What are the best drinks for your child?
best drinks for every healthy child
These important tips are for every healthy child not just children who are overweight. Start today.
1. Encourage water as 1st choice.
- Find out from your child whether they like it better cold, with ice cubes or straight from the tap, and served in a cup, glass or a bottle.
2. Make water appealing.
- Freeze cut up fruit pieces with water into ice cubes and add them to a glass or jug of water on the table.
- Get a drink bottle that appeals to your child so that they feel okay about taking it in their bag.
- Buy water instead of soft drink from the drinks’ fridge when out.
- Look for water flavoured with lime or lemon extracts but no hidden added sugars.
3. Try fizzy water for a change – plain soda water and unflavoured mineral water are good choices as well.
4. Do not keep other soft drinks and cordial in the house.
- These liquid kilojoules do not fill your child but they wicked for teeth (the dentist will agree) and they add size to a chubby child.
- If weaning off real soft drinks and cordials is difficult or you do serve soft drinks regularly, make sure they are always labeled ‘diet’ or ‘low joule’ or ‘zero’.
- Taller, slim-line glasses make your child think they are getting a bigger drink – use this size when you serve ‘zero’ soft drinks and low joule cordial.
- Be careful though because even low joule soft drinks damage teeth. It is the acidic additives that add to dental damage.
5. Limit fruit juice – if you plan to have juice at home then it must be hand-squeezed (no electricity involved!) by either you or your child if old enough.
- Do not be tempted to buy bottles or cartons of juice. Have you any idea how many pieces of fruit had to be squeezed to fill the bottle?
- By hand squeezing, the family begins to recognize just how much fruit it takes to fill a glass with juice.
If your juicing method allows it, add back the fruit pulp into the juice.
6. Limit free access to milk drinks.
- Sure milk is a great source of calcium but your child can have too much of a good thing!
- Too much milk dampens your child's appetite for solid food.
- Switch to reduced fat or lite or low fat milk for the entire family.
- Set some limits on how much milk your little one uses in the entire day if your child is not hungry at meals (filled up on milk) or growing more in the sideways direction.
7. Avoid sports drinks.
- During and after sport, your child is better off having water and some cold juicy orange quarters than downing a sports drink.
8. Teach and remind everyone who looks after your child about how and why to be smart with drinks.
- It is a disaster if grandparents or others undermine your good efforts. When they want to ‘treat’ your young one, encourage them to find a ‘treat’ without any extra drinks or food involved.
- Give the grandparents a few ideas about what would make a better treat for your child, preferably not food or drink. Maybe a small inexpensive toy, a walk down the park, a game together, the chance to brush or play with their pet, or to explore the garden and pick something for mum or dad.
It is not a matter of anyone ‘missing out’ or ‘needing’ juice, soft drinks and cordial everyday. No one really needs these drinks everyday.
Water is the best everyday choice for everyone, young and old.
trivia question ...
Did you realize that the jumbo carton of soft drink at the movies holds close to 1.25 L of soft drink? That's an entire family size bottle in a single serve!
That is seriously too much for any body, especially a growing child's body, so don’t let your guard down at the cinema or footy. Stay on message and be consistent. Stick with water or other low joule, low cal or zero drinks.