Thursday, August 20, 2009

You Like'a the Juice?

I'm now relearning all of the baby-feeding facts I learned four years ago. We have tried rice cereal, oatmeal, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, and bananas (surprisingly, peas have been the big winner so far). In my efforts to reeducate myself, I've done a little reading, and not just for Charlotte. Years ago I learned that toddlers should have no more than four ounces of juice a day. But Owen is almost four, so I thought I should probably check to see if there are new guidelines. In fact, there are not. From 6 months to 6 years, they should not exceed four ounces of juice a day! What was even more interesting was to learn that many toddlers/preschoolers consume their entire day's worth of calories in liquids. The pediatrician writing the article said that parents were showing up, concerned about their child not eating, not realizing that two sippy cups of juice and four or more of milk contained more than the recommended 1200 calories their child needed for the day. It's hard to think of liquids as having quite so many calories. Since I've been breastfeeding, I've been drinking lots of caloric beverages, without much consequence. But it's going to be tough to break the habit once I have to go back to feeding just myself. So if you see me six months from now, staring lustily at a Dr. Pepper, please hide it from me.

2 comments:

Holly said...

so how much juice should i be drinking? thanks for this. makes so much sense! i never thought about why i wasn't so hungry for breakfast after i'd had my big glass of oj.

Christy said...

I'm no nutritionist, but I'm pretty sure the only dietary reason to drink juice is to make up for some (if any) missing fruit in your diet. Being the crazy fruit lover that I am, I probably don't need any juice at all. But darn it, I love orange juice. So for now, I'm going to enjoy my breastfeeding freedom and drink away.