It depends on how old your baby is. Breastmilk or formula milk is all your baby needs to drink for the first six months of her life. Once you start to give your baby solid foods, she can have diluted fruit or vegetable juice at mealtimes, although she certainly doesn’t need it. Water is always the best choice as an extra drink alongside your baby’s usual milk. However, if you are bringing up your baby as vegetarian, diluted fruit juice with meals will help her body to absorb iron from her food.

If you do give your baby fruit or vegetable juices, dilute them well, using at least one part juice to 10 parts water. A total of 120ml (4 fl oz) of juice a day would be plenty. Offer the diluted juice in a beaker or cup at mealtimes only, not in a bottle and not before bedtime. This will help to protect your baby’s emerging teeth.

Offer your baby lots of different fruits and vegetables, whether they’re mashed, puréed or finger foods. The idea is to get her used to exploring different tastes and textures. If you offer juice with a meal, try to offer different types and different combinations of fruit and vegetable juices. This will help her to get used to new flavours.

It’s not a good idea to give your baby fruit squashes and cordials because of their high sugar and/or sweetener content. Sugary drinks can cause tooth decay. They have very little nutritional value and can also encourage your baby to have a sweet tooth.

Original article: https://www.babycentre.co.uk/x9141/should-i-give-my-baby-fruit-and-vegetable-juice-how-much



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