Just how much water/juice for a 16m old?

[Marisa6826]

I've finally got Sophie hooked on her juice/water drink (7 oz. water to 2 oz. apple juice) instead of her "milk".

She loves it, but I'm wondering if I am running the chance of diluting her minerals too much by letting her have it whenever she wants.

She can seriously do 18 oz. a day and sometimes then some. I try to keep the salty foods to a minimum if that makes any difference.

Should this be a concern?

-m

[signsing]

I know that 4 oz is the max serving for juice in a day. Water is as much as you want.

Now that you have the juice/water combo going. Try diluting it more gradually.

HTH
Betsey
Buddy's Mamma 6-10-2003

[Marisa6826]

I just looked at askdrsears.com and for 1-4 years old, he says 6 oz. of juice is the maximum recommended.

I'm not worried about the juice, as much as I am concerned about the water.

-m

[caleymama]

DD is almost 19 mos, but we've been doing this same thing for a while now. DD gets milk with her meals, 3-4 ounces probably (it's a regular cup with no ounce markings, so I'm just eyeballing it). Sometimes she drinks it all or more, often not. She gets all the water she wants. I generally have a water sippy out for her during the day and just refill it when necessary. I'm not sure how much she ends up drinking over the course of the day, but probably 6-12 ounces. I usually give her a cup of juice with her afternoon snack after her nap and that's 2-4 ounces of juice with the same amount of water. Occasionally I split her juice up into two cups and then I just make sure to do 2 ounces of juice at each one and refill with water if she wants more. She'd drink juice all day if I offered it - she loves it too! The PP had a good idea - perhaps you can keep diluting it further so that there's less (and eventually no) juice. I don't see anything wrong with her drinking water if she's thirsty.

[Marisa6826]

I tried diluting it to just 1 oz juice and 7 oz. water. No go.

Sophie just looked at me like with a look that was surely (sorry if offending) WTF?

She just kept handing it back to me. I dumped out one more oz and replaced it with the juice and she gladly took it.

So it seems like it will be the 6:2 ratio for a while. I'm happy with that, since she can have up to 6 oz of juice a day.

And FWIW, she WILL on occasion drink straight water, especially if she sees me drinking a bottle of water and I take some out and put it in a sippy for her.

Incidently, I found a great sippy that she LOVES (finally!!) by Rubbermaid at Shoprite. It has a little snap on sipper top, no valve, and ringed sides. It came in a four pack.

The only problem is that she is all together too happy to dump out whatever is in the sippy onto my oriental rug. So the sippy is reserved for the highchair for now. ;)

-m

[caleymama]

It sounds like she's doing fine. My post went up after your second one, so I didn't see the Dr. Sears rec. I would think, other than teeth concerns, that it wouldn't be a problem as long as she's eating solids well (don't want to be filling up on liquids).

And I definitely know the look you're talking about! :)

[egoldber]

Well, on a hot summer day, Sarah has been known to drink more than 50 ounces of water in a day (and thats not a typo). I have never limited her water intake (after 1 year), and have always let her self-regulate.

[Marisa6826]

WOW!

Did she grow fins? :P

It's certainly not hot here yet, and Sophie's indoors most of the time (I know, bad Mommy).

I usually let her have as much as she wants, till she starts dumping the juice on my floor ;)

-m

[COElizabeth]

James is the opposite! He won't drink milk in any form (since weaning a week ago), and he drinks next to nothing. The only thing he will drink a lot of is Pedialyte, but he gets that only when he is sick. I must have the only child in the country who is best hydrated when he has diarrhea!

Elizabeth, Mom to James, 9-20-02

[egoldber]

LOL! No fins, but keeping her in diapers was quite a problem...

But generally she drinks 12-16 ounces of milk, <2 ounces of juice, and about 18 ounces of water a day.