We limit the amount of sugary drinks our family has. As a diabetic, I learned quickly as a preteen that I could control my body much better, use tremendously less insulin, and prevent insulin resistance by using sweet drinks as a very occasional treat. To limit my own temptations and teach my kids healthy habits regarding sweet drinks, we have developed some habits we find very doable and reasonable.

Depending on your family’s history with sweet drinks, it may be easier to scale back one step at a time, over time.

I tend to use juice to treat low blood sugars, so my kids know that’s the primary purpose of juice. We also sometimes use juice when our adopted son’s blood sugar has swung too low. It is common for kids with a history of lacking food in infancy to have difficulty regulating their blood sugar (see Starting Small with TBRI®: Nutrition and Hydration and MLJ Adoptions: Hydration, Blood Sugar, Behavior, and Learning ).

Reviving a drop in blood sugar is most commonly 15g of carbohydrates for diabetics. I use this as a rough guideline for myself and my kids. Most juices, sodas, and other sweet drinks rise far above that into the 30-50g of carbohydrates in their full-sized containers.

We portion juice in three ways:

1. Empty glass spice jars. Not only do they look gosh darn cute, they are just the right size for a good serving of full-strength juice. Note, these are typically exactly 4 oz when filled to the top.
2. 4 oz juice boxes. They are a little harder to find, but Juicy Juice and Apple and Eve (often with Sesame Street characters on the packaging) are just the right size.
3. Mix with water. We might add a splash of juice to water or a splash of water to juice. If the kids are playing hard, the juice helps keep blood sugar from dropping and lets the fun continue a bit longer. Collagen powder¹ is often a good mix in with juice and water, too.

Using miniature mugs for hot drinks lets us control portion sizes for hot cocoa, steamers, cider, and other warm sweet drinks. Though we usually make our own hot chocolate mix, there are a few fair trade packs of cocoa mix we’ve found over the years and half a pack in a mini mug is perfect.

Lemonade is a special treat at our house and is homemade about half the time. We can easily cut back on the sugar or increase the water if we want. But it’s also a rare treat, so it’s ok with us for the occasional sweet treat to be full strength.

On soda/pop: I cut my Diet Coke habit out completely when I was sixteen, and saw such a dramatic change in my health I never went back. I do have one root beer about once every 8 years. Hubby is not a soda drinker at all.

Two of my kids do not like the sensation of carbonation, so we do not even get requests for it.

One drank sodas as an infant abroad before he was in our care. He still loves all the bubbly drinks he can get his hands on. We ask friends to give him sparkling water for his birthday or at holidays and he gets his fill. We also get a mango nectar drink for a birthday gift, which comes in a can and is full of sugar, so it feels like a soda/pop treat- without the bubbles (or disappointment of going flat when he wants it to last two days!)