What do American 4 yr olds drink?

[KrazeeK120]

My son is 3 and only drinks water and milk (chocolate milk when we go to restaurants).

Juice pouches/boxes are widely available here too.

 

[bigeyedfish]

My kids drink only water or sometimes white milk with meals at home. I don’t keep any sugary drinks in the house. We rarely eat out, but they do drink pop (over age 5), juice, sweet tea, chocolate milk, or lemonade at restaurants. Another fun thing to do is add a squeeze of lemon or lime to their water. Or even chunks of fruit (but that might be more difficult at Disney). My kids are really looking forward to our trip in part because of the restaurants, ha!

 

[courtney1188]

Our four and five year old sons drink tons of milk and water. Very rarely juice, never pop. We had no problems finding things for them at Disney!

 

[Sha259]

My son drinks milk, plain water, and plenty of watered down fruit juices (not fruit drinks) and teas. I pretty much take any juice that is available and water it down to 50/50 water to juice. It's still plenty sweet and he doesn't even know the difference.

 

[amberpi]

The kids drink milk (white milk only, no chocolate), water, and watered down juice at home. At restaurants they get half sprite/half water with cherries.

 

[Hikergirl]

When my kids were that young they drank milk, water and juice.

You can try Hint- it's fruit flavored water without any sugar, or artificial sweeteners. Comes in many flavors.
I don't think you can find them inside the parks so if you aren't planning on shopping or having groceries delivered it isn't going to help you though.
Best bet might be to add just some (real) fruit juice to their waters if you are looking for things with no added sugars or sweeteners.

 

[garnwr32229]

At home it’s water, milk, apple juice, orange juice. When out at at restaurant they typically stick to those same things. With my 8yr old son asking for sprite or root beer and my 8yr old daughter and 3yr old son sometimes asking for lemonade

 

[Betty Rohrer]

Hi All,
We'll be in the parks / disney cruise and wondered what US 4 year old kids drink? Over here, when we are out my daughter will drink Milk and a kids drink call "Fruit Shoots", which is a sugar free flavoured water.

I'm not too keen on her getting a taste for Coke/Diet Coke at such an early age, and she's not a big plain water drinker, so I'm happy to learn about what I can get her in the US.

Thanks, Stevey

the "Fruit Shooters" that i have found where I live have had almost as much sugar as the soda. my grandkids drink a lot of apple juice, lemonade and chocolate milk when out at that age

 

[saraheliz]

Water, milk, juice (diluted at home but not worth the hassle when we're out).

 

[MainMom]

My kids drank juice, water, lemonade and milk. As they got a bit older they added sprite, root beer and drinks like Fanta which are all caffeine free. They are now teenagers and do not drink caffeinated beverages because they don’t like them and other pop is an occasional treat. We don’t keep it in the house at all because my husband and I don’t drink it either except on occasion like eating out.

 

[Smittolis]

Just remember, when an 'American' says 'lemonade' it isn't the same as what is served in most of Europe (not sure where you are but assuming UK based upon 'fruit shoots'). It's basically lemon juice, where as in a lot of Europe lemonade is 'fizzy' and almost like sprite.

The USA is a much bigger place, so everything is just magnified, yes there are lots of people that drink too much soda, but by the same token there are many many people who don't drink any, so perceptions can often be skewed when only looking at specific data points and demographics.

In the parks you can get apple juice, small juice boxes (cartons of pop) as well as 'fizzy pop'. Given the temps its always good to grab a powerade or gatorade with electrolytes. A tip we ofetn use is to freeze their favorite juice in an icecube tray and then fill up a water bottle with them and add water. The juice melts giving flavor but also keeps things cold and promotes hydration.

Virtually all self regulating studies show that people will selectively drink more when the fluid is flavored than just pure water alone. And this is coming from a family that consumes gallons of fresh filtered ice cold water a day! So a little bit of flavor promotes better hydration. Avoid milk like the plague in these temps.

 

[Crystal824]

My 4 year old mainly drinks water, milk, and tea. When we are dining out, which isn't too often, she gets the occasional Sprite.

 

[Lane308]

At 4? Mine did water or milk only. We never offered juice and now that they're 6, 8, and 10 they don't like the taste of it when they've tried it. The bigger two can order a Sprite if we are out for dinner and they're behaving nicely, they maybe get 2 of those a month.

 

[DCLPrincess]

On the cruise you can go to Cabanas and get apple juice, orange juice or pog juice. You can also get lemonade or tea at both Cabanas and the drink station. Since you serve yourself it's easy to water it down if you like. At the sit down restaurants you can also get cranberry juice.

 

[wendlle]

water pretty much exclusively with a little bit of milk daily and juice every few days.

 

[NYCgrrl]

American 4 year olders drink what their parents allow them to which is the same thing I've noted in other first world countries.

 

[Samantha Morgan]

Mine drank milk and water, occasionally chocolate milk as a treat. Some juice, sometimes lemonade.

Even at 9, this is still what my oldest usually drinks. Rare occasion we let him get an orange soda. They don’t drink caffeinated soda.

 

[princesspaigey]

My daughter (7) only drinks water, and occasionally lemonade at restaurants when it's freshly made or orange juice. She's not allowed to have tea, soda, milk, etc. At 4 it was exclusively water.

 

[katyjeka]

I've read the entire post and now feel like the worlds worst parent. My girls are healthy, happy, beautiful teeth, and are always in the average range for weight.(the youngest is at times below average) They drink root beer, sprite, and shoot me dead, an occasional Pepsi. They also love milk, both white and chocolate, hate orange juice, but love cranberry juice. When out for dinner they order water as we always have water at dinner. I can remember my oldest daughters pediatrician telling me that many juices have more sugar than soda and restaurants tend to serve the "syrup" juices which are worse than soda. He was a well respected doctor and loved by many. He also "prescribed" a candy bar to her when we took her in for a illness. She grew up believing you get a Hershey bar when sick and we have continued the "tradition" with the rest of our girls. You've got to remember I'm an old mom and when I listen to all the new rules that have come along with raising kids I kind of laugh. I'm not sure how mine have survived...

 

[North of Mouse]

My 4 year olds had mainly milk, water, apple or pear juice and occasional choc. milk. As they aged out of wanting mostly milk, we included some sodas.