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Safely Flavored Drinks for Pregnant Mommies

Decaf green tea

Decaf green tea

If you’re like me, you need to drink a lot of water even when you aren’t pregnant!

The amount of water I need to prevent dehydration during pregnancy feels like enough to float a boat on! Sometimes when I try just going with plain water all the time, I find myself dehydrated from forgetting to drink. I don’t want to drink a lot of unhealthy and/or fattening sodas, teas, fruit drinks and such, but flavoring my drinks periodically definitely helps me to drink more. I thought I’d share a few of my tricks for tasty sipping drinks for pregnancy while trying to stay safe. 🙂

Strongly flavored juices like cranberry grape juice, regular grape juice or any cranberry mixed real fruit juices make some terrific flavored waters! You can put about just a splash up to about 1/4, then filling your cup with juice, add a few cubes of ice, fill it up with water and you have a very refreshing drink to sip.

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Some herbal teas are safe during pregnancy, such as Earth Mama Angel Baby Organic Mama-To-Be Tea Sampler 16 bag, Celebration Herbals Organic Red Raspberry Leaf Tea Caffeine Free — 24 Herbal Tea Bags
and Twinings Pure Peppermint Herbal Tea, 1.41 Ounce Box, but it may be wise to consult your physician before drinking anything out of the ordinary. Personally, I’m on a peppermint tea kick, or sometimes Lipton Green Tea, Decaffeinated, 20 count, (Pack of 6). I like it warm with just a bit of honey, or I make it like iced tea with a little sugar. Either way, it’s very refreshing! The iced tea version is my favorite, because it’s a great alternative to that Southern sweet tea for this Georgia girl, and keeps me from giving in to the temptation to pour a tall glass of the traditional sweet tea I keep in the fridge for my hubby.

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Something I recently discovered is to let the frozen lemonade concentrate thaw and put it in a water bottle in the fridge!

I don’t like to keep a huge pitcher in the fridge, but love the lemony flavor it can add to my water when I start slowing down on my intake of H2O. I just shake the bottle, add it a little at a time to a glass of ice water and stir until it has the desired taste. You can mix it lightly so it tastes more like lemon water or more heavily if you want actual lemonade. I’m sure this would work with other juice concentrates, as well.

 

Blackberry Infused Water

Blackberry Infused Water

Infused waters are a perfect option for upping that water intake in a completely healthy way! I love them, and have tried lots of different fruits and even some veggies. Need some inspiration? Here is a link to a post I did about some of the flavors I’ve experimented with This and That Infused Water!

I have no medical training, obviously, but these are all things I’ve deemed safe for my own pregnancy after checking them out. What are some of your favorite pregnancy friendly drinks to sip?


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This and That Infused Water

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Have you tried making your own infused waters?

I’ve seen all sorts of blurbs online about this wonderful fad of making infused waters at home. Now, generally I’m not one to jump on the myriad bandwagons of fads, but in this case it seemed harmless. Since I need to drink a lot of water, love fruit, and always have mason jars floating around the house, I decided to give this particular trend a try. I have sampled a variety of different flavors, so I’ll tell y’all about it. Prepare yourself! 😉

Blueberry Lemon Infused Water

Blueberry Lemon Infused Water

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My first taste test was blueberry lemon infused water.

It was quite pretty, and made a truly refreshing beverage. I just sliced up a lemon, threw in a heaping handful of blueberries, filled my quart jar (better yet, try a Aladdin Original Insulated Mason Tumbler 20oz, Aqua ) with water, shook it up and stuck the whole concoction into the fridge overnight. When I tried it in the morning, it was a big thumbs up. I was able to refill using the same fruit four times over the course of two days. The fourth time the flavor was starting to fade, so I just ate the blueberries and called it good. 🙂

Key Lime Infused Water

Key Lime Infused Water

My next flavor fling was key lime infused water.

I quartered two key limes, squeezed them into the jar, and filled it up with water. I also added two tablespoons of sugar melted into some hot water, because I figured it would be way too tart and kinda icky on it’s own. I think I was right, but it would’ve been smarter healthwise if I had just used a tablespoon of honey or something. 🙂 It didn’t make it sweet at all, just cut the sour a bit. This one only worked for two refills, but may’ve worked for more and a stronger flavor with a large lime or more key limes. I liked the blueberry lemon better, but this still had a nice little zest.

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Mango Infused Water
Mango Infused Water

My third fruity concoction to check out was mango infused water.

I sliced up half of a mango into my jar, filled it with water and shook it, letting is sit overnight. It had a pleasant mellow mango flavor to it that lasted through a couple of refills. Try it!

Blackberry Infused Water

Blackberry Infused Water

My fourth taste test to share was blackberry infused water!

I’d just picked a big jug full of blackberries and wanted to see how it was. It came in a close second to the blueberry lemon on the taste test and the water color was a beautiful purple.

By this point, my sweet husband had taken note of my new fun water trick and bought me a really pretty fruit infusing water bottle!

He got mine off the clearance rack at Walmart, as seen in the photo. I love it! It made it so simple, and I could take it anywhere and keep adding water as it got about half empty throughout the day for continuous lightly fruity refreshment. Infusing water with the mason jars was great, but using the nifty little Cool Gear Flavor Infuser 28oz BPA Free-red* with the insert and the top that snaps shut so my kids can’t dump it all over me took it to the next level, honey! 🙂 (The fact it was on clearance added to his thoughtful hubby points. LOL)

Cucumber Key Lime Infused Water

Cucumber Key Lime Infused Water

My final creative flavor combination to share is cucumber and key lime infused together!

I took a few thin slices of cucumbers and put them in the bottom half of my infuser insert in my Cool Gear Flavor Infuser 28oz BPA Free-red*, then quartered two key limes, squeezed them into the cup and threw the quarters into the infusion insert. Next morning, I had a drink best described as “fresh”. The flavor was surprisingly strong in a pleasant way. I’d thought of cucumber because I’d seen a few places that cucumber water could boost metabolism and aid in weight loss. Can’t hurt, huh? 😉

To sum it up, I’d definitely recommend doing your own infused waters if you like a little flavor in your beverages and are trying to drink more water!

Don’t expect it to be as strong of a fruity taste as juice, but it is very pleasant and certainly makes me reach for my water a little more frequently than always drinking it plain. Adding a bit of citrus like lemon or lime to whatever fruit definitely seemed to amp up the flavor of the “host fruit”, from my little experiments. Play with the flavors. It’s fun! I’m thinking of trying pineapple or peaches next.

What fruit would you try to infuse first? Need some healthy snack ideas to go with that refreshing water you’re going to be sipping? Head over to Super Yummy Don’t-Tell-Them-They’re-Healthy Snacks!