8 risks when giving juice to young children

In fact, most babies don't have to drink fruit juice. Accordingly, the baby will absorb vitamins and minerals through breast milk or formula milk, followed by solid foods. In case when the child is older and the mother wants her child to use juice, pay attention to control the amount of this drink so that your baby will avoid unnecessary health risks.

Many people often have a habit of giving their children juice because they believe it is more convenient and delicious than eating fresh fruit. However, this is really not as good as you think. Overuse of these drinks can lead to the following 8 risks:

1. Tooth decay caused by using fruit juice: Strange but real!

The truth is, consuming a lot of juice is not only easy to damage enamel but also leads to tooth decay in children . The reason is that at this time baby teeth are exposed to high levels of sugar in drinking water. According to experts, children who have a habit of sipping fruit juice from bottles, cups or boxes prepared during the day or before bed are at higher risk of tooth decay.

2. Bloating, flatulence, and discomfort

Young children are quite prone to bloating gas because their digestive system has not developed comprehensively. Particularly for infants under 6 months old, their bodies lack the necessary enzymes to process the high amount of sugar in the juice. Even if your child's digestive system is complete, your baby still needs to limit the amount of juice consumed every day.

3. Diarrhea

In addition to the above symptom, infants and young children are especially susceptible to diarrhea due to the juice, which also causes an incomplete digestive system. Accordingly, in the large intestine this time the sugar will absorb water and the natural bacteria in the intestine will ferment the sugar. This will lead to bloating and frequent mucus discharge .

According to doctors, the addition of too much fruit juice (more specifically 150ml per day) can cause diarrhea. Chronic diarrhea, sometimes referred to as “toddler diarrhea”, has also been linked to overuse of this drink.

4. Slow growth

Drinking too much juice is a contributing factor to your child's inability to grow healthy. This drink has the ability to suppress the baby's appetite. If a parent feeds a child without limits on consumption, fruit juice can "take the place" of breast milk, formula, or other nutritious foods in their child's diet - this is a nutritious foundation. Supplementing essential minerals and vitamins to help your baby grow and develop healthy.

5. Children who drink lots of fruit juices are easy to become obese

Fruit juice usually has a high glycemic index, which means that the percentage of simple sugars in the juice will increase your baby's blood sugar quickly. The increase in sugar stimulates the release of insulin into the bloodstream. High insulin levels will promote fat storage as well as increase hunger for your baby and your baby will be more prone to obesity.

6. Less drinking water

When your baby begins to eat solid foods, supplementing with water is essential to maintain water balance in the body. Doctors often recommend giving your baby diluted fruit juice to provide more water because your child often loves the sweetness of the juice.

7. Using a lot of fruit juice easily makes children malnourished

Fruit juices and juices are often high in simple sugars, but lack complex carbohydrates, protein (protein), fat, fiber as well as minerals like iron, calcium and zinc. If a child does not have a balanced diet, the baby may be deficient in essential nutrients. Drinking fruit juice will still provide calories thanks to the sugars found in this drink, but drinking too much juice can lead to malnutrition and / or anemia. This is because drinking too much juice will prevent children from drinking enough milk to get the calcium and vitamin D they  need.

8. Reduce fruit intake

Fruit offers more nutritional benefits than fruit juices. However, if your child depends too much on fruit juice, he will accidentally forget about eating fruit and ignore the very good nutrients that fruit juice cannot bring.

Therefore, you should not let your baby drink too much fruit juice in daily meals. Ideally, your baby should only drink less than 120 ml per day when he is older than six months.