Beverage Tragedy for Infants

Not many people until recently recognized the tragedy of introducing juice to infants. Dentists have known for a couple of decades that juice is a primary factor in the growing problem of cavities in young children, particularly infants. Recently, however, the medical community has also recognized that juice is a primary factor in a number of childhood disease issues that have grown in the last couple decades. There are several serious issues that result from introducing infants to juice rather than water during the time of weaning from milk.

First, and perhaps most obvious is that the repeated exposure of sugary acidic beverages such as all fruit juices and other sweet beverages creates an incredibly rich cavity causing environment in the mouth. Children develop cavities at an extremely high rate when juice is part of their infant diet. Often the cavities are so severe and the child so young we have to take the children to the hospital and restore the teeth under general anesthesia.

A second, more subtle problem with juice and oral health is that the juices and sweet beverages establish a bacterial balance in the mouth that will plague the child for a lifetime. A high cavity rate will be a lifetime threat for the child. Changing that high cavity bacterial balance to a more healthy bacterial balance later in life will be extremely difficult.

More recently, the medical community has become aware that juice is a prime factor in a large number of burgeoning pediatric medical issues such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, liver dysfunction, and more. The American Academy of Pediatrics no longer recommends juice for infants. They suggest that at age 4 a small amount of juice with meals is acceptable. Pediatricians have also been instrumental in helping the WIC program to stop dispensing juice for young mothers and instead, provide them with fresh fruit.

Additionally, the high sugar content of these beverages creates a sugar addiction to the beverages. If sweet beverages are in the house, the parent will be up against a constant struggle from the child wanting to drink these beverages. When these children are teenagers and out of the house choosing their own beverages, they will also make very poor choices, choosing sweet acidic stimulating beverages that are very detrimental to their health.

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