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?

How can he never drink water?
People are different.
DC1 was only ever given breastmilk or water as a baby, she spat the water out every time. This was fine until she got a nasty virus and stopped drinking the milk, she became dehydrated very quickly and was admitted to hospital where the doctor got her a cup of squash which she drank he made me feel like a neglectful idiot for not giving my thirsty baby some squash or juice.

Exactly. I can't believe that it's so common according to this thread. Whatever next.

@TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross

what could the additional needs be that means they have to drink squash?!

But your story proves the point, doesn’t it?

You gave him juice because you had to. And then he liked it and didn’t want to go back to water. If he hadn’t had juice he’d have continued drinking water.

I realise you didn’t have a choice and I’m not judging because I had the same thing happen to my son after a bout of norovirus - persuading him to accept water after we’d given him apple juice to help him recover his strength was a real struggle. But it does prove the point.

If people are constantly going to display their ignorance with comments such as there is no additional need that means a child will refuse water, and they will won't refuse water if it's all they've ever had - please tell us with what you would do instead?

I am ND myself, autistic, and was catastrophising and panicking, in a complete state, when my autistic toddler simply would not drink water or milk. Never had anything else at that point. I had the belief so many seem to reinforce, that I'd be a bad parent for giving him squash. It was my own mother who said to try it as the other option was dehydration, and a call to the HV seconded that. This was after hours with no luck getting him to drink. Should I have waited until he needed medical attention? I don't know what else I could have done, the HV said the next step would be rehydration sachets or needing to see a doctor if he refused squash or juice to the point of severe dehydration.

The statement that no condition that would make you refuse water exists is just too silly to even try to address, this is so, so common in autistic people it's unreal.

Rubbish, my son was 18 months when he first had squash on advice of hv. He refused everything but breast milk up to that point . He's also my 4th so it's not like I don't know that sometimes children can be fussy

Your name doesn't suite you at all

@LuckySantangelo35 have you not read some of the reasons on this thread? Although I do agree that the number of children who can’t drink water will be much smaller than those who won’t drink water as they prefer a sugary alternative

No it is a rule for a reason. Spillages cause massive sticky messes on the carpet and tables

This. Juice of any kind is a nightmare. It ruins books and other resources. Frankly, we have enough to do without dealing with this on top. With water, everything gets wet and then it dries. Far less to have to deal with.

I can't drink plain water without gagging, in fact I can't drink any still drink unless it's either coffee or very, very cold without gagging (which often leads to throwing up). I've been like this since I was a child and actually did prefer to make myself dehydrated and very unwell rathed than force myself to drink more water.

Now my daughters are not quite as bad as I am, but they also will not drink plain water - I have tried, they would rather get dehydrated to the point of headaches and nausea than drink plain water. I would rather them be drinking something than nothing in this heat and out GP agrees with me that any fluid is better than none. I have seen the air up bottles that are supposed to give plain water flavour that might work for them, but they are expensive and have to be ordered online so in the mean time they are getting squash. Thankfully most of their teachers also agree that it's not worth making a child unwell to enforce the water only rule.

Yes. The teachers are saying that but I can almost guarantee you they are thinking something entirely different 🤣

Are you always such an idiot or just where sn and spd are concerned?

Unless there's a medical reason, kids shouldn't be drinking squash or juice as their main drink - why doesn't your child drink water?

Exactly. I can't believe that it's so common according to this thread. Whatever next.

Nobody said it was common. It happens with one of my DC. I'm not going to sit back and watch people say that's a parenting fault, I'm going to post and expalin why - it's probably the same for other posters. Incidentally there is a higher than average amount of parents which disabled children on Mumsnet I find. I suppose we maybe just look for support, or an escape. You don't get a prize for working out why I'm not at work...

I think water only is a really sensible rule. Teachers should be teaching not dealing with the inevitable consequence of unfairness or sticky spillages.

Squash is a man made invention. If they had never made it your child would be drinking water. First world issues to an unbelievable level.

@Silverswirl

It’s called first world itis

You should be embarrassed.

I wish, I didn't give juice until my GP told me to give juice because my baby was not drinking water and was becoming very dehydrated. So if my child had never had a sugary drink until that point, what was the reason she was refusing water?

...They're probably not. Most teachers are educated on additional needs, or at least the issues they can cause. I suppose a few will be wilfully ignorant, but they're thankfully in the minority IME.

I had this issue with my own DD, (her medical conditions means its even more important that she stays well hydrated though). I took on the school bus the LEA & turned out it's fluids, not water, so the school had little argument.

That said, I totally understood the schools POV when I then had other parents confiding in me that they pout coke & redbull in their DCs drinks bottles 🥴

Squash is a man made invention. If they had never made it your child would be drinking water. First world issues to an unbelievable level.

Did you miss the part where some children end up hospitalised for dehydration? Ignorance to an unbelievable level.

Or he'd be dead because he wouldn't drink it , he'd probably be dead due to his dietary restrictions as well if he was born back in the days when people lived on meat and 2 veg etc

But I'm guessing you're one of those posters who also say children with disabilities won't starve themselves

I've never heard of another mammal who only drinks sugared drinks, TBF, but there are loads of pets who only drink one type of water (from the tap, or rain water, or toilet bowl water 😳) and mammals who don't drink water, so this does not exactly follow.
My DD wasn't drinking and hence was holding in wee and wetting herself (and her bladder capacity was tiny). We put the case for medical need to school and they allowed her to take non-sticky (if possible) drinks. She's now off sweeteners/dark coloured drinks as an extension of the same issue (bladder irritation) but is older and has been pushed more (and has no specific SEN, unlike her brother) so will drink moderate amounts of water (she'd drink gallons of NAS blackcurrant, but is no longer allowed it).