Updated June 08, 2015.
Q. I am having a tiff with the Director at my Childcare who feels that juice is pure sugar and children shouldn't have it. The childcare is now serving all vegetarian, organic meals and snacks. The only beverages offered are milk and water. I feel that the director is putting his personal feelings into dictating meals at the childcare. When I confronted him, he said that juice is too much sugar and that nutritionists would agree.
I don't agree, there are organic apple juice and Tropicana has Essentials which is 1/2 sugar and carbs.

Is the Director full of it?

A. Well, if it is his daycare or preschool, then he can dictate what kind of meals are served. It is then up to the parents to decide if they agree or not and whether or not they want to continue sending their kids to him.

While he may be a little extreme in his views, it does sound like he is offering a healthy and nutritious diet at his childcare center. And with the current childhood obesity epidemic that our kids are facing, that can be a very good thing.

If you feel strongly that your child drink more juice, you can simply provide it for your child at home.

Keep in mind that the American Academy of Pediatrics, in their policy statement on The Use and Misuse of Fruit Juice in Pediatrics, states that toddlers and preschool aged children should be limited to just 4-6 ounces of one hundred percent fruit juice. That is a limit though and not a minimum amount that kids should drink. So your child can do just fine not drinking any juice at all, as long as he gets his Vitamin C from another source, like whole fruits.

And since the AAP also states that 'fruit juice offers no nutritional benefits over whole fruit,' the Director at your childcare center is likely justified in his views about juice.

Since drinking too much juice can lead to kids becoming overweight, having poor eating habits, and getting a lot of cavities, I would prefer a director like this that limits juice instead of sending my kids somewhere that juice is almost used as a pacifier every time a kids gets fussy or cries.

There are situations where one hundred percent fruit juice can be beneficial though, including children who:

• are constipated
• don't eat many fruits
• don't drink milk (or are allergic to milk) or eat other foods that are high in calcium and wouldn't get enough calcium unless they drank orange juice that is fortified with calcium

But remember that most children already drink way too much juice, as is reflected in our own fruit juice polls.
For more information, see our guide to Fruit Juice - How Much Is Too Much?