Water in primary school

[magickingdom82]

All the children at our primary school are supposed to bring a bottle with water only to drink throughout the day. Bottles are apparently checked. However I know a tonne of parents who send their kids in with flavoured juices because their kid won't drink water but AIBU to think it isn't fair on those that do send water in. As long as the majority of parents send in water they get away with sending juice...

Yes day to day I don't reach for a cup of water because it's not my preference but I bloody do if I'm hot, thirsty etc and there's nothing else.

I have 5 too and although they all prefer something a bit more interesting to drink they will all drink water if

1. They are thirsty and
2. That's what's on offer

No child who was actually medically dehydrated would refuse to drink water.

Only children with SEN of some kind (e.g. autism) will get dangerously dehydrated rather than drink water. It is rarely hot enough in this country that we risk dehydration during the school day. I do find it difficult to understand the situation which has led to parents of NT children who send in squash and whose children won’t drink water - how did they get enough non-water drinking opportunities to realise this is an option? I think any child would rather have sweeter drinks given the choice but if you restrict them it does lead to them having a sligjtly less sweet tooth and an ability to drink water rather than finding the taste of it unpleasant. As I said above, this does not apply in the case of autism or other conditions where children would genuinely go dangerously thirsty rather than drink water.

I don’t concern myself with this in real life though - enough parents respect the water rule at school to keep it working. If a child who will only drink squash comes to my house I do give him/her squash but I only ever offer water or milk to my DC and any children whose parents haven’t mentioned the squash issue and so far this isn’t a problem.

Some children will not drink water no matter what you try. It's not always the case some would give in some definately won't.

I vividly remember during my primary school years every day at 11 in the morning a big crate of pyramid shaped cartons would be brought out, and they contained milk. We all sat at our desks and drank the milk.

Which... has nothing to do with water, but children being given drinks at school is not very new. As long as they drink enough, it doesn't matter too much what it is, does it?

And yeah, if the rule is being broken all the time, it needs scrapping.

So, some children won't drink water at school if they're thirsty?

Poor, precious lambs, perhaps they will keel over from dehydration. How the parents must worry about them coping with water.

Honestly, you can't argue with stupid.

My child has never kicked off or whinged about having to drink water, I would rather she drank so give her something other than water to make sure she does, she would happily go the whole day without drinking if only given water. Her chosen drink would be milk, can't exactly pop that in her water bottle though.

Milk is / was nutritious. It was meant as a kind of food, not for dehydration.

Sugary fruit water, notsomuch.

Like I said.

The milk was for the food value Idontdowindows because there was/is a real risk of malnutrition in school children , it had nothing to do with any concerns that they might be thirsty.

As regards nutrients, yes there are many nutrients in orange juice but also a ridiculous amount of sugar and minimal fibre. Better to get the nutrients through eating an orange. Drinks should be for hydration rather than as sources of food - and juices, soda and smoothies are a huge part of the problem with obesity due to invisible calories.

When I was a child, it was encouraged to drink juice once a day but advice is now against this due to tooth decay. The squash and flavoured waters these children are sent in with (I never heard a child saying they need to drink freshly squeezed organic apple juice instead of water - it’s always been squash) have no nutritional value whatsoever and it shouldn’t be controversial to say that water is better for you.

I had a water refuser and used to carry juice everywhere, even though I hated myself for it.

Then one day, after one sticky bag too many I just stopped and started carrying only water. It took less than a day before he decided water was better than nothing. He's 14 now and drinks water more than anything else. I'm so glad I made that change. Apart from anything else it just so much less sticky.

Back in the days when I was at school all we drank between breakfast and tea was 1/3 pt milk. Strangely, no-one got de-hydrated. Were we hardier in the olden days?

When I was at primary school we didn’t have water bottles but could go to the tap to have a glass of water. All of the kids in my class were constantly needing a drink (just like they constantly needed the loo) just to skive off of part of the lesson. If children nowadays also had this option they would be drinking water. They will always want slightly more than what they’re allowed.

Ds won’t touch water. He has a lot of sensory issues around feeding and would dehydrated before drinking water. His only drink in school is his lovely stick, sweet high calorie drink!

If it is ever really hot (so not often!) I will send in a bottle of juice for him so he is drinking something.

If your child drinks water great send them with that and let other parents worry about what their children drink

My children opt for taking nothing if they're not allowed their flavoured water. They boak trying to drink plain water. Some people just don't like it and those that do, cannot understand. I'm the same as the kids. Neither the kids or I are fussy eaters or anything but they would never drink plain water.

How is it unfair on your child though OP?

It just pisses me off that because I dare to discipline and parent my child he and all the other "water drinkers"carry the spoilt kids of those parents that haven't dared refuse their kid their first choice of drink. My kid would drink squash and juice all day long...IF I let him.

Well the school should either scrap the rule or enforce it properly. Kids don't NEED drinks between breakfast and lunch. Lord knows mine would prefer to go without rather than drink water and it's not killed them. (Oh and for the judgy f*ckers on here, they have perfect teeth. 11, 8 and 6 and not a single issue with their teeth. Juice doesn't automatically mean bad teeth, bad dental hygiene certainly does though.

It just pisses me off that because I dare to discipline and parent my child he and all the other "water drinkers"carry the spoilt kids of those parents that haven't dared refuse their kid their first choice of drink. My kid would drink squash and juice all day long...IF I let him.

But if it's a school rule then isn't it the schools job to enforce it properly?
My child doesn't get to drink anything other than plain water in class, because that's the rules, regardless of what parents send their children in with.

We have a rule of water only. If a child brings in juice, we tip it away and fill the bottle with water at break.

Yes it is the schools job to enforce it, I don't get why they don't.

You're suitably convinced that you're doing the right thing, the other parents have equal conviction.