Jan. 30, 2025 – This may not be a popular plan according to your kids: People ages 5 to 18 years old should drink mainly water and pasteurized milk. Basically, if a nutrition label mentions added sugar, they shouldn’t drink it.
A small serving of 8 ounces or less of 100% fruit or vegetable juice each day is OK, but it’s not needed for their growing bodies. Plant-based milks and -- sorry, kids -- flavored milk should be limited, as well. And to be skipped entirely are sports drinks and ones that use alternative sweeteners like stevia, monk fruit, and sucralose.
Those are the new recommendations from some of the nation’s top health and nutrition experts, which published the guidelines Wednesday after reviewing the latest scientific evidence on how various beverages may impact young people’s health.
There are, the expert panel allowed, some variations appropriate for athletes and those with special dietary needs. But one of the notable recommendations is that children drink limited amounts of plant-based milk alternatives.
“Plant-based milk alternatives are only recommended if a child is allergic to dairy or does not eat dairy products. In these cases, fortified soy milk or plant-based milk alternatives that are nutritionally similar to cow’s milk, like those made from pea proteins, are recommended in place of dairy milk,” the guidelines state. “If your child or adolescent is lactose intolerant, low-lactose or lactose-free versions of dairy products should be used as an alternative to dairy before plant-based milk alternatives.”
Plant-based milk alternatives don’t offer the same nutrients as regular milk, the experts noted, and families who avoid dairy should consult with a health care provider about how to ensure that children get adequate amounts of protein, calcium, vitamin D, and potassium. Some plant-based milk alternatives are more similar in nutrient content to milk than others.
The new guidelines are a collaborative effort from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Heart Association, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. The group Healthy Eating Research organized the effort to summarize the latest scientific evidence on what kids should and should not be drinking. The project was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Avoiding sweetened drinks is linked to reduced risk of diseases like type 2 diabetes, overweight, and obesity, and it’s also linked to better dental health such as developing fewer cavities.
For children who simply don’t like regular milk but their families do consume dairy products, yogurt and cheese are some other options to meet nutrient intake goals. They would just need to drink additional water for hydration.
Here are the recommended daily water and milk amounts for kids and teens:
- 5 to 8 years old: 40 ounces of water and up to 20 ounces of milk
- 9 to 13 years old: 61 ounces of water and up to 24 ounces of milk
- 14 to 18 years old: 88 ounces of water and up to 24 ounces of milk
Athletes typically don’t need sports drinks, although an activity’s duration or intensity could make them appropriate, as can the weather, the report stated.
“You might think that sports drinks are necessary if your child is an athlete, but in most cases they are not. Water is the best option for the average child or adolescent engaging in routine physical activity for less than 3 hours, or high intensity activity (like running) lasting up to one hour in normal weather conditions,” the authors wrote. “Sports drinks are only appropriate for athletes or people engaging in prolonged, vigorous physical activity, or for when activities are performed in high temperatures and humidity.”
Unsurprisingly, the report also advises skipping beverages with caffeine or other stimulants, noting that beverages like energy drinks have gained popularity recently.
“With increased intake has come an increase in case reports of adolescents experiencing adverse effects, the most concerning of which include cardiovascular events. Recent research also demonstrates significant negative impacts on sleep quality and patterns, dietary intake and patterns, and mental health,” the authors wrote.
They noted that the American Academy of Pediatrics says children under age 12 shouldn’t consume caffeine, and 13- to 18-year-olds should limit caffeine to 100 milligrams per day.
“However, this recommendation is hard to operationalize given that caffeine content is not required to be disclosed on nutrition labels,” the authors noted.
A table in the report said that typically per 8 ounces, charged lemonade products have 60 to 70 milligrams of caffeine, coffee has 80 to 100 milligrams, energy drinks have 150 to 300 milligrams, and regular cola soda has 35 to 40 milligrams.
