Organic Baby Home • Baby Nutrition • Organic Juice

Organic Juice:
Five Tips for Serving Your Baby

When my daughter was baby, I did all I could to avoid getting her hooked on juice. My main concern was (and still is) the sugar in many juices. Even those that are labled 100% juice can have high levels (more than 30 g. of sugar). That's more than I'm comfortable with on a regular basis.

However, the more social your child becomes, the more they will encounter juice. So over time I've started buying juice to dispense in moderation at home, as well portable juice pouches to take on outings.

Guidelines for Selecting and Serving Juice

Organic juice is free of synthetic ingredients and preservatives.

Go with organic juice if possible.
This allows you to avoid additives such as high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, dyes and of course pesticide treated fruits. Even with organic juices you want to read the labels. Compare across brands for the best list of ingredients and the least sugar.

Gerber makes an organic baby juice. We used them in moderation when my daughter was younger. They are tasty also (yes, I used to drink my baby's juice). The organic juices come in apple and pear and have 13 grams of sugar.

This is a list of the ingredients for the organic Gerber apple juice:

organic apple juice from concentrate (water, organic apple juice concentrate), ascorbic acid (vitamin C)
Minimize the amount of juice given to babies under one and stick with milk and water for as long as possible.
When you do give babies juice, consider diluting it with water so they don't get used to heavily sweetened juices. As a toddler, many children will begin asking for juice as soon as they can utter words - whether you give it as a treat or a beverage with every meal. But you determine how often they get it and what kind they get.
If you're not sure how much is too much, talk with your child's pediatrician and/or dentist about how often they recommend you serve juice. They will likely pat you on the back for keeping sugary drinks to a minimum.

We do drink more juice in the winter months as a source of vitamin C, but I try to remind myself that there are other ways for my daughter to get her the vitamins than juice (i.e. fresh fruit, veggies and smoothies) and make sure we are balancing out her diet with enough water, milk and balanced meals.
If organic juice isn't available read the labels and pick the simplest ingredient list possible. Also look for lower amounts of sugar.
But beware of juice with 0 grams of sugar. It likely has an artificial sweetener such as sucralose or Splenda. I believe giving your child some natural sugar is better than exposing them to artifical sweeteners. In many cases the jury is still out on how safe these are for human diets over the long term.

Another way to minimize sugar naturally is to add filtered water to your toddler's juice before serving. I often do this with organic apple juice and orange juice because it's hard to find them with less than 25 g of sugar. One part water to two or three parts juice usually does the trick.
Another way to ensure the juice you serve your toddler is healthy, is to make juice and/or smoothies at home.
Making juice allows me to keep the ingredients as simple as possible, minimize sugar and sneak (I mean add) a serving or two of vegetables, such as organic or spinach or carrot to my daughter's diet.

I love to combine frozen berries, bananas, spinach, water, agave nectar (or teaspoon or two of organic sugar), ice and a little greek yogurt in the blender - and voila we have a sweet beverage to enjoy. To make more of a juice consistency leave out the yogurt and cut down on the ice.

Of course you can also you use a good old fashioned juice squeezer for orange juice and lemonade.

Honest Kids Goodness Grapeness Organic Juice

For toddlers who drink juice more often, consider substituting organic juice for a naturally sweetened, flavored water beverage.
One organic drink I've found and love is Honest Kids Thirst Quenchers by Honest Tea. These drinks are certified organic and only have 10 grams of sugar. They also have 100% of the daily recommended dose of vitamin C.

The taste is fruity and not nearly as sweet as other juices. We buy the boxes in bulk at Costco but these organic thirst quencher pouches can also be found online at Amazon. Flavors include Appley Ever After, Goodness Grapeness (our favorite flavor), Super Fruit Punch and Berry Berry Good Lemonade.