In refusing to send DCs to school with plastic water bottles?

[MadameCastafiore]

Right may be a bit long winded but here we go.

DCs have a new head at their school and a couple of months ago were sent home with really shite plastic bottles with sports caps which we were told had to be used for them to drink water in class - now I refused - the bottles were made of the same plastic you buy evian, you couldn't put them in the dishwasher to clean them and IMO you can never get a sports cap properly clean and the ones on these bottles were really soft plastic which after they had been chewed a couple of times (which all kids do I think) they looked grotty and really filthy.

Anyway fast forward to DCs getting in trouble for not having these bottles - I worte to the head and told him about the crappness of the plastic and the fact that they were made of a type of plastic that was not meant to be used over and over again and I said my kids would be using their sig bottles due to the fact that they were easy to clean, did not have sports caps (a urologist I spoke to said sports caps are vile and harbour germs and he told all of his kidney patients not to use them but to sip straight from the bottle) and they were made of metal which did not leach chemicals into the water (don't want my kids drinking from bottles which leach chemicals that mimic oestrogen into the water they are going to drink) and they were not see through so sunlight and heat wouldn;t affect the water and make bacteria multiply if the bottles were not properly cleaned.

He then fought a bit and last week they were selling new bottles (because the first one was free after that you have to pay £1.50 if you lose or break them), new bottles that are made out of a different kind of plastic and can go in the dishwasher but they still have sports caps.

The headmaster says that the bottles have to be see through so he can be sure we are not sending the kids to school with juice or fizzy drink (doh flavoured water is what most of DSs friends have in theirs which nulifies the point to some degree!) I said I am quite happy for him to check the DCs bottles and to make sure it is just water or I am happy to send them in with empty bottles which they will fill up from the water fountain at school.

Now do you think I am making a big thing out of nothing, I do think it is silly to kick off about lots of little things but it grates on me that this man does not trust us enough to do the best for our children and I know some parents don't but really this level of control is a little purile IMO. DSs teacher hasn;t said anything else to him after the first few times but DDs teacher is on her case telling her she muct have this see through bottle.

Can he make us use them is something I would also like answered?

Thank you for taking the time to read my ranty essay.

Latest research shows that water is not the super drink - most fluids except alcohol hydrate our bodies and in fact tea can be better than water as it has antioxidants.

Plastic bottles when heated in sunlight etc release carcinogenic toxins which leak into the water. Metal flasks are a far safer option.

i sneak white grape and peach juice from asda into dds water bottle as it doesnt change the colour

dd lost her school one so i bought a sports relief one for a quid....... she hasnt been ill from the germs once!!! think dd is more likely to catch something from scratching her bum and then biting her nails.......

I am delighted they can drink water regularly as dd has a lazy bladder which gets worse if she doesnt drink regularly and this way she doesnt have to stand out drinking all the time.

WHen i was at school many moons ago we darnk warm milk in small glass bottles and ate malted mik or sports biscuits......how BAD is that!!!! ..... actually i really liked it!!

oh and quite often dd forgets to bring her bottle home for washing so she is probably drinking warm stagnant water!!! WHO CARES WHAT BOTTLE THEY DRINK OUT OF FOR GOODNESS SAKES!!!!!

At DD's school they can take whatever kind of bottle they want, and the bottles are filled up at the sink in the classroom. All the bottles then sit in a tray next to the sink. If a child wants a drink, they go to the sink and drink it there. This solves the problems brought up on this thread of:

1. Children are not constantly sucking on water.
2. You don't have to use a plastic bottle to prove the drink isn't coloured as the child fills the bottle with water at the sink.
3. You can't spill your drink on other people's work.
4. You can use a metal drink flask.

In terms of the plastic lining on Sigg leaking BPA:

'Under harsh conditions to simulate time and use, the results were as follows:

? Polycarbonate #7 plastic bottles ? 71 ppb (parts per billion) were leached into the water.
? Chinese-made aluminum water bottles ? 19 ppb
? New SIGG bottles ? no detectable BPA
? Used SIGG bottles (2 years old) ? no detectable BPA'

I've got this same problem coming up next school year and don't know what to do yet.
The teacher DD's going to next insists that the bottles are see through (so that she can see that it is water). So that's going to mean plastic.
But we moved away from plastic bottles in our house a few years ago now.

OP, you may also want to consider stainless steel bottles, as they don't require a lining. This brand lets you choose what kind of cap you want and is BPA free:

www.onegreenbottle.com/

Not an expert on plastic bottles, but do find it ANNOYING that dd has to go to school with a bottle of water everyday. She is 4 and at least once a week it will come unscrewed and spill.

Do agree that constantly swigging from a bottle is unnecessary. If it is all about Healthy Schools or whatever, then MHO is that adults/children etc need to NOT CONSUME anything for a period of time in order to build up healthy habits. Try not drinking/eating/chewing gum etc for at least an hour or two.

All the fat people I know ALWAYS have something in their hands, whether it is just a drink of coffee or a low fat snack or sweets or anything.

JUST LEAVE YOUR GOB ALONE FOR AN HOUR OR TWO. You'll live.

Milly R thanks for that,I love our Siggs but might switch when we replace them. Are the ones in your link as good leakwise? Also have you seen the Onya ones,my sister uses those,they even do sippy cups? Am now torn but like the Greenbottle caps choice thing.

Excuse my enthusiasm,never thought something as mundane as drinks bottles would light my fire pre kids but crap bottles have been the bane of my life since,lost count of how many reading books I've had to dry out on radiators

MilaMae, I haven't tried them yet. I am going to swap to them from the bottles we currently have. We have imitation Siggs, and I didn't realise until recently the lining was dodgy so I have been looking around for a replacement.

I think we are probably doing really badly on the BPA front. I wonder if there are PBAs in fruit juice cartons.

I wish our school insisted on bottles at the table. DD1 is advised to drink at least a litre a day [due to chronic constipation]. It is a nightmare trying to get it into her, and because she is 5 and easily distracted she never remembers to go and get a drink from the tap.
They have a sink with cups, which is great, but she never remembers. Just comes home with dry lips and a parched mouth. The teachers will of course struggle as there are 30 of the lttle blighters and they can't be expected to police her fluid intake.

So in some ways your controlling headmaster is trying to act in the best interests of his many varied pupils op. In particular with the clear bottles. I have seen a bottle of diet coke ['cos it's healthier ] and a tube of fruit pastels in a lunch box of a 3 year old, so sadly I can see a certain amount of sense in this draconian measure.

Hope you get a good outcome at anyrate, but my overall advice would be to try and see if from the school'd point of view and hit on a deal from there.

Love those bottles MillyR. Thanks for that lnk. If they would personalise them dd would be in bottle heaven

Just seen the funny face stickers,thats done it for me, my boys would love those!!!! Sooooo need to get out more

ffs!!! i cant believe all this 'no child of mine will drink from a plastic bottle crap!!!!

im surprised you allow them to go to school at all, what with all those germs, snotty noses, headlice etc etc

there is children out the living in slums, with no food etc etc (i know ilrelevant) and your having a hissy fit over what bottle your child drinks some water out of!

Op they supply schools in a range of colours-problem sorted,show him the link!!!!

Germs and headlice I can do nothing about,drinking from crappy bottles I can soooo.....

exactly nonno.Leve your gob alone for two hours

ha ha nonno!!

sneaking in grape and peach juice? Why?

So much debate over a plastic bottle? I agree with the poster who said we survived warm milk in glass bottles and worse. Tin cups and jugs for water. Worse than that.

Plastic bottles and bpa?? Middle class nonsense.

cos i can!!!!
because ds needs to drink lots due to her lazy bladder.
cos she likes it.
its only a drop of juice and her diet is healthy on the whole.
warm milk in glass bottles....health and bloomin safety would have a field day now. but yes we survived it and actually its what i remember most about my school days. those little bottles were so cute!!!

how much are SIGG bottles..... i am surviving on smp so let me know what i should omit from the food shopping list to be able to afford one!!!!

i used to bring my word cards home in an old tobacco tin provided by the teacher and you know what..... it never made me want to smoke. its all nonsense!!!

A stainless steel bottle is £4.99.

I'd be thrilled if my dc were drinking from tin cups and glass bottles as they're chemical free.

When we were little(and I'm talking the 70s here) we weren't constantly smothered and made to consume a consistent stream of chemicals. Kids of today are and I choose to try and limit the vast amount of chemicals my kids are exposed to,if that is middle class nonsense so be it.

As kids we weren't continually covered in suncream,our clothes weren't full of softeners, perfumes,enzymes et al. Our food wasn't full of artificial sweeteners,trans fats, and E nos etc etc. We weren't expected to continuously swig from plastic bottles. Our food wasn't without exception stored in plastic as it is now.

I buy natural suncream which I use sparingly,I use Ecover washing powder and no softeners. I feed my kids food the majority of which isn't full of artificial crap. Providing them with drinking bottles that limit exposure to chemicals is just part of that.

It makes me laugh that as parents we are consistently lectured about the merits of breastfeeding it being the natural choice then when kids are weaned it's bang- one big chemical overload which if you try and limit is classed as being precious .

someone earlier mentioned no plastic toys until their older..... were you being serious?????

It wasn't me as I'd rather have good quality plastic toys than wooden toys with cheap Chinese paint that chips off into your lo's mouth.

I'm a chemist, and I get fed up with people going on about how bad chemicals are, whilst failing to note, for example, that water is a chemical too, not to mention the metals and glass that these non-plastic bottles are made out of.