June 15, 2017 – No Juice

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Anchor lead: Infants don’t need fruit juice, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Infants shouldn’t be given fruit juice, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended recently. Laura Davis, a pediatric nutrition expert at Johns Hopkins, applauds the decision.

Davis: I’m kind of surprised that it took this long for them to get here. But really happy about this change. The nutrients that are provided in fruit juice are not something that, especially in our country is something that we’re low on, and the vitamin C that a child would get from juice is adequate in breast milk, or in formulas if breast milk is not available. So it doesn’t really provide anything extra to the diet and actually just displaces the actual nutrients that the child really truly needs to grow and develop.  :30

Davis says many adults have the mistaken perception that fruit juice is a nutritious choice, winning hands down over soft drinks, but when the two are compared, that’s not really the case, since when fruit is squeezed into juice what remains are sugars and water, with fruit flavoring and color. Davis advocates breast milk or formula for infants, and water for older children. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.