The Parent-Child Crossover: Kids Drinks Embrace Grown Up Health Trends

Complete hydration. “No Seed Oils.” Extra, extra, extra protein.

These are some of the biggest health and wellness CPG trends of the moment. But it’s not just adults anymore who can reap the benefits of the functional beverage revolution: whether you’re shopping for yourself or just looking for something to pack in your child’s lunch box, you might start to notice fewer and fewer differences between the shelves.

As clean label and functional drink trends have dominated innovation across the beverage industry, the lines between adult-focused brands and kids drinks are indeed becoming blurrier – or at least that’s what a number of child-friendly brands are hoping for, as a number of startups have begun to implement many of the same label call outs and health benefits seen in the grown up part of the grocery store.

While brands like Honest and Orgain have worked for years now to shake up the kids beverage set with better-for-you and healthy options, countless other attempts at disrupting the all-too-sugary category have tried and failed.

But it would appear that reinforcements have arrived, both from established brands like Koia and Kate Farms to new entrants like PLEZi, Wave Kids and Joyburst. And it begs the question – could the recent health consciousness spurred by the podcast sphere and social media trends, from TikTok to MAHA, help more brands to finally break through?

Scanner data suggests there could be some movement in the market to back this thesis up: according to Circana, in the 52-week period ending April 20, 2025, U.S. retail (MULO and c-store) sales of aseptic juice drinks were down by 0.7% with category leader Capri Sun dropping 6% and Kool-Aid sliding 6.4%. Comparatively, third place player Honest grew by 15.9% in the same period.

Other legacy kids drink brands also showed signs of a struggle across multiple categories: Hi-C dropped 14.1% and Motts was down by 12.9%, while Juicy Juice showed declines across its portfolio with only its bottled juice drinks reporting a mild 0.6% lift. Meanwhile Hawaiian Punch, not exactly known for its health halo, did see a 27.3% jump for its relatively small aseptic juice drink line to $9.5 million. But its significantly larger bottled lines were down 1.3% to $263.5 million and its other tracked categories like canned juice drinks, bottled lemonade and powder mixes were likewise in decline.

Water, Water Everywhere

Part of the discussion today isn’t so much about whether or not the dominant crop of kids drinks are unhealthy, but instead where to find the best solution. And finding a solution that is both affordable for consumers and something that kids will actually enjoy is far, far easier said than done.

Some, like practicing FDA lawyer-turned-founder Shelly Garg, believe the answer is to just get kids to drink more water.

There’s been no shortage of attempts by brands to make water palatable for kids, but none have appeared to stick around for long. Brands like Rethink came and went and even Hint Water, building off its established adult positioned line of flavored waters, appears to have quietly pulled back on its kids line, which no longer appears on the brand’s website and is out of stock in all major online stores.

But that isn’t discouraging Garg from pushing forward with her brand, Wave Kids, which produces unflavored water in 8.4 oz. cans.

Taking some inspiration from Liquid Death in how to better market and design a water brand for children, the startup has emphasized its packaging first and foremost with two visually vibrant designs utilizing temperature-sensitive color-changing ink. To make it more authentic, the drawings on the cans are done by children, adding some bonafides to the brand’s “For Kids, By Kids” slogan.

“I think parents are finally understanding and realizing the ingredients that are in products,” Garg said. “I’ve talked to so many parents, sort of in our age group and with young children, and all of them are deeply concerned about the added sugar or sugar components in a lot of the kids products.”

Just as Liquid Death tapped into a market for adult drinkers wanting for a non-alcoholic alternative for social gatherings that still had the look, feel and cool factor of a beer, Garg suggested that kids may very well be in need of a similar hook.

She noted that at parties, kids did not want to drink from nondescript mini-water bottles that are “not fun,” while the aluminum can format can often help kids feel more like they’re drinking the way the adults do – as opposed to square, juice box-style cartons.

“I do think there’s this age group between four or five to about 10 or 12 where a beverage option for them is missing,” Garg said. “The juice boxes are too small or too ‘kiddy’, and the grown up drinks are obviously too grown up. So there needs to be a product that is meant for them, that’s healthy and that they desire.”

According to Garg, although it may appear counter intuitive to offer children unflavored water as an alternative to the sugar-laden competitors that dominate the kids beverage category, market research found that it was vastly preferred by kids ages 4-10 over flavored alternatives and carbonated waters, which most children found to be “too spicy.”

“Our survey of about 50 or so kids before we started revealed that, really, kids may like the idea of flavor, but they actually don’t like the taste,” Garg said. “All kids really need is water, but it just needs to be made more fun and made more accessible, and something that they reach for.”

Blurred Lines

PLEZi, a kids drink brand co-founded by former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama and run by L.A. Libations, has aimed to build on what works rather than reinvent the wheel by creating a better-for-you juice drink. But as the brand has been in the market for several years, it’s now extending its presence in the adult market with sports drinks, which complement the existing kids juices.

According to brand lead Pat Bolden, part of that strategy has been in “meeting families where they are,” while also wanting to offer additional product lines that can follow consumers from childhood into adulthood – allowing kids to “graduate” to the more adult products as they get older. As well, he acknowledged the increasingly murky waters that delineate kid and adult beverage trends, creating an environment where brands can plausibly compete in both spheres.

“There is a line that’s actually blurred when it comes to these beverage products,” he said, noting that across all of PLEZi’s lines the brand includes fiber to promote gut health. “Why it makes sense is because it’s more of a health component not just for kids, but you’re starting to see beverages start to reach out on how we can help families, as opposed to just kids or just young adults.”

Canadian hydration brand Joyburst started with adult-sized packages, but has been appealing to families with co-branded Disney promotions for the films Inside Out 2 and Lilo & Stitch. Now, it’s developing a kid-specific line to launch next summer.

Brad Woodgate, founder and CEO of Joyburst, said that while the beverage is already better-for-you and appealing to all ages, starting as an adult drink is more likely to give it an edge in the market that it never would have been able to get in the far-more competitive kids aisle.

“If we were to have launched with a kids drink first and foremost, that would have been exceptionally difficult with a very, very low probability [of success],” he said. “Our brand skews female on consumption, and those are the prime candidates as buyers for children. So I think with that type of market acceptance thus far we have an outside chance. And this is coming from a guy who’s optimistic about an outside chance to actually make a dent in the children’s beverage space.”

Meeting with MAHA

Many better-for-you brands have been swift to catch on to the “No Seed Oils” trend that has positioned ingredients like canola, sunflower and grapeseed oils as “toxic,” evoking fears they might be causing inflammation and a variety of other health issues, including contributing to obesity. The trend has the blessing of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, and in turn has carried some degree of political baggage as a result. While dieticians and nutritionists have pushed back on many of the nastier claims made about these oils – critics argue that it’s often the processed products these oils are found in and overconsumption that’s the real problem – some brands have leaned in from a marketing standpoint.

Several brands have brought the proud “No Seed Oils” label callout to kid-sized cartons. Protein drink maker Koia launched its kids line last year, touting their high protein and intentional lack of seed oils as a leg up over existing packaged shakes for children

Meanwhile, plant-based dairy alternative startup Kiki Milk is also putting the seed oil-free claim front and center on its packaging.

Kiki Milk was founded by husband and wife team Alex and Lauren Abelin when, during the pandemic lockdowns, they struggled to find suitable infant formula for their son who suffered from sensitivities to both soy and dairy. Believing there to be a gap in the market for plant-based milks for children, they developed their current organic certified milks made from a blend of oats, hemp and pumpkin seeds, coconut and banana.

“Kids are the biggest consumers of cow dairy, but cow dairy allergies and calorie sensitivities are growing year over year,” Lauren Abelin said. “I think juice is fading out – it’s pretty much just empty calories and sugar most of the time – then there’s water and then there’s dairy milk. But there was really nothing specifically that was very nutrient dense and made for kids besides Kiki Milk.”

The brand’s products – available in multi-serve cartons and single-serve 8 oz. boxes – include callouts for both no seed oils and no gums. Lauren Abelin said that the decision to focus on those benefits is part of an effort to eliminate “unnecessary ingredients.” While many believe them to be unhealthy, she suggested that no matter where you stand on the science there is still no need to be adding them to products – particularly products for children – when cleaner alternatives exist.

And it’s been paying off. She said the brand began finding customers online “out the gate” after launching in 2021, selling out in the first month. As the company is working to scale, Abelin said that Kiki Milk still continues to “fortunately and unfortunately sell out,” but it has since expanded outside of ecommerce to around 1,000 retail doors across the country including Sprouts, Target and Wegmans.

“You don’t need to put seed oils in a plant-based milk. You don’t need to put gums or fillers or synthetic fortification or natural flavors into a plant-based milk if you’re filling it up with whole foods,” she said. “All those things that I just named are shortcuts that companies have used for a really long time to make up for a lack of whole food ingredients, to lower the cost of goods sold so that they could make a higher profit and I think it’s just a response to people being sick and parents really taking products into their own hands and becoming founders.”

“It’s a response really, more than a trend,” she added.