why is juice evil?

tobeMrsSzabo

I was thinking of offering DD a little juice now that she has had some fruits and tolerated them well (pear and banana) I was gonna water down the baby pear juice, but i remember a bunch of people on here saying they would wait until one year or later, why? has all the same nutrients of the purees of the same fruit right? as long as its not kool aid or some fruit punch super sugary drink, what is the downside? what am I missing?

food_chick

There really aren't a lot of nutrients in juice, basically calories and vitamin C.  We give ds some once in awhile, probably 2 of the 4oz bottles a month.  Juice is almost like empty calories; it fills them up w/o giving much else nutrient wise.  And it is over used for older kids, so a lot of pedis and nutritionists don't want it to become a habit.  I hope that makes sense. 

Mominator

It has no nutritional value. And it's not the same as giving the fruit. Look at the calorie content of juice, most of the calories are sugar.

Califlorida

whole fruit is always the best choice.

SammyluvsJ

Just FYI..we use pear juice for constipation. Once we used more than an ounce and it really took it's toll on his little tummy.

jhudyCH

It is overused and too high in sugar. I had gestational diabetes and was not allowed to have any juice. Fruit is fine because it is filling and nutritious. A few ?ounces is ok.?

tobeMrsSzabo

the pear puree has pears and water and absorbic acid and citric acid, the pear juice has water pears and absorbic acid. how is the nutritional values different? (they are i know I just don't get why) and it has vitamin C so that is a nutritional value right? what nutritional value does pear purees have?  also a seperate issue, what is the deal with evil water? I feel like i want to give her a little something between meals or with her cereal and she doesn't need more BM, plus I have very little frozen BM stash.

bim38106

tobeMrsSzabo:

the pear puree has pears and water and absorbic acid and citric acid, the pear juice has water pears and absorbic acid. how is the nutritional values different? (they are i know I just don't get why) and it has vitamin C so that is a nutritional value right? what nutritional value does pear purees have?  also a seperate issue, what is the deal with evil water? I feel like i want to give her a little something between meals or with her cereal and she doesn't need more BM, plus I have very little frozen BM stash.

my guess would be the way it's cooked and processed. Any time you cook something, it loses nutritional value.. well, I shouldn't say ANY time, because some things like tomatoes are actually better for you when cooked w/ some fats, but overall, you lose nutrition when boiling or whatever. So I would guess getting it to the consistency for juice, all the boiling and cooking and prepping and time.. it probably loses much more of it's nutritional value.

LoriFalce

Every time I hear someone say juice has no nutritional value, my ears bleed. It isn't that it has no value, it's that it has no need. You don't HAVE to push juice because your daughter should be getting the nutrients from other stuff, including the fruit itself.

You are right, it does have the same nutrients as fruit. The one difference is fiber content. It doesn't fill and satisfy the way whole fruit does. But that doesn't make it a can of Mountain Dew, as much as some people on here would like to pretend otherwise.

However, the thing to be careful of, particularly with pear, is the laxative effect. Joseph could look at a pear and crap himself. I could probably just hold a bottle of pear juice really close and get the same effect. And because of the laxative effect, I'd be wary of giving juice just because your supply is low. You don't want to end up flushing her system of all the good stuff your trying so hard to make.

In your case, I'd be more apt to supplement then to use juice, and I am not anti juice at all. Joseph had diluted juice, and yogurt juice drinks from about 6m.

skoorbnibor

water is not evil, in small amounts. I am letting E have some juice diluted with water. (he has some issues with digestions and he has MSPI, so it is per pedi and GI doc advice, so I am not sure this is good advice)

He has about 4 oz of a water juice mix, it is about 4 parts water, 1 part juice. It is not evil, it is just not all that necessary. Babies take in a lot of water in their primary source of nutrition, BM or Formula. Giving a baby juice or water can reduce their milk intake and that can affect their nutrition, development and growth.  That is why both juice and water get an evil rating....  (as well as the lack of nutritional value in juice)

j&j1999

Hi

As others have said, I too believe that the main issue w/ juice is that it is a slippery slope, starting now could lead to it being a crutch later.  Sort of like tv, ya know

 

lisa777

I don't think juice is evil per se but it's not something I like my DS to have all the time. I prefer him to have water or milk but I will give him juice at dinnertime. My parents watch my DS everyday so they give him juice with his lunch but then that is it for the day. We also only buy sugar-free juice and he mostly has apple. Sometimes I will dilute the juice with water. If you're going to give your child juice, I would give sugar-free and dilute it with water and maybe only give once a day or every other day. I think the main issue with juice is that it's not nutritional and your child can get addicted to it and want it all the time but I don't see it being a horrible thing either.