--- title: Babies Should Not Drink Fruit Juice, Doctors Group AAP Says description: Babies under the age of 1 should not drink fruit juice, according to new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics. canonical: https://time.com/4788078/fruit-juice-guidelines-babies-aap/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-22T15:29:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T05:02:50.797Z article:section: Health og:title: Babies Should Not Drink Fruit Juice, Doctors Group Says og:description: Juice has no nutritional value for infants, the AAP said og:url: https://time.com/4788078/fruit-juice-guidelines-babies-aap/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ab7cb00abaedfa7/6988ce4ba988ca09ce6bc548/juice-babies-aap-guideline.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5600 og:image:height: 3150 og:image:alt: Glass of orange juice standing on wood table og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Babies Should Not Drink Fruit Juice, Doctors Group Says twitter:description: Juice has no nutritional value for infants, the AAP said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ab7cb00abaedfa7/6988ce4ba988ca09ce6bc548/juice-babies-aap-guideline.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Babies Should Not Drink Fruit Juice, Doctors Group Says > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=d7ee7ec0-0a6d-4eee-ada1-83e8fe34a2b1&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. May 22, 2017 3:29 PM UTC  Dillemma Photography—Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. May 22, 2017 3:29 PM UTC Babies under the age of 1 should not drink fruit juice, according to new guidelines from the [American Academy of Pediatrics](http://time.com/4070368/children-screentime/). The AAP previously said fruit juice was appropriate for babies after six months, but has since found that juice serves “virtually no role” during a child’s first year of life, the authors wrote in new guidelines published in the journal [_Pediatrics_](http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2017/05/18/peds.2017-0967). Doctors said babies younger than six months should only drink [breastmilk or infant formula](http://motto.time.com/4695997/bullied-myself-into-breastfeeding/) as their primary source of nutrition. For toddlers between the ages of 1 and 3, doctors recommend no more than 4 ounces of 100% juice per day. The doctors strongly advise that juice not be used to calm older toddlers or given to them throughout the day. A maximum of 6 ounces of juice is recommended for children between 4 and 6 years old, and 8 ounces for children age 7 and older. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4788078/fruit-juice-guidelines-babies-aap/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4788078/fruit-juice-guidelines-babies-aap/"},"headline":"Babies Should Not Drink Fruit Juice, Doctors Group Says","datePublished":"2017-05-22T15:29:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T05:02:50.797Z","description":"Juice has no nutritional value for infants, the AAP said","url":"https://time.com/4788078/fruit-juice-guidelines-babies-aap/","keywords":["Nutrition","AAP","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ab7cb00abaedfa7/6988ce4ba988ca09ce6bc548/juice-babies-aap-guideline.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0ab7cb00abaedfa7/6988ce4ba988ca09ce6bc548/juice-babies-aap-guideline.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Glass of orange juice standing on wood table","caption":"Glass of orange juice standing on wood table","creditText":"Dillemma Photography—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/nutrition/","name":"Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4788078/fruit-juice-guidelines-babies-aap/","name":"Babies Should Not Drink Fruit Juice, Doctors Group Says"}}]}] ```