Unbelievable!!!

[Slinky]

Stopped off in Tescos today with my mum and DD2 -decided to have some lunch whilst there.

A woman comes along with a baby who looked about 6 months old. Baby starts grizzling, so woman (not mother - I could hear her saying mummy will be back in a minute) goes to the counter and buys 2 VERY LARGE cokes. She then proceeds to pour coke into baby's bottle and hands over to the poor little thing.

Woman now aware that both my mum and I are sat there gobsmacked - mum says rather loudly "what the b**dy hell is she doing????" and "OMG, can't believe she's giving it to that baby".

Another woman comes back - the mother - picks the now crying baby up - tips the coke back into the cup and tops up the bottle with carton of baby milk. Poor little thing then gulps down the milk.

What my mum and I don't understand is - a) does the baby normally have coke because mum didn't seem angry/concerned. I would have gone absolutely crazy if my mum/friend had done that -not that it would have crossed their minds to do that!

I'm stunned. You see the warnings everywhere about not giving sugary things in a bottle. Some people must surely be blind too. DS1 keeps bugging me to try coke and said 'you're a horrid mummy' last time we were in MD's and I wouldn't let him have it, so that did me a lot of good. Will never forget the time my MIL gave him dolly mixtures at 16 months old. He was awake until 2AM...

A little bit of sugary stuff wouldn't do too much harm. It is when it is a mainstay of the diet where it becomes a problem. With carbonated drinks it isn't just the tons of sugar but the fizz also causes havoc with the digestive system.

When I was preg with ds twins I saw a woman give her 6 month old a McDonalds cup of Irn Bru to drink - the whole thing and it was a medium. I couldn't believe it. I don't ban much food (as I don't want to create a must have scenario) but soft drinks are definitely banned for ds twins. According to their dentist she gets children as young as 18 months needing teeth removed and soft drinks are the cause.

With most of these cases of dental decay it is because these drinks are given in a bottle. That way the drink stays in the mouth and on the teeth for longer than if it is drunk from a cup.

Coke is a particular nightmare because it is so acid. If you drop a tooth into it, the acid will etch away at the toot and eventually disolve it. Put the acid together with sugar and it is a real nightmare/

My grandad used to give us a drop of whiskey "Lampoil darling" in cups of tea when we went to stay as children!!

I've been reading this thread with interest, and kind of thinking that surely a wee sip (and I mean wee) of coke every month isn't so bad?

I was also thinking about the conflict some of you are having with MILs giving soft drinks to your kids and that got me thinking about my DH's teeth, which are just awful. Mostly I think due to no dental hygene as a kid. But I remember him saying that his aunt (main caregiver as mum off working - family of poor farmers) used to let them have as much sweeties and soft drinks as they liked as kids.

I compare it to me and my siblings - equally poor, and I remember the Bon Accord van going past our house every week and never stopping cos we couldn't afford it. It haunted me for years, as I though that no fizzy stuff meant we were especially deprived.

But our teeth are top notch. My mum wasn't our backs too much about cleaning but none of us have that many fillings (I have 4 but I think maybe my other 4 siblings only have 2 apiece). Our teeth LOOK really strong, IYKWIM.

Hmm, now I've changed my mind and maybe I won't ever be giving my sprog soft drinks until they get to school!