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.

I understand you probably feel vilified in some way but a hospital setting where you said a Dr told you to vs a plane where the parents seem used to doing this (OP said they had more bottles to fill up from) are two different scenarios. Apples and oranges.

Absolutely,
But things are never clear cut - this example about not drinking was given to explain how sometimes a safe food becomes a safe food through no fault of the parents.

I didn't give my child pop, but I do understand how ever with the best will in the world to avoid certain food/drinks things can happen that results in the situation the OP mentions

If course it's perfectly possible they are just poor parents making bad choices but it may be that they have found themselves in that situation for many different reasons.

It's easy to judge if you haven't Walked in their shoes.

We don't know the reasons - I was just giving possible explanations of why it could be.

I can go one better. About 5 years ago on a bus,I saw a woman pour some Red Bull into a child's cup and give it to him. The child was in a pushchair,must have been around 2 or 3 years old. I kid you not.

Think there a bit of backtracking now.

Nope

There's more sugar in some fruit juice but yes automatically coke is always called the worse drink 😂 a bit of coke won't kill a kid 😂

One minute it’s pop now it’s squash!

Do you have ADHD though? There’s a big difference between my DD1 with a language disorder and my DD2 with ADHD! Anyone who sat next to DD2 on a plane for several hours, would experience the non stop fidgeting. When she gets up in the morning, she is so full of energy, she has to jump up and down.

Paradoxically, both coffee and Coke calm her down and improve concentration. She self medicated with both through her GCSEs and A levels. Methylphenidate works even better!

No I haven't back tracked I used an example of my child not able to tolerate drinks in hospital and how we tried everything to get them to drink. We didn't try pop as we found something else first but because of our experience I know I would have kept trying till we found something that worked. Whatever that was.
The hospital were in agreement that it was better to drink something than nothing

We would have tried pop we didn't need to but others may have to

ADHD diagnosed both in childhood and adulthood.

Personally I find diet is crucial for management. I too bought into the idea that caffeine and or sugar helped me for a stage, however these are band aids IMO. Caffeine especially can increase jitteriness. I am always cautious of using anything as a mild stimulant as you tend to need to keep upping it to achieve an effect. That little dose of coffee can easily become 6 cups a day. Same with Coca Cola to get back onto topic.

As if!
No decent parent one day decides to do that as a one off

Yes but fruit juice at least has some health benefits and counts towards one of your 5 a day in a small dose.

Coke is just sugar laden water. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a Diet Coke myself but I’d rather give my child diluted fruit juice with a straw than a Coca Cola.

The bottle would be the only bit I'd find perhaps a bit strange but I'd assume there was a reason for it. The fizzy drink part I'd not think twice about as I don't know one child that age that hasn't had coke, Fanta etc etc

She already stated she thinks the child is ND, totally sounds like he is. However the judgement from you on a 5 year old drinking from a bottle goes to show your absolute ignorance towards autistic kids, you haven’t a clue, be thankful for that. My 5 year old (ASD & GDD) would literally starve if he didn’t drink his ONE food from a bottle, he won’t put cutlery into his mouth. I’m sure you’re the type that will argue “he’ll eat if he’s hungry enough”….. again, NO, most ASD kids will in fact starve rather than eat anything but their safe foods in the way they prefer.

Agreed. I was in a JL cafe recently, a family with 2 male children plainly under 5, the boys were galloping around the cafe screaming shouting and hitting, it was unbearable, and lo and behold there were 2 cans of coca cola on the table, the only time these 2 stopped was to suck up more caffeine, chemicals and sugar. Horrible bad parenting i'd say. Some things should be judged i say. I soon left.

But you have absolutely no idea if these parents were in a similar scenario of having to go through multiple drinks to find something their child will tolerate!! Be thankful you have zero experience in dealing with an autistic child with severe sensory issues and struggle to get anything at all into them, it’s always great to sit back from the outside looking in saying what you would and wouldn’t do until you’re living that life yourself.

I do actually. I also have relatives with autism.

Bleat into the void to your hearts content so you can feel better but relying on Coca Cola is a pretty crap idea when as I’ve said above, even sparkling water would be a better option. If the child doesn’t know Coke is an option, it wouldn’t be an option would it?

My child gets given a half cup of zero sugar cola with her evening meal on holiday, she knows it's strictly an holiday thing and comments when she sees it. If anybody saw us they would think we give it her constantly.
Don't go judging parents you have no clue what the full story is.

Agreed. It’s actually highly normalised and I find myself the odd one out a lot of the time as I only offer my toddler water. Her peers tend to have squash or flavoured water. So everyone saying the kid is definitely ND, I’m not so sure we can definitely say that as I see loads of kids drinking pop out and about.

I have a cousin who is a professional, a medical doctor. She gave her son sips of coke since he was about 11 months old. By the age of 3 he was having it all the time and severe meltdowns at family gatherings.if he didn't get any. He was completely hooked on sugar. He would come home from nursery to a big chocolate bar most days. She should know better but thought it was cute and funny when he was a baby. She wasn't trained in the UK and just couldn't understand why it was taboo to give a baby coke in this country. Everyone's different I suppose.

In all honesty you’re wasting your time with a lot of these people, they have absolutely zero experience of raising a child with autism or anything else that the child has severe sensory issues and can only tolerate certain food/drinks. Thankfully my 5 year old drinks most things but he is ONE ASD child…..none of them are the exact same with the exact same issues and exact same tastes or the exact same behaviours. It’s understandable they don’t know, they’ve nothing to compare to only their NT kids who have no issues and understand they need to eat/drink.

So the doctor didn’t advise you to give him pop then?
This isn’t what you initially said … the story is changing.

Mexico. I saw a doc about it. It's in the town/region where Coca-Cola is made. People have been brain-washed for generations. They drink pop from infants.

100%

There Is no excuse for feeding your child rubbish, high fat, salt or sugar food and drinks. What would happen if these things didn’t exist?
There are many options without resorting to this … if you didn’t give it to them in the first place they wouldn’t even know it existed.
Sorry, there are many people on this thread who had ND children and haven’t reported to feeding them junk … maybe you should seek some advice from them.