• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Nutrition to Fit

  • ABOUT
    • Press
    • FREE eBook
  • SERVICES
  • RECIPES
menu icon
go to homepage
  • ABOUT
  • SERVICES
  • RECIPES
  • THE BLOG
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
  • search icon
    Homepage link
    • ABOUT
    • SERVICES
    • RECIPES
    • THE BLOG
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
  • ×

    Home » Blog » Nutrition

    Juice Alternatives and Fruit Infused Water

    Published: Jul 20, 2016 · Updated: Jan 19, 2022 · This post may contain affiliate links. · Leave a Comment

    Jump to Recipe - Print Recipe

    As a registered dietitian working with moms, babies, and young children, one of the most common things that we discuss is juice. So many times I hear from parents and caregivers that their children just will not drink water and will only drink juice. I often get asked when it's okay to start giving their infants and children juice. I think the youngest I've heard a child getting juice was an infant that wasn't even quite three months old, yet!

    Fruit Variety

    The current recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics (1) are as follows:

    • Children under 6 months of age should not be given fruit juice.
    • Children age 1 through 6 years old should limit juice to 4-6 ounces a day.
    • Children age 7 to 18 years old should limit juice to 8-12 ounces a day.
    • For children over 6 months, fruit juice offers no nutritional benefits over whole fruits, which provide fiber and other nutrients.
    • Do not allow your child to carry a cup of juice or juice box with them throughout the day.

    In order to see what a young child over age one should should be consuming (at most!) each day, I recommend mom or dad actually use a half cup measuring cup to visually see four ounces. Most of the sippy cups and regular cups on the market will easily hold eight ounces, so it's really easy for kids to get at least double the amount of juice recommended daily.

    Since I'm not one who likes to just say "don't do this", I love to have a list of alternatives to share with caregivers. Here are some of my top suggestions:

    Dilute juice at least 50/50 with water. This means if your child wants an eight ounce cup of juice, fill it halfway with four ounces of juice, and the remainder with four ounces of water. If your child likes soda or bubbly drinks and you're trying to break that habit, you can try diluting the juice with sparkling water instead. One of my old coworkers made "Sunshine Coolers" with her kiddos, adding a splash of orange juice to a cup full of ice, and topping it off with plain sparkling or carbonated water.

    Make juice ice cubes. This one is particularly fun in the summer time. You just need to pick up some inexpensive ice cube molds if you don't have any (I picked up a set of two ice cube trays for $1 at Dollar Tree). Take 100% fruit juice and fill the ice cube molds, then freeze. When your children want something to drink, you just need to add a couple ice cubes to a glass of water or carbonated water (I like adding regular ice cubes too, to really keep it chilled and the juice cubes from melting too fast!). This is a great way to control the sweetness in your child's drink, while still adding a little flavor.

    Juice Ice Cubes

    Add fresh or frozen fruit slices. This is my favorite! Parents and caregivers can cut up fresh fruit (or use frozen fruit) and let kids add it to their water. As the fruit sits in the water or the frozen fruit "melts", small amounts of the whole fruit juices will infuse into the water. Plus, kids love finishing their water and getting to dig into their cups to eat their leftover pineapple slices, orange slices, strawberries, etc! This is a great way to get a serving of fruit with your drink, the includes all of the fiber and other nutrients found in the whole fruit that is missing from juice. (Just be cautious of choking hazards with young children, please!)

    Fruit Flavored Water

    Make juice popsicles! This can be a fun alternative way of offering juice in the summertime. Find an inexpensive popsicle mold (I've also picked one up at the Dollar Tree before) and fill with juice, diluted juice, or a little juice that has been blended with whole fruit. This can be a fun summertime treat!

    Bottom line, there are a lot of other options! My favorite is adding fresh or frozen fruit to water. Whenever my mom or I host a get together, we always put a pitcher of water out with orange slices, or some other fruit, and the water gets gulped down like crazy! Some of my favorite combinations include:

    Orange + Mango

    Orange Mango Water

    Blueberry + Peach (this has more blueberry flavor if you slice or crush the blueberries first, but it's still fun to eat the blueberry pieces after you finish your water!)

    Blueberry Peach Water

    Apple + Plum

    Apple Plum Water

    And my #1 Favorite: Raspberry + Strawberry + Lemon + Sparkling Water! It tastes like a sparkling berry lemonade!

    Lemon Berry Sparkling Water

    Get creative and have fun with it. Show your children to have fun with it too, and definitely encourage other sources of hydration for your little ones beyond juice and sweetened drinks!

    Print Recipe
    No ratings yet

    Fruit Infused Water

    Ingredients

    • Assortment of fresh or frozen fruit
    • Assortment of fresh vegetables
    • Assortment of fresh herbs
    • Carbonated or regular water
    • Ice if desired

    Instructions

    • Add frozen or fresh fruit choices, veggie slices, herbs, and/ or ice to a glass or pitcher of water.
    • Alternatively, you can also freeze pieces of fruit and/ or herbs in water in an ice cube tray, than use in a glass of water and allow to slowly flavor.

    Sources:

    1. https://www.healthychildren.org/English/healthy-living/nutrition/Pages/Fruit-Juice-and-Your-Childs-Diet.aspx
    « Chocolate Raspberry Avocado Pudding
    Open Faced Pizza Omelet »

    Reader Interactions

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    Primary Sidebar

    Welcome, friend!

    Welcome to Nutrition to Fit! I'm Lindsey, a balanced nutritionist and Registered Dietitian obsessed with helping you find your healthy balance with food and health! I'm not going to tell you what I think you should do, but instead my goal is to empower you to create your own balance (which, PSA, absolutely includes delicious foods!). Learn More

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest

    As Featured In:

    Featured Recipes

    overhead shot of 6 glasses of brightly and different colored agua frescas

    How to Make Agua Frescas

    Maple dijon brussels sprouts are your answer to add flavor to easy roasted brussels sprouts. Try this easy, healthy side dish recipe today!

    Maple Dijon Brussel Sprouts

    a bite from a decadently fudgy, ganache frosted avocado brownie on a white plate

    The Best Avocado Brownies

    green spinach banana muffins on a metal tray - some with almonds, some plain, some with blueberries

    Spinach Banana Muffins

    • ABOUT
    • SERVICES
    • RECIPES

    Footer

    Leave a ❤️ if you needed to see this. Leave a ❤️ if you needed to see this.
    Sacrificing your life for your "health" is a red f Sacrificing your life for your "health" is a red flag that diet or those methods may not be the healthiest for you.

Create a healthy balance that helps you feel at home in your body and lets you live your life!
    Feeling a little off-balance in your eating and he Feeling a little off-balance in your eating and health habits after the weekend? Or just in general lately?

It happens!

But if this has typically triggered restrictive or extreme habits or eating patterns, let's try something different:

Can you try to gently step back into caring for yourself?

Check in with your baseline habits.
+How are you sleeping?
+Managing stress?
+Has your water intake turned to mostly coffee intake? 
+Are you moving your body in a way that feels good right now?
+How are your eating habits?

Then, when the opportunity next presents itself to do something a little different, like adding vegetables to your lunch or skipping Netflix to actually go to bed at a decent time😘, act on it!

What's one thing you're going to do today to support nourishing and caring yourself and getting back to any of your health goals?
    Don't shoot the messenger!!🙈 I have nothing aga Don't shoot the messenger!!🙈 I have nothing against coffee or protein coffee, but neither👏are👏a👏meal👏

Per usual, remember to add - swipe for some ideas of protein coffee pairings that make a better balanced breakfast.

Are you a protein coffee fan?
    Friendly reminder for the first Monday of the new Friendly reminder for the first Monday of the new year: unless you're allergic or the food's gone bad, you don't have to cut any foods from your diet!

Instead, shift your focus to what you can add - like more fiber, more fruits and veg, more water, more joyful movement. It's going to be more enjoyable, sustainable, and may be the shift that helps you find your healthy balance!

#healthybalance #balanceddiet #foodfreedom #dietitian #nutritiontips #newyearnewme

    back to top | privacy policy | affiliate disclaimer | contact | © 2022 all rights reserved

    as an amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Reject Privacy Policy
    Privacy & Cookies Policy

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT