Juice YES or NO To Newborn

Hi I'm DIONNA

She is always hungry, can I give her some juice? She's only 6 weeks, not on breast milk we have her on good start (soy).

Baby Help Line:

Giving Juice To Newborn Baby - Yes Or No?

Congratulations on your adorable little girl!

I would not give juice to such a young little lady for several reasons:

Her stomach is meant to digest breast milk and her body needs all the nutrition available in breast milk or formula. Juice can be filled with some vitamins, often vitamin C, but more than that, there really isn't much in there for the baby to thrive upon. Since babies tummies are very small, it is essential that everything they eat is very nutritious. Giving juice to a newborn baby may lead to malnutrition or anemia.
Some research indicates that too much juice has been associated with children becoming short and obese later on in childhood.

Juice is filled with acid, and can cause tummy pain and diarrhea.

The only reason I can think of to give her a little bit of juice would be constipation, but there are other remedies for constipaton in babies to consider too.

I know very well how exhausting it can be with a little baby that wants to eat all the time. But it is completely normal and it passes. Six weeks is a growth spurt, so she will need more food now than even just a week ago. Increase the amount of formula you give her instead of adding juice. She needs it to continue her very rapid growth.

The growth rate slows down at around 3 months old, so by then she might want to eat less often.

Even if it is exhausting, it is also (looking back) a very short period of time. Even within just a month you little girl isn't that newborn any more, but instead likely to be a chubby little giggling baby...

Paula

Feeding Vegetables To Newborn - Yes Or No?

Can A 1 Month baby Have Rice Cereal?

Sleep Tips For New, Exhausted Moms

Find answers and comments below.

Comments for
Juice YES or NO To Newborn

Click here to add your own comments

Jan 08, 2011

Corn Syrup
by: Anonymous

Wouldn't juice be on the list of things you don't really want to introduce to your baby at that young of an age? Especially with all of the high fructose corn syrup. I also heard that people get most of their calories from too much juice drinking and that it can lead to an obese child if you let them have too much juice.

Click here to add your own comments

Return to Baby Feeding Q&A.