At a young age, Maddie started getting juice offered. As I was the paranoid-obsessed breast-feeding mom (I was so afraid I'd lose my supply or she wouldn't get the right nutrients, I would breastfeed after every "meal" of solids she got), I hated the thought of her drinking anything else for the first 6 months. Then six months hit, we started on solids and the Grandmas kept bugging me that juice would be fine as well. And so we did start on the juice pretty early. As in - she was drinking and asking for more - well before her 1st birthday.
And now? She refuses to drink anything but juice, all day long. Sometimes I can get her to drink some milk (read: an ounce or two) with her meal, but if you offer her milk any other time (unless it's bedtime bottle), she'll throw it right back at you. And forget water - it's like an insult.
Instead, we get the whine, and the (fake) cry, and the eventual angry scream for more JUIIIIIICE!
And most times? We give in. Because you know, we're apparently lazy like that.
But after our last doctor's appointment, where I was asked her general intake of milk and I had to reply - about 10 ounces. Well I vowed to make some changes. And that was about 2 weeks ago, so best I start to do it, right?
I've determined that I can (sometimes) get her to drink water out of a different style sippy - the Rubbermaid juice boxes - more like a straw cup than a sippy. Whatever - if it works then I figure it's fine.
But what do you do when she's whining for juice and nothing else will work? I don't know. Aside from retrospectively wishing I just offered her water as a drink alternative (especially as she eats so much fruit, we don't have to use juice as a vitamin component to her diet), I can't really think of a good idea.
Do we just go cold turkey, limit her to one sippy of juice per day and offer water or milk the rest of the time? Listen to the screams and be the evil juice-withholding parents of her worst nightmares?
Or do we just say 'eff it. Fix it with the next kid and let her become a juice monster who's teeth rot out and etc etc etc...
Should be said - we always water down her juice by at least 50%, and she's never had yeast or diarrhea issues from the juice. These are really just my concerns, based on nothing. Guilt? Reading too many child-rearing advice columns that happened to talk about juice intake recently? Who knows.
Would love some advice though. Even if the advice is "shut up and don't worry about it"...
xxoo.S
