AIBU to be surprised by a five-year-old given cola in a bottle?

[Freshtona]

On a flight the other day and a child of about 5 was having total meltdown and was given a baby bottle with Coca-Cola to calm them! The parents had bottles of coke with them to top it up!

I think child was ND, but regardless of that, why would anyone give that to a 5-year old child??? I try not to judge other parents and my own DC aren't strangers to sugar but cola is not allowed. The caffeine and sugar would surely make meltdowns even worse, not to mention the effect on teeth.

The doctor said try anything to get them drinking. Anything - they didn't say anything but pop. They were quite happy for us to try pop if we had needed to.
So no my story hasn't changed.

Some of the posters on here are so very aggressive about this that I can only just imagine what they would be like if they did in fact drink Coke. Imagine trying to debate some of them after they’d downed a can!

Grown adults making conscientious decisions about their food and drink intake vs a child who is reliant on an adult providing their food and drink is very different. Kids learn from the behaviour we emulate and advise on.

Well you missed out A LOT of details … and you specifically said your doctors advised you to try pop and you followed medical advice!

Exactly … there seems to be some very uneducated people on this thread around the issue of these types of drinks and how bad they are for children.

Imagine being educated on this issue.

What?!?! Their child will tolerate? All those chemicals in cola, what ever did children do before fizzy drinks. Supposedly they can’t tolerate water…wow, mumsnet does crack me up.

It’s astonishing to me that the liquid of choice is so acceptable to everyone. I also don’t buy that Coke is the best option for a meltdown due to the caffeine and sugar. I would fear that would increase the likelihood of a sugar crash causing more of a meltdown and a possible addiction. Addiction you’d assume would lead to a rollercoaster of headaches and jitteriness until another drink of coke is sourced. Same as caffeine addiction in adults.

I do empathise with parents, I’ve had to keep extensive food diaries for my kid due to food refusal and meltdowns at the mere mention of meal times, just to track calories and safe foods. By meltdown I mean full blown screaming if she saw a dinner plate. We’ve even had to move to floor dinners as she won’t sit at the table without hyperventilating and going purple. But even if it’s just plain pasta and cheese, it’s not bags of crisps and biscuits all the time. I’m not even ashamed to say I sometimes have to rely on the tv being on to get her to eat her food as she has such an aversion to even wanting to eat.

So I do empathise with people, but I also think that a lot of parents don’t want to be ‘mean’ or want an easier life due to being so busy. Or ultimately don’t realise kids can also be masters at realising if they kick off they’ll get what they want. Even ND ones!

DD would end up eating nothing, if diet management came into it! She has severe OCD and preferred to eat and drink nothing for 2 weeks, when she was sectioned, because everything there was “contaminated”. She would only drink water from glass bottles. As for food, she was terrified of getting listeria, salmonella, toxoplasmosis….to the point, she’d rather starve to death! They lifted the section after two weeks because of her refusal to eat or drink, or go on a drip!

People who think others won’t starve, if presented with healthy food have no idea!

A parent and more! Kudos to you for doing what’s best for your child. It’s sad that some parents think having a ND child means introducing and getting them addicted to terrible foods. We should all want our children to eat a healthy balanced diet and chemical laden fizzy drinks just have no place.

You are doing the difficult but necessary thing, flowers 🌺 for you ❤️

I’m sorry for your DD but you’ve just expressed there that she won’t eat anything due to her OCD. Whereas some posters are saying ND children would eat if offered crappy food which is wholly different.

One is an extreme aversion to eating that requires medical intervention, the other is a preference for ‘safe foods’ which are just nutritionally empty UPFs proving the child can eat (unlike your DD) but has a limited palette which is being placated by rubbish food and drink that has been created to be addictive.

There is no way your daughter ate and drank nothing for 2 weeks. Guys basic science and biology. The human body cannot go long without hydration. You can go longer without food, just not water.

You said yourself that you thought the child was ND, so they probably were.

My first thought was ear pressure. When I was a kid I used to get given a Werthers original at take off to help get me through.

I now have a non verbal child and she would not understand an instruction to suck a sweet or swallow to relieve any discomfort.

A baby bottle is a good idea because it gets them sucking without needing to understand what’s going on.

They probably chose cola because it needs to be something that tastes nice and a kale smoothie probably isn’t going to cut it.

Is it the healthiest choice? No. But when your child is melting down on a plane, you’re usually just trying to get everyone through the flight. Maybe it’s one of the few things they’ll drink. Maybe it’s a comfort thing. Maybe it helps them regulate.

Or maybe they’re crap parents. I don’t know. Neither do you. You just saw a few minutes of someone else’s life.

Such a lovely comment thank you. X

A friend’s husband was a teacher who had a responsibility for travelling community children. He came across a child who was sucking on a bottle of tea. And it wasn’t a clean bottle. He was as happy as Larry. I wish people would mind their own business.

😂😂😂 You have totally proven my point about not understanding ASD….whatsoever!!! I have done courses, gone to dietitians, therapies, all the professional help I was advised to do by his OT so why the hell would another ASD parent be able to force my child to eat like theirs?? Just because THEIR autistic child will eat certain foods, doesn’t mean ALL autistic kids will eat the same thing. I feel second hand embarrassment for you that you were daft enough to even suggest I get advise about eating from other ND kids. ASD parents can get all the advise and suggestions in the world from people, but when an autistic kid doesn’t want to eat or drink anything but the one thing, then they absolutely won’t!! I have sat with sobbing parents of autistic kids who are DRASTICALLY underweight for their age to the point they’ve had to get medical intervention to prevent them from dying of starvation or dehydration. You honestly have no clue at all as your idiotic comment shows.No two ASD kids are the exact same….NONE!!
Besides, I’ve no idea why you even suggested I get advise from other parents of autistic kids, my son drinks pretty much anything apart from
smoothies. He only has one safe food he eats every single day for the past 3 years. He won’t eat anything solid at all but he will chew on inedible objects. Myself and the professionals have tried for years to get him to eat other things. He’s luckily a great weight which is surprising considering his lack of solid food. He eats no junk food whatsoever either, he won’t even eat chocolate. He refuses to put anything in his mouth. Perhaps your time is best spent thoroughly researching autism and sensory issues around food rather than judging something you aren’t living, be thankful you’re not too!!

I don’t know why you’re getting so upset/annoyed when you say at the end “He eats no junk food whatsoever either, he won’t even eat chocolate”.

So that’s different to some being aghast at coke being drunk by the bottle load vs a child with clear sensory issues that doesn’t eat junk but has (I’m assuming) PICA.

Respectfully, it’s society who needs to keep an eye out for children. If we all minded our business then there wouldn’t be free school meals, we’d mind our business and leave parents to it. There wouldn’t be the Fresh Start govt grant so those on low incomes can buy fruit and veg for their children.

We’d also ignore any clear child neglect or abuse which let’s be honest, drinking from dirty bottles is a form of neglect.

I’ve seen this too. Worked in a hospital and drs would often suggest 7up or anything to keep the child’s blood sugar up. I don’t know why people are so shocked .

Maybe there’s confusion then as the PP said it was for dehydration not for sugars.

You are not educating anyone my lovely. You are on a massive ego trip on this thread haranguing and lecturing anyone who has a different and more nuanced view than your own extreme one. To the extent that even though we do have a very healthy and balanced diet, I’m actually tempted to go out and buy my kids 2L of Coke to have with dinner tonight as a backlash.

”Educating” anyone requires you to listen, adapt and speak to them in a way which they will find convincing which may well end up with a consensus view being raised not a demand that everyone falls in line behind you.

I don’t think Coke is ideal as a regular thing either but I’m not orthorexic, I don’t think it’s going to poison anyone and I know for a fact that in some limited circumstances it has some beneficial effects and used in moderation is completely unproblematic. I won’t convince you of this as you are unhinged on this topic but likewise you have zero chance of changing my mind either

I could t care less … not my kids, not my kids teeth.

I looked after a child in a nursery a long time ago now. He and his siblings all had black teeth. And yep, toddler and pre schooler both turn up with a baby bottle full of coke.

Exactly!

So stop fulminating about the mother who is the subject of the thread. What she does to pacify her ND child in a stressful situation is absolutely none of your concern.