Should baby drink Coke or go thirsty?

[FoundDoveInaSoaplessPlace]

We are travelling in SE Asia with a baby and toddler.
Yesterday our planned journey of a 2 hour drive and 30 minute ferry took a total of nine hours. Because of the road delays ( road works and further on a bad accident) we missed the ferry and had to get into a small local boat.
It was hot and humid all day but we got through it ok until the final leg on the boat. Our 12 mo baby got very thirsty and the only drink left was a new bottle of Diet Coke. Baby got extremely agitated and our friend poured some into her bottle as I was holding onto our toddler.

DH who was holding her refused to give it to her and said she would have to wait for clean water. She screamed for 15 minutes until she wore herself out and fell asleep. It was dark and the sea was choppy so I couldn't stand up to give it to her.

DH is extremely anti sugar but AIBU to think that he could have put his principles aside on this one occasion?

You need to put your children before your little adventures. Even if the boat was choppy one of you could have attempted to get the water. Or given the diet coke which contains no sugar. Dp is very anti sugar for ds he's 9 months but even if it was normal coke he would have still given it to him if nothing was available. You are both unreasonable

If nothing else, drinking the coke may have calmed her a bit.

You say that the trip has been a great experience - for who?
Your toddler and baby don't care that they are travelling in SE Asia and having lots of adventures, they won't even remember it.
Whole thing sounds like a bad idea.

And as for you original Question yes your DH was being an idiot and if mine had " refused" to give a drink to our dehydrated toddler he would bE swimming for shore!!

If its coke or nothing of course I would give baby coke. Not ideal but a one off won't hurt and it's the kinder option. I can't believe you allowed your dh not to give it to her, why didn't you take baby off 'd'h and give her the drink yourself. I hope you have him a bloody mouthful. Can't believe you did what he said and didn't give crying baby a drink.

Your husband sounds like a moron.

One glance at the label would have told him that diet coke is sugar free, if he was thick enough not to have realised it already.

I would have given it to her.

You failed because you should not have let him dictate. Get a backbone and care for your child!

Why on EARTH didn't you get to the water that was on the fucking boat? You're a disgrace.

I wouldn't have needed the water or the coke though at 12 months - would have just popped mine on the breast. If I was stuck on a boat where there was only diet coke and it was too dangerous to reach a bottle of water I'd have readily offered to another mother of a dehydrating screaming child to nurse for them.

So if you're a journalist, stick that in your pipe and smoke it

Of course milk has sugar in it (lactose, google it love) but sounds like your husband is thick as Pigshit and wouldn't realise that.

I wish every one would stop fixating on diet coke being sugar free. Yes. It is sugar free. But the amount of aspartame in it tends to make it regarded as being worse than full sugar (not fat, there's no fat in coke either...) coke.

OP - it sounds like a dangerous situation and boat. YANBU to give your kid diet coke on that situation.

Deffo would have given the coke under the circumstances. And it is something I would never have normally done. Dehydration in babies is dangerous.

Diet Coke isn't poison. Your DH would rather risk your baby becoming dehydrated than "give in to his principles"? Scary.

Little people are fixating on sugar because that's the reason why the husband didn't give it. People do know there is no fat in coke, it's just a term of phrase.

If your dh is so obsessed with sugar shouldn't he know that there isn't any in DIET coke?

And do you always passively sit by while he decides what goes with the children?

He is very unreasonable - dehydration an make a child very poorly whereas a drink of Coke will not.
I have read that flat soft drinks can be given to counter dehydration if you don't have any dioralyte or similar not sure if that's still current advice but unless your drinking sea water any fluid has to be better than none.

I would assume the DH has a diet drinks obsession too if he's worried about sugar.

This sounds like a journo trying to find out if mumsnetters would rather let their baby dehydrate than drink coke wink

Let's hope so, because the thought that three adults would let a baby scream with extreme thirst rather than give them the drink they had in their hands is really fucking depressing.

Ffs! Your h is being an idiot. Dehydration is very serious and you couldn't get to a hospital or doctor if the worst had happened.

You are lucky that the baby went to sleep rather than passed out from dehydration.

I'm confused why one of the three adults couldn't get the water?

Can someone else report if they think this is dodgy? I can't face another "we see nothing wrong with this op" message from mn hq.

Dehydration is serious and urgent. Especially in small children/babies.

Drinking Coke is more of a long term issue.

I would definitely have given her the coke on this occasion. Your DH is dangerously stupid. (First time I have ever called anyone "stupid" on mumsnet after 11 years membership.)

YANBU. Your DH was idiotic in this scenario. I hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday, I love SE Asia.

You allowed your dh to let your baby go thirsty because of his fear of sugar? Has the world gone mad. Does one drink rot the brain and balloon her to a size 14? I think the state of her kidneys and her comfort would far outweigh any stupidity like this.

You seem like terrible parents. If it was so choppy that you couldn't walk to get water from a bag (I would have crawled on my hands and knees if I was in that situation) then that boat was not a safe place to take a toddler and a baby.

You and your husband are frankly idiots for putting your own hipster plan to travel around Asia ahead of your two children.

The good news is that your children will be too young to remember the travelling, which means they'll also be too young to remember how stupid and neglectful their parents are!

I don't believe anything I read on here this week.

So to summarise, you took a toddler and a baby on a trip to SE Asia, you missed a ferry so you got on a small boat in very choppy waters. You didn't think to check you had water with you where you sat, but you had some coke. Your dh is obsessed with sugar but thinks it's in diet coke. You and he argued for 15 minutes about whether to give the baby the coke and then she fell asleep (then woke up fine and not dehydrated or what)?

...and then you found an internet café and came on MN while you were still in the middle of nowhere in SE Asia to see if your dh was BU or not?

This is beyond ridiculous. Have you both had a complete lobotomy or is this a joke?