WELL, in an effort to not make your mother mad...maybe mention that she should give your daughter 1/2 juice and 1/2 water in her sippy(this is what I'm doing with my 9 month old)...it's a compromise! :D (no, you're not being overprotective, my dear mother gives my daughter tastes of coffee and hot chocolate..and...well, you get the idea! I get sooo angry, but don't say anything anymore, as I know it won't help!

No, I agree with you. Our DD is 14 mo. and we almost never give her juice. It is water or milk. My nephew is addicted to juice and that is all he wants to drink. That was why I never wanted to get DD hooked on it. If you don't want to make a stink with your Mom, just insist that it is at least 50% water, 50% juice. I would actually insist for more like 80% water, 20% juice. It just depends how important it is to you.

I always did 50/50 juice to water. I also only used gerber juices, because they had less empty carbs and no added sugar.

DS is now 19mo and loves juice. He'll go to the fridge and pull the bottle out.

However, I agree with you. I don't see the point in juice except to fill him up on liquid and give empty calories.

I've found that he's satisfied if he sees me putting any juice into his cup. I usually manage to get away with less than 1oz. for a 10oz. sippy cup. It's an okay sort of compromise. Maybe you and your mom could both live with something like that?

Otherwise, just invoked the doctor: Our doctor said that ... If all else fails with my MIL I usually fall back on that one. She can't really argue b/c it's the dr., and she can't take it personally because it's not coming from me (well, she doesn't know that it is).

My family recently visited a dietician. She told us if we were going to give our kids juice (any kind of juice) we might as well just give them soda. She said fresh fruit is completely healthy and full of good stuff, but juice has no good in it.

Just what I learned. Thought it might help.

Thanks for the great reponses.
I have made my mother happy by telling her she can give my daughter diluted juice when they leave the house--in instances when she would be unable to keep milk very cold. She doesn't take her places everyday, so i know she will only be getting a very small amount on a weekly basis.

By all means dilute it with half water. My daughter refuses to bother and my 3 yr old grandson is not only hooked on juices , half his teeth were rotted out. He rarely if ever touches plain water now.
The Dentist told her to dilute it and she STILL doesn't do it.He'll end up with an entire mouth full of crowns and I could scream over this. He is developing a fear of the dentist from being "hurt."
Binkie

I agree with diluting it. Some kids get too much juice.

Well I hate to disagree but for one milk can cause just as much decay problems as juice. Also as the paranio over juice has increased childrens iron levels have dropped because drinking milk will stop the absorbtion of most of theiron in food and viamins. Juices containing vitamine c will actually increase the absorbtion of iron and other nutrients. The ped reccomends no more that 2 servings of juice a day but stresses that DD needs those servings with her breakfast (since that is the meal that most often contains iron becasue many breakfast foods are iron fortified). I give DD 6 oz of juice with 2 oz of water 2 x a day.

I don't think 4 oz of H2O is quite enough. The tooth decay also depends on what you call 'juice'. Kool-aid is not juice (not that anyone here thinks so, but I have met folks who think it is) :-) Neither is HiC or Coke (again, I didn't realize how many 18-month olds out there are already hooked on soda until I became a mom). (btw DD has never had soda and she's 4 now)

Our doctor recommends a total of 6 oz of fruit juice per day for my 4-year-old. We have diabetes in our family so we're probably a little overly careful, but our doctor has looked closely at some endocrinological studies. New studies she found, show that children who drink mostly juice and little water are at high risk for future obesity.

Forgive my rambling, I haven't had my coffee so I may not be being short enough here :-) But another key thing is to only give beverages at mealtime or snacktime (be it juice or milk). And in-between meal beverage should be water. Then you're probably hitting just the right combination.

(again, I see a lot of my friends who are moms, who let the children hang onto a drink of some sort all day long sipping throughout the day).