To think water only at school is ridiculous

[Joanne279]

I'm having a gripe at my kids new school. We werent informed of the water only rule before we started.

Ds aged 6 and dd aged 9 (suffers with autism) now refuse to drink.

Ds, on the grounds he hates water. I gave him flavoured water which he likes, but the school said no!!!!!

Dd, has been allowed to take squash because is her ASD but now refuses to even take a drink because she's different to everyone else. She won't drink water at all.

The teachers all drink coffee/tea in the staff room but kids are water only! Surely the teachers should be setting the example?

I've rang the council who say the healthy rules are at the school discretion. I'm waiting for a call back from the head teacher because I think it's stupid! I could understand if I was sending them with coke or lucozade, but flavoured water a no no? Really?

Just wondered what you all thought x

It should be water and milk! At least is a healthy choice. Some kids just will not drink water. Hats off to those that do but some really dont and all this if they dont drink water they aren't thirsty is quite frankly a load of bollocks. I certainly would prefer my child to drink squash than dehydrate and there should be a choice.

Squash is not the devil. As long as their teeth are looked after it is no worse than fresh natural fruit juice......as told to me by then dentist......who also told me that dizzy drinks are no worse than fruit juice only.

Only on MN have I heard people who think squash is awful. I believe anything in moderation.

So agree ^^ my 4 had squash. They are actually all fully functioning teens/adults.

Some of the crap spouted about sugar and drinks/food in mumsnet makes me howl.

Some people take sugar far too seriously, sure. But drinking calories is a major contributor to obesity. Not everything that the Whole Foods crowd says is wrong.

Sugar-free squash IS sticky, as is water. Squash stains when it spills, both the carpet and your own/other children's work, school books etc. Most schools allow children to buy/order milk and other drinks at break time, and to bring a carton or bottle of fruit juice/squash for lunch. A child who WILL NOT drink water only has to wait max 2 hours between drinks, so will not dehydrate if they learn to drink enough at break/lunch time.

As an aside, is it the taste of the tap water that your children dislike? I hate tap water (although I'll drink it if thirsty) but like mineral water. Is that worth a try? Or mineral water with a squeeze of lemon juice?

*flavoured water is sticky I meant to say!

I think the water only rule is a good idea, children are usually allowed something else in their lunchbox.

Drinking water is better for children, and it's not fair on the parents who want to encourage drinking water and who want to avoid all the aspartame or sugar in flavoured drinks if some children come in with drinks other than water.

I know plenty of children say they don't like water, but they will drink it if they're thirsty. They generally only say they don't like/won't drink water because they have been introduced to the idea that they can have other drinks whenever they want, and that is a parents fault.

They aren't at school for that much of the day, and they have a lunch break in the middle of it. A child should be able to go without a flavoured drink for those few hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon.

Yanbu!

The fuss people make over sugar now is ridiculous, it's sugar not crack!

Fwiw, I have a ds with ASD who would NOT drink at all if you just gave him water, he would put it in his mouth, realise it was water and spit it out. And he would and does become dehydrated quite quickly, he doesn't seem to realise he is overheating either.

We've been in the rainforest biome at Eden project, in the summer (so 30 odd degrees), he will refuse to take his coat off and refuse water - you know he's thirsty but you just can't force him!

Also, it is a good habit to get in to but the op's dd is 9 now!

Water is better for the environment too guys - out of the tap and into a reusable bottle .

Well, I've only seen the research showing the problems of excess sugar consumption on long-term health. Please link to the research backing your assertions.

My granmother took up smoked on her 14th birthday Her health was fine for years. Then she died of cancer.

I assume you aspire for your children to live beyond their thirties?

I teach. We say 'water only' because when it spills (which is inevitable), there is far less damage with water. If you put flavoured water in a normal clear, drinks bottle, no teacher would ever know it was anything other than water, would they? why the fuss?

Drinking squash will not make your children die by 30, it just won't!

Walton, you can put squash in reusable bottles too, I do!

In some parts of the country tap water has an actual flavour. I have a filter jug at home and drink water on its own a lot, sometimes decanting into a bottle to take out with me. When I go somewhere and have to have tap water straight out of the tap I really notice the difference. Filtered water literally tastes of nothing and is just really refreshing and enjoyable to drink. I change the filter far less frequently than the manufacturers say as well.

It costs something to get a filter jug but will be cheaper than mineral water. Maybe try that?

It might be useful to OP if anyone could suggest how she could coax her ASD child into drinking fluids at school after all? Some of you must have ample experience to offer.

Let schools teach and parents parent.

yes, this

I know from being Healthy Schools Coordinator at a secondary school that one of the criteria to obtain/maintain the award is that students are only allowed to drink water outside of breakfast club/lunchtimes.

I have had more stand up rows frank and professional discussions with the PE team over the lucozade vending machine in the Sports Hall than is at all dignified.

I'm afraid you are wrong, some children who have ASD will starve or dehydrate themselves rather than eat/drink something they don't like or struggle with on a sensory basis. My eldest ds has ASD and while yes, we have been able to get him to eat some things he initially refused, there are others that he will simply never eat/drink. He has oro-sensory issues and also a heightened sense of taste and smell, which means that food/drinks just don't feel, taste or smell the same to him that they do to other people.

It's the same for other children.

I don't think ASD is relevant here. One of OP's children has it but the other does not and they both refuse to drink water.

I do not have autism or anything like it. But, as a 6-10 year old, I ate about 7 foods (exclusively!) and would only drink water. There was no way anybody could get anything else into me. The smell of foods I was convinced I didn't like (I hadn't tried them) would make me physically sick. I would go without liquid all day rather than drink squash. I once sat up all night in front of a meal my Dad told me I couldn't leave the table before eating (I guess he felt he couldn't back down). Nothing helped.

I wasn't autistic. I was fussy. But should one be catered for when the other isn't? They both have the same result (a starving/dehydrated child).

I think the rule is a good one but it needs to be flexible where necessary.

Milk? Not a chance! I could only imagine the horror of the smell if spilt. We can get to 40 degrees here on a warm day, and even winter days can be in the 20s. Milk left all day? Bleagh!!

If they are allowed juice at lunchtime they are not going to dehydrate in the space of a few hours between breakfast and lunch.
It seems to be a new thing that people have to have liquids on hand at all times.

and that is a parents fault.
Unless the child has ASD.

and that is a parents fault.
Unless the child has ASD.

Why only if the child has ASD? What would you have done with me as a child (described above). Why is that different to ASD? No child chooses to be fussy/frightened of foods.

The people who defend their right to let their Dcs drink sugary drinks (I'm not a sugar opposer by the way. The amount of fizzy drinks, squash etc my older Dcs drink would have people horrified) don't you think that it is a fact that water is better for children to drink? And that a lot of parents do prefer that for their Dcs?

Schools tend to try and do whatever is actually better for the child, I doubt it's a rule just designed to piss everyone off is it?

Ds2 is not a fan of water, he takes a water bottle for the classroom though. But the rule is there for a reason.

What relevance does the teacher drinking tea and coffee in the staff room have, at all? . There is no actual need for kids to drink anything but water at school.

DD (Reception) drinks water during school but has weak squash at lunchtime and at home. Its a good balance for us as she refuses water at home and its a battle I have chosen not to fight.

For what its worth, I was never allowed to drink during lesson time at primary or secondary school and I never shrivelled up or fainted from dehydration. I don't really understand why children need to be sipping all the time. It must be quite disruptive for teachers.

If DDs school suddenly decided to stop drinking during lesson time, I wouldn't see it as a problem.

Of course water is "better" but some children just will not drink it. When my DS was little and at primary they had the choice of water or milk and they had a milk bar too.

I gather from the posts made on here by teachers this the reasoning is nothing to do with health but more from a mess point of view.

We always had milk when I was a kid at school.

I personally think that if I, as a responsible parent, feel it is ok to send my child into school with a small bottle of squash or whatever (and let's face it, there is only a tiny amount of squash that actually goes into it) then I should be able to. Also as a responsible parent it is down to me to teach DS to drink without dropping it all over the carpet, not that he ever has done anyway.

Oh and whoever suggested that if we let our kids drink squash we cannot want them to live past 30?? Seriously?? Completely ridiculous as is comparing drinking squash to smoking.