Dr. Zibners.com

How to know if your child's illness or injury is really an emergency

articles

Cherry. Cranberry. Whatever.

And the proverbial cherry has been popped. You knew they were going to get juice one day, didn’t you? And you were on the edge of your seat, waiting to see how it happened, weren’t you? Alright. It’s done. But I have to say, I’m not upset. I’m secretly a little proud.

No, it wasn’t apple juice. No, not grape. No, not a fat glass of fresh squeezed orange either. A virgin cranberry mojito. Yes, you read that right. Mint. Lime. Cranberry juice. Ice. Shaken. Served with a straw.

Oma and Opa are visiting this week from Germany and we went out for a nice Sunday lunch. Opa ordered himself said mojito. A few sips later and we were ordering a second one for Opa. Eva had declared it hers. Zoe soon got on board.

Just like a chocolate cupcake, juice is meant to be a very special sometimes treat. With minimal nutritional value and a huge calorie load, it’s too easy for a toddler to develop a taste for the stuff and begin to replace other foods in her diet with sweet drink. In fact, most cases of chronic “toddler diarrhea” are directly related to juice consumption. As are many cases of both childhood obesity and malnutrition. It’s not a cup full of vitamins, as most parents rationalize. It’s empty calories.

But my kids get cupcakes on occasion and I’ve no problem with the occasional sip of juice. I just really, really wanted to establish a good water habit before introducing any and certainly didn’t want it to become an everyday event.

So, I must say, well done, girls. I can’t imagine that they’ll be serving jugs of virgin mojitos at playgroup any time soon. Thus I do believe that we are still innocent when it comes to mainstream juice boxes. Not only will they not be getting any juice at home anytime soon but I now can brag about their exceptional palates.

On a semi-related note (my parenting skills), we’ve been working on our animals. Zoe now stops when she sees a dog and roars like a lion. I think we’d better revisit that lesson. Mother of The Year, right here.

Dr. Lara Zibners, Apr 10, 2011

Find more articles like this one:

• Topic:

• Keywords:

Comments

Discuss this article.

Good luck with that one! Here’s what we do. One cup of juice per day - in the morning - which is made of 1/4 water, 3/4 juice. Everybody’s happy…

    – Bud Parr (04/11 08:10 AM)

Page 1 of 1 pages of comments

Commenting is not available in this section entry.