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Diane gave you great information, and I was wondering how much juice your son typically drinks in a day, or in a week?

Fruit juice, as well as fresh fruit, consumed in large (or even moderate) quantities can cause diarrhea; many moms joke about giving their kids too much grapes or raisins, as they will "pay for it later" during a diaper change.

From the American Academy of Pediatrics (full article link below), "...malabsorption of carbohydrate in juice, especially when consumed in excessive amounts, can result in chronic diarrhea, flatulence, bloating, and abdominal pain".

So, it likely has nothing to do with the DHA in the fruit juice that your son consumed, but rather the sugar content and carbohydrates in the juice itself that caused the adverse reaction.

The AAP recommends that children limit their juice consumption to 1 serving (6 oz) per day (for 1-4 years olds), and 2 servings per day (for 10-18 year olds). It is actually recommended that children consume their fruit requirements with whole fruits instead of fruit juice, and that children drink milk or water throughout the day.

Knowing this information, I do give my son (2 years old) juice (even though it's not ideal), but water it down in his cup--half juice and half water with ice-- so that he is getting enough to drink during the hot months of summer, and also not drinking the pure juice. Depending on the week, he drinks 1-2 fruit juice boxes total (each diluted with water), and when we took him to his first (ever) dental appointment this week, the dentist was beyond thrilled that he doesn't drink juice from the juice box, and that his quantity is limited. She said they see so much tooth decay from kids drinking right from the box, juice box-after-juice box. She said if we do give him a juice box, he needs to brush his teeth immediately after. Wow---I had no idea it was this big of a problem...that drinking juice is actually worse than eating ice cream (as far as teeth go!).

You may be interested in reading the remainder of the article (quoted above) from the American Pediatrics Association (AAP), "The Use and Misuse of Fruit Juice".

How old is your son? Is he feeling better? I also wanted to mention, that it is important to call your son's pediatrician anytime there is severe vomiting, as he may need to be re-hydrated.

I hope you're OK, too...I know anything that happens to our kids is traumatic to us as well.

June 30, 2009 - 12:37pm

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