Does your DC primary school allow squash through a hot day?

[Neowwwm]

Sent my DC with a non- see through bottle with juice in today as since weaning and trying - DC has never drank plain water. Teacher removed the bottle stating water only in the day which will be provided with their own water bottles from school and juice only at lunch time.

AIBU or should this rule be relaxed during heatwaves?

"DH isn't happy and is going to speak to school tomorrow."

Noooooooooooooo! PLEASE tell me you stopped him doing this. You/he will never live it down and will forever be "those parents" in the staffroom!!

This is my favourite comment. Don’t send your kids in with spirits, people 😂

Water only in the classroom. He has squash with his packed lunch though.

I think water is a reasonable rule.

Our children only drink water and occasional milk, and that’s not by chance, it’s by our insistence.

I am a squash addict, so I don’t even let them
try it!

Have you tried flavoured water?
It looks like water and so far no one has confiscated DS4's water bottle. He started taking in flavoured water in Y2 and he is now a week away from finishing Y6 🤞

If your child isn't drinking anything in the school due to it only being water I would push it additional needs or not and speak pastoral for a solution. My youngest is Autistic and ever since he ended up in hospital due to a stomach bug and reflux a few years ago and being told to put him on a high-calorie diet with lots of juice because he lost so much weight over the time he was ill he won't drink water at school to the point he was getting constipated regularly and having regular urine infections so they have finally come up with a compromise to take him in the office for a sneaky squash in the day which I've provided the bottle of for school, I also take a bottle with me for school run. No matter how much you try and work on it you can't force a child to drink water because they simply won't drink at all.

Can you add a slice of apple, orange or lemon to the water bottle, allowed at ds school and kids happy

Every drink apart from water is flavoured water.

Try water infused with cucumber. Had it recently. Was refreshingly tasty

Water only at all schools I know of &been that way for many years. Your child will drink water if you support the schools rule & stick to the rule at home too.

Juice, these days, is so bad for your insides never mind teeth😬
It was much safer before all the additives & artificial sugars got added to everything but even then we only ever had Robinsons in our house & we only had it with dinner.
Rest of the time it was warm milk at bedtime, fresh orange/apple juice at breakfast & water the rest of the time.

You clearly don't understand what additional needs mean - it's not just about a child demanding a "sugary drink'.. It's really not that simple. For a mryiad of complex reasons a child may only drink juice and that's it, fullstop. No other liquids. Additional needs can mean a child literally cannot tolerate certain drinks/foods.
I work with a number of children who have extremely limited diets due to the nature of their disabilities. One child in particular will only eat the same specific meal day in day out. It's not the healthiest choice and they are continually encouraged to try different tastes but if they didn't have their standard meal then they would literally starve. It's also a similar story with drinks. I would always, always ensure a child ate or drank something than allow them to starve or became severely dehydrated.
Having said all that, does the dc in question have additional needs??

This made me think back to my own time at school (a very long time ago!). At primary school, apart from the little glass bottle of milk in the morning (which I didn't drink because room temperature milk makes me vomit), we had a little cup of water at lunchtime and access to a water fountain. Nobody took drinks in with them. Secondary school was similar (without the free milk thankfully). I'm amazed we didn't all collapse from dehydration. Especially in the summer of 76.
My two were allowed NAS squash at primary but would have to refill with water. I worked in a SEND secondary school and only fizzy or energy drinks were not allowed. We always had a supply of squash on hand too.

Water only at my children's school, which I think is a brilliant rule. Squash and fizzy drinks are
bad for children's teeth and health and school may be the only place that some children drink plain water. It's funny all these kids who "won't" drink water - I lived and worked in various 3rd world countries for a long time and never met any children who wouldn't drink water (because they'd never been introduced to the unhealthy alternatives). My children love a fizzy drink or juice when we go out to their sports club, but it's a very rare treat for them, at home and school they only drink water / milk because that's all they've ever been offered!

If you stop giving squash he will drink water eventually. Most schools won't allow squash in class.

I personally look the other way as a teacher but schools do water only for oral hygiene reasons

My kids primary was water only. However, I used to give them the clear flavoured water until they grew to like water. My dd now only really drinks iced water.

It’s been like this for decades now why can’t precious child drink plain water while at school then have squash as a treat. I’m sure if child is that thirsty they’ll drink the water!

Water only at my school, although some children do bring in squash. Surely if a child is thirsty they will drink water? My only children were only given squash etc on special occasions. Now grown up, they tend to drink water when they are thirsty except if they are having a meal out or out at the pub.

Nope water only at both my kids schools. Staff having ice pops is a bit different since only a handful of staff and significantly less likely to spill them than the children. It’s all very well that some children might not spill but you can’t say some children can have squash and some can’t. It’s also good for children to learn to drink plain water. I think the best you can do is agree with the school that for the last few weeks of this school year they are allowed squash but being made gradually weaker and that after the summer they only bring water to school.

As much as I fully support water only as a general rule can I just repeat what has been said by many posters many times on this thread for a significant minority of children they will go thirsty rather than drinking water.

Of course ice pops don’t weaken their no squash rule 🤨
Don’t be ridiculous.
Adults won’t drip ice pops around and encourage and cause stickiness.

No child would refuse to drink water if they are thirsty enough. The need to drink water is hard-wired into human DNA. Parents who insist that their child simply cannot drink plain water are being ridiculous. It's like saying that their child can only eat ice cream.

Water only at mine. Can't have exceptions to the rule.... Invariably other kids find out which causes moaning. Water tastes of not a lot so it is a bit boring to kids who are used to juice, but school is a good place to see that water is what everyone else drinks and to get used to it. You can explain the situation to school and get staff to encourage him to drink and give massive praise when he does.

"No child would refuse to drink water if they are thirsty enough."

I guess it is how thirsty you will let a child get. How unwell you will let them get.

Ds has been in hospital at the point if he didn’t drink something he would be going on a drip. After much persuasion we managed to syringe enough orange squash into him to be discharged.

he has a condition called ARFID amongst others. He can generally drink enough to keep hydrated (but not water alone he would never have enough to stay hydrated) but is tube fed for 90% of his nutrition as he doesn’t take enough orally to survive.

although most people have those survival instincts some conditions mean that isn’t the case.