Budget drinks for kids...

[lillygator]

what do your children drink? My girls seem to go through juice boxes in no time flat. We have tons of Kool-Aid packets although I am not too keen on all the sugar that goes in them. Milk is not a huge hit in our house although they do get it at school during the day.

any ideas?

 

[java]

Water and Milk mostly- the 12 and 9 year old drink water with milk at breakfast and one capri sun a day. The little guys 4 and 2 drink chocolate milk mostly. With Water as an alternative. *I had to cut the 4 year old to 3 cups a day because it was making him not eat- so he drinks 3 sippy cups of chocolate milk a day and water whenever else he is thirsty. oops for got the 2 little ones will also drink OJ in the morning. My older 2 are drinking skim milk and the younger 2 2%(milk prices are killers though...)

 

[sugarpie]

My kids primarily drink milk - white & soy, once in a while chocolate.

In the winter I usually keep orange juice & in the summer lemonade. Right now we have cranberry juice, too. I don't buy KoolAid or juice boxes.

 

[tinaluis]

Milk, water and Iced Tea. We buy a large container of powdered Nestea Ice Tea Mix at Sam's Club for $4.68 (approx.) and we make the tea with 1/2 of what they recommend, otherwise it's way too sweet for us. Occasionally we will have soda, orange juice or Sunny D, but it's very rare.

 

[disykat]

Drinking mostly water has saved me lots of money over the years. It would be interesting to do some kind of study on that.

 

[lillygator]

I guess I should just say all we've got is milk and water, choose which one you would like.

 

[Tinkerbell2002]

Instead of juice boxes, you can buy a large bottle of juice, that would be cheaper than the boxes. Maybe limit them to 1 bottle a week then water or milk that way they will drink it in moderation to make it last all week (or drink it all in 2 days and then they'll drink milk or water the rest of the week)


DS drinks gatorade, water, oj, or tea ( I use decaf tea bags and a very tiny bit of sugar... he didn't like it at first without a lot of sugar like store bought tea but when told to chose between milk, water or the tea he chose the tea). The water and tea are cheap. And you can buy flavored tea bags like blueberry, raspberry, etc. The big bottles of gatorade and oj are cheaper than the small individual servings). DS won't drink milk or most juice. I agree with you about the sugar in the koolaide. Java, I hear you about milk prices but I wish I could get ds to drink it a little, if only to get pediatrician happy. But he won't touch it, not even chocolate.

 

[Not so Dumbo]

I guess I should just say all we've got is milk and water, choose which one you would like.

I can't count how many times a day I say exactly that! It's usually 50/50 on which one they choose.
I figure if they get used to drinking water now, they won't have to struggle to drink enough as an adult.... I know I do.

 

[shortbun]

Yep, milk or water at our house mostly.

 

[dandelion]

Instead of juice boxes, you can buy a large bottle of juice, that would be cheaper than the boxes.

And even cheaper than that, in least in my area, is to buy cans of frozen juice concentrate and then keep it in a pitcher in your fridge. My DS7 just learned how to mix it himself and is so proud to be the "keeper of the juice."

He has a cup of cocoa in the morning (made with milk), milk with lunch at school and brings a bottle of (tap) water to school to have with his snack.

DD10 has juice or water with breakfast, milk with lunch at school then usually has a glass of juice after school. At dinner it's "milk and water, choose which one you would like."

DS7 recently grew a crop of cavities, so he's now taking a flouride supplement at bedtime - which means no dairy for 2 hours before. Wish us luck that will strengthen those little baby teeth! The dentist said most likely his adult teeth will be fine.

DD10 does also like iced tea, but it's way too icy outside these days to even be thinking about that!

 

[ntink]

We drink a lot of water, milk with meals and occasionally I will buy the individual OJ cartons when they are on sale. If we have a party or bbq I will buy juice boxes but that is only a few times a year. My DD8 just started joining me for a cup of hot tea and we always do hot cocoa after sledding.

 

[lillygator]

I never thought about the frozen concentrate ones. Great idea, thanks!! (now I need a pitcher!)

 

[Pooki]

I used to buy Capri Suns for my kids, but my DS3 could go through two whole boxes alone a day if you let him! Obviously this is way too expensive, and way too many calories for their little bodies, so I have been buying Wyler's Lite. Costs about $2.20 for 6 pitchers (cheaper and tastier than Crystal Light, IMO) and you dont need to add any sugar like you would Kool-Aid. Hardly any calories, so I let them drink that all they want, as well as milk, juice and water. I tried to give my DD5 a water bottle with our home-made drinks for her snack in kindergarden to save money, but she just never screwed the lid back on tight enough and would always come home to a mess. I buy the Capri Sun waters for her (very low calories there also), but they are strictly for her to bring to school, so I am not paying too much for those (I always find them buy 3, get 1 free too!)

 

[Perditamarie]

We have milk, plain or strawberry 3 times a day and juice (1/3 juice & 2/3 water). Juice boxes - the little 4 oz ones - when traveling or when playgroup friends come over. Small cups of orange and purple grape juice is an occasional treat.

 

[kellia]

Milk or water, they get juice once a day for pm snack if they want it. I don't want my kids drinking all of their calories! I water the juice down for the boys just because they had reflux bad as babies and the acid in juice still bothers them sometimes.

I do keep the small juice boxes in the diaper bag for if I forget to pack a sippy cup, cheaper than buying something while we are out.

 

[meandtheguys2]

Drinking mostly water has saved me lots of money over the years. It would be interesting to do some kind of study on that.

I think that the numbers would be huge. We drink water all day, with a couple of glasses of milk. Since we use Raw, whole milk I treat it as a part of the meal rather than hydration.

 

[ntink]

I used to buy Capri Suns for my kids, but my DS3 could go through two whole boxes alone a day if you let him! Obviously this is way too expensive, and way too many calories for their little bodies, so I have been buying Wyler's Lite. Costs about $2.20 for 6 pitchers (cheaper and tastier than Crystal Light, IMO) and you dont need to add any sugar like you would Kool-Aid. Hardly any calories, so I let them drink that all they want, as well as milk, juice and water. I tried to give my DD5 a water bottle with our home-made drinks for her snack in kindergarden to save money, but she just never screwed the lid back on tight enough and would always come home to a mess. I buy the Capri Sun waters for her (very low calories there also), but they are strictly for her to bring to school, so I am not paying too much for those (I always find them buy 3, get 1 free too!)

Do the lite/light products contain artificial sweetners?

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

We only buy juice boxes for trips or to pack for ball games, parties, etc., not to drink regularly. We buy big bottles of juice, then I water it down when I put it in a cup. I buy frozen orange juice, but it's too much of a hassle to do that with regular juice for me. I only buy 100% juice (whichever brand is on sale, but I read the label carefully), even when I get juice boxes, no capri suns or kool-aid.

They have to drink milk at dinner and they drink it for lunch at school. For breakfast they have a choice of milk, juice, orange juice, or water. During the day (other than meals) they drink water mostly because they can get it themselves, I keep it in small bottles in the fridge and I keep Dixie cups in the bathroom so they can get it themselves.

Occassionally we will have sweet tea or kool-aid lemonade in the summer and hot chocolate in the winter for treats.

 

[bellarella]

We only drink water, except for meals, when they have the option of milk (or OJ for breakfast). My DDs do get a 100% juice box in their lunches for school. I get those at costco.

 

[bookgirl]

We keep a whole variety of drinks in the house, between the three of us that live there, the twins who are there on weekends and my brother and his gf we are stocked with fat free milk (we are all milk drinkers except one nephew and brothers gf), diet soda (mom and I and if the twins get a soda they drink ours) regular soda for stepdad, bottled water for us all, sunny d (mom takes them to work for breakfast in the small bottles and the twins like for breakfast as well), sf koolaide (we get the walmart brand grape, lemonaide, fruit punch, and cranberry), we occasionally have gatoraide or capri sun.

The boys will almost always ask for water with meals, one will drink milk the other juice and both water with breakfast, they will drink sf koolaide, or gatoraide, and they do like soda (their mom drinks a lot, and she doesn't cook so they eat out most of the time) but they are only allowed one if even that when they are with us or dad. So 80% or the time water and the other 20% between other choices.

PS. When I get the boys water I usually get them tap water, that whole thing about kids not getting enough floride since we are a nation of bottle water drinkers. The get bottled water alot while we're out but at home I give them tap for the floride and they don't seem to tell the difference. Koolaide is with tap water as well.