If you want to give a flavoured or fruit drink, unsweetened diluted fruit juice is best. Put it in a beaker and offer it only at mealtimes. The low-sugar or diet drinks contain artificial sweeteners. How you give drinks is important. A lidded beaker is better than a bottle with a teat.
Drinks flow very slowly through a teat and drinking can take a long time.
This means your child spends a lot of time with a teat in the mouth, which may delay speech development and damage teeth, especially if drinking a sweetened drink. Move on from a lidded beaker to drinking from a cup as soon as your child is ready. If you give a bedtime drink in a bottle, make sure it is only water or milk. If it is a soya drink or a soya-based formula remember to clean teeth afterwards. By three years of age, children should be more confident about feeding themselves and will be able to tell you most of their likes and dislikes.