Water, please.

Lately, I feel like this is the place I come to vent my opinions and get on my soap box. That was never the intention of this blog, so I hesitate to do it. BUT, here it is.

CNN recently posted a story about what doctors recommend for kids to be drinking. While I realize from the article that they are including teens as children, I have to sit here and think, DUH.

Doctors have recently recommended that the primary drink of children should be.....water. Really? Never would have guessed that. I never buy juice or soda for Archer. He really only likes apple juice because that's what he has at daycare, so I'm not giving him more. It's just so much sugar. His sweet treat drink is chocolate ovaltine, and he gets that once in the morning and once after dinner, which is probably too much but it's the only sugar he gets at home other than grapes. I don't buy cookies or snacks often, and when I do it's 100 calorie cookies and he gets one pouch. He thinks the best sweet snack is honey on whole wheat toast.

I don't worry so much about the milk because, at almost three, he's still only about 27 pounds. But I want to set a precedent that sweets are just for moderation. I occasionally let him have soda at a restaurant, but only because he doesn't like anything sour like lemonade and most kool-aid type drinks, or even clearer sodas like ginger ale or sprite. He will drink root beer, but nothing like coke that's really carbonated.

I didn't drink soda until I was much older than he is, only ever water. I still love to drink water, but my body craves the sugar and soda. A nasty habit I need to kick. I lost 20 lbs in college not drinking any soda, and I wish it was that easy for me now. I only had caffeine free soda during my pregnancy, and relied much more on green tea and juice for my sugar fix. I wish it were that easy when I didn't have as much motivation to do so.

Anyway, I guess the point of my soapbox is, sugary drinks are not for kids. Limit juice, gatorade, kool-aid, etc and give them water. There are lots of flavored waters out there if that's what it takes, but really, teach them to love water. It will make their weight management later in life easier, lower their risk for diseases like diabetes, and make them healthier people overall.