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We've successfully convinced our two-year-old that unsweetened, carbonated water is "juice". She frequently goes to restaurants and is very excited to get "juic
by mikenyc 9y ago
We've successfully convinced our two-year-old that unsweetened, carbonated water is "juice". She frequently goes to restaurants and is very excited to get "juice" from the bar, and considers it a special treat. Eventually this will surely fail when her friends can explain reality. But until then it's working great to avoid massive loads of sugar in her early years.
- retox 9y agoSounds like an introductionary paragraph from the biography of a serial killer. Good job, daddy. On HN lying to your children is a good thing.
- redipyni 9y agoNot to hyperbolize like the other commentor, but I was told harmless little lies like that as a child myself. You eventually learn otherwise, but not before embarrassing yourself in front of your peers and feeling betrayed. Different children will react differently, of course.
- moopling 9y agoPossibly slightly different, but my dad used to amuse himself by trying to convince me of whatever nonsense poped into his head at that moment. My older siblings, who had had the same treatment earlier, joined in and would verify anything he would say. Overall I found it quite harmless, and it did instil a healthy skepticism of whatever people said.
- tobtoh 9y agoI'm not quite parsing the logic of doing this. If she is getting fooled that carbonated water is 'juice', then I'm assuming she doesn't know what juice actually is and therefore has no association of juice = sugar drink. So why the need to trick your daughter? Couldn't you have just called it 'fizzy water', or if water is associated with 'boring', call it 'fizzy drink'. She'd still get it from the bar and have the excitement of that.
- savanaly 9y agoProbably the kid just learned through cultural osmosis that juice is a good treat for kids and so naturally the kid wants it.
- tobtoh 9y agoFair enough. That makes sense. Thanks.
- hueving 9y agoThe word juice shows up and is spoken all over the place.
- choward 9y ago> I'm not quite parsing the logic of doing this. Sounds like you parsed it just fine. It was just an error in the actual logic.
- Smaug123 9y agoMy parents did this for me for quite a long time: dried papaya was sweets, and it was a special event if little bits of dried papaya appeared in muesli.
- DanBC 9y agoLots of parents think dried fruit are a healthy sweet treat, and in the UK there's a big market for raisins or dried fruit bars or dried fruit sheet (Fruit rollups) aimed at children. All of these are terrible for teeth because they're high in sugar and they're sticky, and there's guidance to avoid these things.
- Banthum 9y agoIs dental health really a big issue for kids? I mean, they have replacement teeth incoming...
- TheSpiceIsLife 9y agoOld habits die hard. With new teeth inbound are you going to convince your child to stop eating foods high in sugar? Also, dental health isn't the only reason to minimise sugar intake.
- DanBC 9y agoDecayed teeth are painful and need treatment; that treatment carries some risk. Tooth extraction is the leading cause of child hospitalisation in the UK. A few of those children will have problems such as hypomineralisation, but many extractions are entirely preventable with better diet (milk or water to drink, not fruit juice or sugar sweetened tea or soda, and especially not in a bottle or sippy cup) and better oral hygiene. And it's important to start these habits early. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/27/england-hospital-treatment-children-severe-tooth-decay https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/27/england-hosp... https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/13/teeth-problems-children-hospital-decay-extractions https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/13/teeth-proble... http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/dentalhealth/Pages/Careofkidsteeth.aspx http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/dentalhealth/Pages/Careofkidsteet...
- southphillyman 9y agoBe mindful that a lot of carbonated water can damage the enamel of her teeth.
- pmalynin 9y agoDoesn't matter, milk teeth.
- arcticbull 9y agoAnd there's no milk pancreas to the best of my knowledge :) well not yet anyways.
- DanBC 9y agoDental decay is painful. Tooth extraction is a leading cause of hospitalisation of children (it's the leading cause in the UK), and this surgery carries a risk of death. It's cruel to expose children to pain and harm, especially when it's normally completely avoidable.
- awqrre 9y agoWhat we do is mix juices with equal amounts of water... the 50/50 mix still taste great (better in my opinion) and it isn't as bad for you. As a small bonus, it makes it slightly cheaper..
- abustamam 9y agoI mix juice with sparkling water, so I still quell my craving for "soda" but it's "healthier." Quotes because it still isn't healthy.
- amelius 9y agoThere is a deeper problem here. Your child is satisfied with less when the perceived (or socially established) value is larger. It may be better to teach your child to estimate the value of things on their own, rather than rely on others. Further down the road, you presumably don't want to have a kid that needs to wear expensive clothes to school to feel accepted. And when they are that age, you can't convince them that less expensive clothing is expensive too.
- noway421 9y agoThis is really messed up.
- danudey 9y agoHow did your daughter get interested in (the concept of) juice? Our two-year-old has never really expressed an interest, but then we don't keep juice at home and he doesn't get it elsewhere either. He's curious about things we drink that he doesn't get (I drank a bottle of root beer in front of him the other day, he was very confused and curious), but if we put milk in front of him he's got the thing he wants most of all and ignores our drinks entirely.
- peter_retief 9y agoYou are doing her a massive favour for the rest of her life, its easy to underestimate the damage sugar does and after all we want our kids to be happy and sugary treats seem to make them happy