A baby under six months old should not be given juice. If a baby drinks juice or water at this age, his stomach will become full and he will nurse less. This will leave your baby short of essential nutrients. Except in rare cases, a baby only needs breast milk for the first six months of his life. Even in hot climates, water or juice is not necessary for breastfed babies. When babies can start drinking juice is usually after six months old, but even at this age it is not necessary. Some doctors would recommend giving your child a small amount of apple juice if your child is constipated.

Children aged six months to six years should have no more than 150ml of juice per day. If you want your child to get the benefits of fruit, allow them to eat the actual fruit instead of drinking the juice. When you do decide to give your baby/toddler juice, you should dilute it 50/50 with water. Juice should always be drunk from a cup and not from a bottle. The sugars and acids in juices damage the tooth enamel which can cause tooth decay. The sugars can also cause diarrhoea. If a child drinks too much
juice, it can lead to your child becoming overweight or obese. Another potential hazard of a baby/toddler drinking too much juice is that it can lead to malnutrition or anaemia. This is because your child is missing out on other essential nutrients like proteins and carbohydrates. Unpasteurized juice can also contain harmful bacteria like Salmonella and E-coli.

If you are giving your baby/toddler juice, ensure that it is 100% fruit juice. Babies and young children find it difficult to break down carbohydrates and sugars, so if they consume juices containing sweeteners it can cause problems for them. They could become restless and suffer from gas.

When your baby is thirsty, give them water from the start. This way they won’t naturally prefer juice to water. If they don’t enjoy drinking water, you can add a very small amount of juice to the water to give it some flavour. You should get a good juicer like Breville BJE200XL juicer, to extract the fresh fruit juices.

Juice is in the same category as solid food and it should be introduced like a new food.