiting.
Fever.
Chills.
Bloody stools.
Weight loss.
Dehydration.
Lack of appetite.

While older children and adults can usually handle the bacteria that lies in raw fruit juices, your baby’s small tummy will have a harder time. Any or all of these symptoms can be harmful to your baby. In severe cases, these bacteria can cause acute kidney failure, seizures, and even death ⁽⁸⁾.

Instead of making juice for your baby at home, where you cannot assure it is pasteurized properly, it’s best to head to the grocery store when choosing juice for your baby. Pick a 100% fruit or vegetable juice with no extra sugar or additives.

If you insist on making your baby’s juice at home, make it out of fruits and vegetables that have been boiled or steamed before juicing them, to kill off as much bacteria as possible.

The same issues can occur when feeding your baby raw vegetables, and especially fruits, which is why many doctors recommend cooking all fruits until your baby is 8 months old ⁽⁹⁾.

What Should I Watch For?

We hope your baby’s tummy enjoys the flavors of juice without any troubles, but sometimes things can happen.

Here are some signs to look out for when introducing juice to your little one:

1.

Loss of Appetite

Juice can make babies feel full without giving them the nutrients they need to grow and thrive. If juice makes your baby feel full, they can start to refuse the breast milk, formula, and food they need to grow and thrive.

2. Diarrhea

If the juice is not diluted correctly, the excess sugar can be tough on your baby’s tummy. One of the symptoms of juice that is too strong is diarrhea.

While making your baby poop can be a good thing in some cases, like when doctors recommend prune or pear juice if a baby is constipated, diarrhea could ultimately lead to dehydration.

3. Tooth Decay

We mentioned earlier in this post that fruit juice contains a lot of acids and sugar. Both of these can be bad for your baby’s teeth. Even if you give your baby their juice in a sippy cup, it can still sit on their teeth and lead to tooth decay.

If left untreated, this can be painful and take extensive treatments to fix, including pulling out your baby’s teeth.

Watch Out For Imposters

Juice “drinks,” such as “apple beverage” or “Tang” are not juice. While they might be sold in the same aisle and look the same in the bottle, juice drinks can be comprised of as little as 10% juice, meaning they have even fewer benefits for your baby.

4. Gas and Stomach Pains

Babies have an immature digestive tract that makes it harder for them to break down sugars. Undiluted fruit juice, or juices that contain high fructose corn syrup, might cause your baby to experience gas and stomach pains when their body tries to break down the sugars.

Any of these problems can cause pain and discomfort for your baby. If your baby starts to experience any of these symptoms, it might be a good idea to hold off on the juice for a while and give your baby’s tummy time to settle down.

If you don’t take this step, the problems can worsen and possibly lead to anemia, malnutrition, failure to thrive, and obesity.

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Peculiarities of using juices in children's diet

Fruit and vegetable juices are valuable sources of vitamins, minerals, organic acids, fiber, pectins and other important elements for our body. They are well absorbed by the body, so they are suitable for baby food. Today we will talk about what juices and at what age should be given to the baby so that he grows up healthy and active.

Juice, nectar and fruit drink - what's the difference?

On the shelves of stores you can find various fruit and vegetable drinks for baby food: juices, nectars and fruit drinks. They differ in composition and, accordingly, health benefits.

Juices

The basis for such drinks is fruit, vegetable or berry raw materials, which account for at least 85%. Other juice ingredients: water, sugar or acidifier. Juices are available:

Freshly squeezed - such drinks get on the table immediately after preparation. In their manufacture, only natural raw materials are used. They are considered the most useful, because they are the leaders in the content of the most important biologically active substances. It is recommended to consume them immediately, because after a few hours, freshly squeezed juice loses most of the nutrients. Also, freshly squeezed juices aggressively affect the mucous membrane of the digestive tract due to the high content of acids. Therefore, children and people with gastrointestinal diseases should use them with caution.

Straight juices - prepared in the same way as fresh juices, but then pasteurized to keep them longer. In industrial production, sugar, water, preservatives and dyes can be added to them. Less aggressive towards the mucous membrane, but at the same time contain many useful substances.

Reconstituted juices - prepared from fruit, berry or vegetable concentrate, which is diluted with water. Also, drinks are sometimes supplemented with sugar, dyes and preservatives. They are inferior to freshly squeezed juices and direct-pressed drinks in terms of the content of nutrients.

Information about what kind of juice you have in front of you can always be found on the packaging of the drink. The composition of the product is also indicated there. Pay attention to the content of sugar and other chemicals.

Nectars

These are drinks with natural juice (up to 50%). They also include water, sugar or sweeteners, fruit, berry or vegetable puree, preservatives. Most often, nectars are prepared from concentrates, which are then diluted with water.
In the vast majority of cases, nectar is inferior to natural juice in terms of the content of all biologically active substances. But there are vegetables and fruits from which it is impossible to squeeze ordinary juice: for example, bananas, papaya, passion fruit and others.

Fruit drinks

Morse is a drink made from frozen berries. According to production standards, it must contain at least 15% berry juice or puree. Morse can also be prepared at home: you need to chop the berries, add water and sugar to taste. Due to the low content of berry raw materials, fruit drink is inferior in useful properties to many juices. But it is superior to nectars, because freezing, unlike other methods of processing raw materials, retains most of the biologically active substances.

What are the benefits of different juices?

Each drink made from fresh fruits, vegetables or berries is rich in nutrients. We will consider only the most popular options.

Orange juice is rich in ascorbic acid, which increases immunity and strengthens blood vessels. In addition, the drink contains other vitamins: A, E, K, representatives of group B. All of them are necessary for our health.
The drink also contains a lot of minerals (copper, iron, phosphorus, zinc and others), dietary fiber, pectins.

Regular consumption of orange juice strengthens the body, helps to cope with acute and chronic stress, improves immunity, stimulates digestion, and accelerates the elimination of toxins.

This drink also has some contraindications. It is not recommended to use it with increased acidity of gastric juice, gastritis and diabetes.

Apple juice is an affordable fruit drink in our region. It is distinguished from other drinks by its high content of vitamins A, B and C, as well as iron, magnesium and phosphorus. In addition, apple juice contains biotin and pantothenic acid.
With the regular use of freshly squeezed juice, the immune status, memory and concentration of attention improve, the work of the cardiovascular system normalizes. Apple juice is recommended to be included in the diet for anemia, low acidity of gastric juice, frequent colds.

In addition, this drink is known to help recover from illnesses and improve digestion.
It is recommended to limit the use of apple juice for gastrointestinal pathologies, since the drink has an irritating effect on the mucous membrane.

Peach juice contains vitamins A, B, C, malic, tartaric and citric acids, pectins, dietary fiber. It is also rich in potassium and iron.

Peach juice enhances the secretory activity of the digestive tract, stimulates the functioning of the liver and biliary tract, and has an antiemetic effect. It is recommended to use it for various vascular diseases, anemia, heart rhythm disturbances, as well as frequent colds.
Peach juice is not recommended for acute and chronic diseases of the digestive system, a tendency to gain weight, diabetes.

Carrot juice is the leader in vitamin A content among all vegetable and fruit juices. Thanks to this, it improves eyesight, improves immunity, strengthens bones and teeth, and normalizes the functioning of the thyroid gland.

In addition, carrot juice contains other vitamins (B, C, D, E and K), minerals (magnesium, manganese, zinc, iron, phosphorus, copper and calcium), organic acids and fiber.

Regular consumption of the drink improves the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and cardiovascular system, has a calming effect, and normalizes sleep.
Due to the high content of organic acids, freshly squeezed carrot juice is contraindicated in diseases of the digestive system. Also, due to the high content of carbohydrates, it is not recommended to drink it with diabetes.

Tomato is the only vegetable and fruit juice drink that contains lycopene. This substance from the harmful effects of free radicals. The drink also contains vitamins A, B, C and K, potassium, manganese, dietary fiber.

With regular use, tomato juice strengthens the musculoskeletal system, prevents the development of osteoporosis, strengthens the walls of blood vessels and the heart muscle, thins the blood, improves intestinal motility, reduces flatulence, stimulates the production of bile.
Tomato juice is not recommended for gastritis with high acidity, ulcers.

How and when to give juice to children?

Children can be given fruit and vegetable juices. It is best to use direct-pressed drinks, as well as berry fruit drinks or nectars with a high content of natural raw materials. It is better if the drinks do not contain sugar, salt, preservatives and dyes.

As complementary foods, fruit and vegetable juices are introduced into the diet of a child at 7 months of life - if he is breastfed, and at 4 - if he is artificially fed. During this period, it is enough to give the baby 0.5-1 tsp. juice at every feeding.

After 1 year, a child can drink up to 120-150 ml of juice per day, but this amount is best divided into several doses. And children over six years old can drink 200 ml per day, also in divided doses.

Do not forget that juice is not a drink to quench your thirst, but a full snack. It can replace a second breakfast or afternoon snack. At the same time, it is better to give preference to fruit or berry drinks before lunch, and vegetable drinks after lunch.

Freshly squeezed juices should not be introduced into the diet of children under 12-14 years old, their digestive tract may not be able to cope with an aggressive drink. Therefore, the benefit from it will be much less than the harm.

Don't stop at just one juice. In order for the child's body to get the maximum benefit, drinks should be alternated. Fruit and vegetable juices from several products are also suitable. For example, apple-peach or cucumber-tomato.

When you first introduce this or that juice to the children's menu, be sure to monitor the child's condition. Juices are strong allergens, so check your baby's skin for rashes, redness, and scratching. If these symptoms appear, try a different type of juice or fruit drink.

Also watch your digestive system. Accelerated peristalsis, increased gas formation, loose or frequent stools are signs that you have given your baby too much juice. Also, symptoms can occur if the body does not absorb the vegetable or fruit from which the juice is made. If the symptoms persist for several days, it is better to contact the pediatrician and review the baby's diet.

juices and baby food production

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