Recently I've seen and read on line quite a bit about drinks for children, and juice in particular. So I've been mulling this over. Here are my thoughts...
Back in South Africa when my kids were small we used to get juice from the dairy: apple, orange and guava. These were kept refrigerated and were made from fresh fruits. They contained sugar for sweetening. As far as the sugar was concerned, not too bad because it was cane sugar rather than beet. Then came the juices made from concentrated and deflavoured apples that had fruit flavouring added, but no sugar.
Choices... choices...
The thing is, children enjoy drinking juice and sugar is not always a bad thing. Moderation is always good! But if you're worried about giving commercial fruit juices and causing a possible sugar rush, here's a simple solution: get your child to make lemonade.
All you need is an old-fashioned simple lemon squeezer, some maple syrup and a lemon or two, depending on how many glasses you want to fill... or half fill. Cut the lemons in half and your small child will probably be able to squeeze them him or herself. Then all you have to do is add syrup, filtered water and stir. Voila!
