Giving Your Baby Fruit Juice - When Should Your Baby Have Fruit Juice?

Can I make homemade juice for my baby?

Making homemade juice is not recommended for infants as you are unable to pasteurize the juice and thus it's possible that some bacteria or other unsavory items may get into the juice. For adults and older kids, this isn't as much of an issue. Pasteurization of fruit juices helps to eliminate bacterial concentrations that may cause food poisoning. This is why it is recommended to NEVER give your infant (And even your toddler) apple cider that has not been pasteurized.

Feeding infants (of a certain age) raw fruits should pose no danger if you totally cleanse the fruit, peel the fruit and NOT store any remaining portions. Possible bacterial contamination in fresh fruits is just one of the reasons that many pediatricians recommend cooking fruits until a baby is about 8 months old.

This article is applicable to Toddlers - remember, infants are much more fragile in the digestive system.

"In the past few years there have been outbreaks of bacterial food poisoning from non-pasteurized, fresh pressed juices. These outbreaks were traced to juices made at companies where the equipment and or ingredients were contaminated.

Improper sanitary practices allows the contamination to occur. Pasteurizing is a high temperature treatment that compensates for lack of sanitary practices by killing the pathogen. For those companies that are scrupulously clean, pasteurization is an insurance measure.

 

I don't see any problem with your juice making so long as you practice safe food handling techniques to make sure that your daughter's juice is safe for her to drink. First of all, be sure your equipment is always clean and sanitary. You don't need to boil it, but putting the different parts that come apart into the dishwasher is a safe way to keep them clean.

 

Secondly, make sure the ingredients you are using have been thoroughly washed. For those fruits and veggies where you can remove the skin first, you should, as most contamination is on the surface. For juices that contain berries, grapes and leafy greens, be sure they have been double or triple rinsed. Finally, buy your ingredients from a reputable place, where you are confident that foods have been stored in a sanitary manner. Once you have those foods at home, store them appropriately and use them quickly, before time has allowed any bacteria to multiply. The same practices apply to serving any fresh fruit or vegetable to your daughter, juiced or not". Courtesy of IVillage

Important Points About Offering Your Baby Juice

Your baby does not require any supplemental fluids such as water or juice for quite some time.  Once your baby has turned 6-8 months old, with your pediatrician's consult, you may then begin to offer very small amounts of water.  If you think your baby is "thirsty" and would like a drink, try water.

Won't fruit juices give my baby Vitamin C?

The Vitamin C in fresh fruits has greater bioavailability than the Vitamin C that is added to fortified juices.   Give your baby fresh fruits to help meet Vitamin C requirements; juices should never be considered an appropriate source of or a supplement for, fresh Vitamin C.

Read our Article and Learn how to Introduce and Transition to a Sippy Cup

And the Biggest One of all - Should I give my baby or toddler juice? Our Editor's experience. (added 24 August 2006)

Sitting around watching 4 year olds drink diluted juice as a treat continues to be a thrill. When will the diluted jig be up? We have no idea so the ruse will continue until we are caught.  It's rewarding and satisfying to know that your kids think of diluted juice as a "treat" and not as a mainstay in their day.

Our toddlers enjoy about 4oz of diluted fruit juice maybe every other day or two. - 100% fruit juice with no additives other than Vitamin C. They enjoy veggie juice as well. Our babies did not, and will not, receive any fruit juice until they are/were around 8-10 months old or if constipation occurs. Why do we allow our kids to drink the evil fruit juice? We do it because we are aware that when offered very sparingly (or in frozen homemade ice pops.), fruit juice is not all that evil. We offer juice because they are "older" and 8 times out of 10 they will prefer ice cold water or milk to fruit juice.

Juice often gets a bum rap and let's face it, far too many toddlers (and infants too.) drink far too much juice. Let's rephrase that, far too many toddlers drink "juice drinks" as well as juice throughout the day and in a manner as described above. If you decide to offer your infant juice, we recommend only offering it to an infant over 8 months old.  We want you to remember that juice is not meant to be a nutritional drink nor should it ever take the place of formula and/or breast milk.

We further recommend diluting it and using it to help the older infant learn to drink from a sippy. 75% water with 25% fruit juice has helped many older babies become interested in a cup. Using a small amount of fruit juice as a remedy for constipation is not a "bad" thing if your baby won't eat pureed prunes or other food that may help constipation.  Moderation, good choices  and heightened awareness of foods and their nutritional advantages or disadvantages is the key to maintaining good health.