Food & Nutrition 10 Tips to Help Kids Make Healthy Drink Choices By Vincent Iannelli, MD Vincent Iannelli, MD Facebook Vincent Iannelli, MD, is a board-certified pediatrician and fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Iannelli has cared for children for more than 20 years. Learn about our editorial process Updated on March 06, 2021 Fact checked by Cara Lustik Fact checked by Cara Lustik LinkedIn Cara Lustik is a fact-checker and copywriter. She has more than 15 years of experience crafting stories in the branding, licensing, and entertainment industries. Learn about our editorial process Print Give kids healthy drinks like water when they work out. Stephen Shepherd/Photolibrary/Getty Images What do your kids drink? While the types of beverages allowed to be sold in schools are restricted, some choices are healthier than others. Your kids need guidance so they make the right choices wherever they may be. Soda and Drink Guidelines in School and at Home The USDA Smart Snacks in School beverage guidelines limit soda and other high-calorie drinks sold in schools. Some experts think that the guidelines may not go far enough. For example, although the guidelines allow juice with no added sweeteners, these drinks still have a lot of calories. Diet sodas allowed in high schools have few calories, but they also lack nutrition. If they were banned, teens might be encouraged to drink low-fat milk. Consider choosing your own healthy soda and drink guidelines for your family. Your kids need guidance to make healthy choices when they aren't at school or home, including when buying drinks at stores and restaurants and when visiting friends. Compare Common Drink Choices for Kids Compare the fat, sugar, and calories in some of the common drinks that kids like. With the extra sugar and calories, chocolate milk would not be a good choice. And even though they don't have any fat, the Coca Cola Classic and Minute Maid Coolers have a lot of sugar in them. Comparing the drinks, you can see that the low-fat milk, 100 percent fruit juice, and water would be the best choices. Common Drink Choices for Kids Drink Serving Size Fat Sugar Calories Whole Milk 8 oz 8 g 11 g 150 2% Milk 8 oz 5 g 12 g 120 1% Milk 8 oz 2.5 g 12 g 100 Skim Milk 8 oz 0 g 12 g 80 Hershey's Choc Milk 8 oz 4.5 g 30 g 200 Gatorade Thirst Quencher 8 oz 0 g 14 g 50 Coca Cola Classic 8 oz 0 g 27 g 97 Crystal Light Lemonade 8 oz 0 g 0 g 5 Tropicana Healthy Kids Orange Juice 8 oz 0 g 22 g 110 Diet Coke 8 oz 0 g 0.1 g 1 Minute Maid Coolers 6.7 oz 0 g 27 g 100 Minute Maid 100% Apple Juice 6.7 oz 0 g 21 g 100 Water 8 oz 0 g 0 g 0 Help Your Kids Make Healthy Drink Choices Set a good example and establish healthy drink choices for your family at home. Here are examples of guidelines and tips you can follow together: 1. Drink milk: Follow the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations for milk servings for children: 1 to 2 years old: 2-3 cups of whole milk2 to 5 years old: 2 to 2.5 cups of skim or low-fat milk5 years and older: About 2 to 3 cups of skim or low-fat milk 2. Limit juice quantity and only allow 100 percent pasteurized fruit juice. Even 100 percent fruit juice has a lot of sugar, with almost 100 calories per six-ounce serving. The AAP recommendations updated in 2017 say: Whole fruits are encouraged instead of fruit juice as they provide fiber.When you give your child juice, it should be 100 percent pasteurized fruit juice and not fruit drinks. Unpasteurized juice products are strongly discouraged.Don't allow your child to carry a cup or box of juice throughout the day. Do not give juice at bedtime.Infants under 12 months of age should not be given juice. Breastfeeding should be the sole source of nutrition for infants under 6 months of age. Babies get enough fluid from breastmilk or formula.Toddlers aged 1 to 3 years should have only 4 ounces of juice a day (1/2 cup).Children aged 4 to 6 years should limit fruit juice to four to six ounces per day (1/2 to 3/4 cup).Older children and teens aged 7 to 18 years should be limited to 8 ounces of juice a day (1 cup). Remember that these aren't recommendations to drink juice. They are limits to not drink more than these amounts. Kids are usually better off eating whole fruits and avoiding fruit juice altogether. 3. Drink water. Encourage water as the first choice to quench thirst. 4. Avoid sugary, high-calorie drinks such as soda, fruit drinks, and sports drinks (unless your child is actively involved in a sporting activity at the time). 5. Teach your kids about serving sizes. For example, while a bottle of Gatorade might say it has 50 calories per serving, it is important to keep in mind that a single serving is supposed to be just 8 ounces. Since these and many other drinks, such as fountain drinks you can buy at convenience stores, can often be bought in much larger 32-ounce or even 64-ounce servings, you can get a lot more calories than you think if you drink the whole thing. 6. Limit the amount of money that you provide for your kids that they could use in school vending machines or after school to buy soda, diet soda, and juice. 7. Compare nutritional values: When you are choosing what to drink, you aren't simply looking at calories and sugar. Getting other vitamins and minerals from your drinks is important too, such as the calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin A you get from milk and fortified orange juice. Or the vitamin C you can get from 100 percent fruit juice. 8. Avoid caffeine. Your kids may be tempted to drink caffeinated sodas, coffee, energy drinks, and even high-caffeine energy shots. 9. Talk to your kids about what they are drinking at school. Many parents are surprised that their kids are buying soda or juice in between classes from vending machines or coffee on the way to school. Talking to your kids about how to make healthier choices and your expectations for what they should be drinking can help make sure they choose healthier things to drink, like low-fat milk and water. 10. Keep a drink diary to get a good idea of what your kids are actually drinking each day. Many kids get way too many calories from things they drink, including fruit drinks, tea, and soda. Drinking diary can help you figure out how many calories your child is getting each day from milk, juice, etc., and why they are overweight. 3 Sources Verywell Family uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (USDA). A Guide to Smart Snacks in School. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Healthy Beverage Guidelines. Heyman MB, Abrams SA, SECTION ON GASTROENTEROLOGY, HEPATOLOGY, AND NUTRITION, COMMITTEE ON NUTRITION. Fruit Juice in Infants, Children, and Adolescents: Current Recommendations. Pediatrics. 2017;139(6):e20170967. doi: 10.1542/peds.2017-0967 Additional Reading U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture.Dietary Guidelines for Americans. 8th Edition. By Vincent Iannelli, MD Vincent Iannelli, MD, is a board-certified pediatrician and fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Iannelli has cared for children for more than 20 years. See Our Editorial Process Meet Our Review Board Share Feedback Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! What is your feedback? 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