Parents: Can the Juice!

By Christine Gorman

Except for mother's milk, no drink boasts a more wholesome reputation for youngsters than fruit juice. Full of vitamin C, it contains no fat, and kids ) just lap it up. In fact, by age five, the average American child guzzles 9 gal. a year of the sweet-tasting stuff, most of it apple juice. But new evidence indicates that for babies less than 24 months old, consuming large quantities can actually prove harmful. The liquid fills their tiny stomachs and ruins their appetite for foods that contain nutrients and calories they need. According to a study published in the March issue of the journal Pediatrics, the resulting malnutrition can prevent babies from developing normally.

The finding serves as a warning to parents who, in a misguided effort to limit their babies' fat consumption, substitute fruit juice for whole milk or formula in their babies' bottles. Despite doctors' constant preaching against the sins of saturated fat for adults and older children, pediatricians agree that fat should not be restricted for children under two. Young children need the protein and the fat found in dairy products for normal growth and brain development. Fruit juice contains neither.

What most parents do not realize is that it doesn't take a lot of juice to throw a baby's diet off kilter. Investigators at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, examined eight children, ages 14 to 27 months, whose growth had lagged behind their peers'. Each of them was drinking 12 to 30 oz. of juice a day (a standard baby bottle holds 8 oz.). After recording what else the children ate, researchers realized that the fruit beverages accounted for 25% to 60% of the daily consumption of calories. "What would happen to adults who were taking a third of all their calories in the form of apple juice?" asks Dr. Fima Lifshitz, head of pediatrics at Maimonides and co-author of the study. "When you give children one single source of calories, like juice, you're not giving them the minerals and nutrients for normal growth." Shortly after the parents started giving their children less juice and more milk, the infants began gaining weight.

Although baby-food manufacturers peddle miniature bottles of juice alongside strained pears and peas at the grocery store, health professionals urge parents to resist the stuff until their children are out of infancy. No baby under six months should drink juice, and some pediatricians see no reason to introduce it until after the first birthday. Whenever they start, young children need not consume more than a few ounces a day. Because apple juice contains two sugars that tots cannot absorb -- sorbitol and fructose -- large - quantities can cause diarrhea. "Fruit-juice companies imply that apple juice is healthful," says Dr. John Udall, head of pediatric nutrition at Children's Hospital in New Orleans. "But it's probably been oversold."

Most nutritionists and pediatricians also suggest pouring the juice into a cup rather than giving it in a baby bottle. That practice will teach toddlers how to use a cup at the same time that it cuts down on the amount of juice they drink. It will also protect them from cavity-causing bacteria that multiply rapidly in the sugary confines of a baby bottle.

The last thing researchers want their finding to do is provoke a backlash against fruit juices. Certainly, older children can still indulge their habit. All that is required is common sense. "Do everything in moderation," Lifshitz advises. "Even the most healthful, prudent act, done in excess, can be harmful."

With reporting by Janice M. Horowitz/New York