Let's talk juice: why do -or don't- you give it to your child? - Page 3

[1love4ever]

I have found that in children who have had lots of sweet things including store bought juice, they will not drink much water, so I think it is really something that you have to work with from the beginning, and not ever give them much sweet stuff.  I always make sure to offer DD water even if she is not asking for it because most of the time she will drink it.  I also sometimes squeeze some fresh lemon into it and she loves that.

Be careful only to buy good high quality green tea, because the cheap Lipton stuff is made from old green tea leaves that have high levels of flouride in them, which can be toxic if you drink too much of it.  The quality stuff is made of young leaves that have low levels.

Good luck

[anjsmama]

@Koalamom - When we were "undoing" our juice habit in our house last year, we started with minimizing. We used to get 4 juices at a time (per week), and we switched to 1 juice at a time. And to make that one juice last longer, we added water. First a little, then a lot, til 50/50. Then we switched to water with mint and/or essences (inspired by a water my friend once gave me called metromint.... very good, though we don't actually buy bottled water because of the bottles!). Anyway, essences of cocoa and mint was my fav, and raspberry was DS's fav. It was an easy way to get used to drinking water, and it still had some sweetness (though not the overwhelming amount that juice does!). I now drink (and LOVE) plain water, as does DS, but DH is his own lost ship... lol... I just tell him to keep the junk in his work locker. DS now thinks that water with essences and smoothies ARE juice. 

I agree with 1love4ever about the green tea; if you go that route you want a high-quality and lightly sweetened tea... I think the Lipton type commercialized green tea has MORE sugar than juice (I know this because DH drinks it...)!