Primary school insisting my child takes water not squash to school, despite there being a medical reason for it

[TheOriginalNutcracker]

My ds is 10 and suffers from frequent migraines. He takes daily preventative meds for them, and we try hard to manage them by eliminating triggers.

Obviously, dehydration is a major trigger, and so I need to make sure he drink enough during the day. I send him to school with weak squash in his water bottle, as he is not overly keen on water, and so will not drink enough of it. I know this to be the case from seeing him drink at home.

School are kicking up an almighty fuss about it. I have spoken to them countless times explaining why he needs the squash, and have also written a letter insisting he be alowed it, abd again explained why.
Today he was pulled into the heads office because of the squash.

I went in after school and asked to see the head. I was told she could only speak to me for 2 minutes. She came out and right away knew why I was there. She just went on and on about many people not liking water and getting headaches, but that other kids would think it was ok for their child to bring in squash also.
She then said that my ds had promised earlier that day, to try and drink only water next week. So basically they got him to agree to this in a meeting with no parent present.

I explained again about his migraines, but she basically insisted and just said that ds had agreed now.

Is there anyting I can do about this ? I think their treatment of him and his condition is appaling. We have also had issues where they have made him wait for calpol when a headache starts.

If the child has a learning difficulty such as Asd then there is a case for allowing the squash as despite his age, he may have difficulty equating his actions with the consequences. Therefore, if LD are in play then there the OP may not be unreasonable.

However, if the child does not have additional needs then there is no medical need for the squash. There is certainly a medical need for fluid intake but that isn't the same thing.

How come very young diabetic children can manage to inject themselves to avoid serious consequences yet this child cannot? I don't for one minute think they 'like' jabbing themselves with a needle. Yet they get on and do it because they know how important it is. And well before 10yrs old.

My DS2 who has ASD doesn't drink water. I 'hide' squash in his plastic water bottle every day. I don't care about breaking school rules in this case. (What a rebel) If I still gave him water it would come home undrunk every day.

Can I recommend Robinson's Apple and Pear squash? In a school issued water bottle, not completely clear, slightly more translucent than transparent, it is disguised completely. It does contain aspartame, though. Nobody has sniffed it, (eeww) though but he drinks it all in one go and has never spilt it.

My ASD son was put on a full exclusion diet by his paediatrician and learnt to drink water

I only like my dc to drink water but have to say they don't.Had a real go last week as dt1's wee stank and dd has had bladder infections which not drinking enough can help to cause.

Our school don't care so occasionally I send in squash as a treat- bottle comes back drained,water bottles come back half full every time however much I nag.

Has op tried stainless steel bottles- you don't get the plasticky taste with water or ask if you can compromise with real juice water cartons.

Doesn't

We have chilled filtered water on tap in school perhaps that helps but no one complains

DDs school has NO water fountains at all. Drinking water is ONLY from the bottles that the children bring in themselves. Bottles HAVE to be bought from the school office, no 'own' bottles allowed. There are no cold areas or fridges the kids can use. Juice cartons are allowed, but only at lunchtime.

I send DD to school with her water bottle full of chilled, bottled water. It comes back at 3pm luke warm, stale and untouched. I tried freezing the bottles so that it defrosted over the day - the bottle split.

We are in a hard water area and tap ways tastes metallic to me. I won't drink it without something to mask the taste, let alone DD.

She doesn't drink at all during the day. She has a smoothie before school. A carton at lunchtime and DH meets her at 3pm with a 500 ml bottle of either diluted apple juice, smoothie or squash that she finishes in the 10 minute drive from school to home. I still think she 'slightly' dehydrates, and if it is particularly hot I will pack 2 juice cartons in her lunch, both of which she will drink.

I feel for OP. Its very hard having a child that WON'T drink water when schools are so inflexible about it. But having a child that becomes ill as a consequence must be much worse.

My daughter uses one of these quite expensive www.lakeland.co.uk/p14673/AllProductReviews?productId=14673&productName=EZ-freeze%20Pure%20Bottle%20946mls

Lteve - you could buy a purifier?

DD has numerous sports bottles, but school doesn't allow anything other than the cheap plasticy crap ones they bulk buy and sell to parents. Like THESE

On holiday we take the metal ones that stay cool longer - along with a large bottle of squash for diluting (most AIs only provide water or fizzy stuff for kids, DD doesn't do either).

LtEve did you realise that that link names the school? Just mentioning it as I'm not sure if you wanted that information on this forum. You can ask MNHQ to delete the post if you want.

Thanks, but not our school. I just googled 'school drinks bottles images' and that was the first link that showed the bottles DDs school uses. I think they are pretty universal tbh.

Cheers anyway.

Ah ok

Those water bottles aren't crap, they are really good. Flexible enough not to shatter, strong enough not to collapse, dishwasher safe and easily labeled, with a wide enough neck to add ice.

I wonder how teachers would react if they were told they were not allowed tea or coffee, or biscuits, in the staffroom? I do think a "Healthy School" should have a water and milk-only policy for absolutely everyone, not just the children.

Yeah, DC's school used to have those and they are FAB. [Unlike the new ones which are truly terrible and whose tops break every 5 minutes].

We half fill with water / half ice and they're fine.

But the children's equivalent of the staff room is lunch time- and they can have squash or juice then. It's only the 90 minutes or so at a time when hey are in class they have to have water.

Same way if you told me i had to wear school uniform, rabbitstew.

Good idea, Feenie.

What?! Children allowed squash at lunchtime?!!! Why not allow it in the classroom, then? Would it result in too many children drinking?

Tea seems to be consumed at break times, too.

My ds's school only allows water at lunchtimes too.

No one cares. That's just how it is.

The reason many schools give is that if the bottles contain squash, she children drink constantly, bathing their mouths in acidic fruit flavouring.

It's not healthy, is it? Just be firm. They can't hate water if they aren't ever given anything else to drink. At ten, I expect ds1 to drink his water. I don't expect him to REMEMBER, but that's because he has sn. I expect him to drink it when reminded.

OP, does the school allow a carton of juice/smoothie drink at break times? If so send a few in each day and the hydration issue should be sorted! Obviously you wont want to use 'juice drink' which is mainly sugar and water, but there are natural juices you can get in cartons.

My daughter is ASD and extremely averse to drinking water so I sympathise with your difficulties in trying to make your son understand and act on the importance of drinking water. She is in secondary school and still struggles to get through a negligible amount of water in a day!

I would also seriously question whether drinking squash is in fact contributing to the migraines. The food industry has a lot to answer for by suggesting that 'sugar free' is somehow a healthier option. In fact, any food or drink which is sugar free is artificially sweetened with chemicals, the most odious of which is aspartame which is clinically linked to causing ill health through migraines, lethargy and obesity. One woman in the US was diagnosed with MS, and when she cut out artificial sweeteners from her diet her symptoms completely disappeared. Aspartame is linked to all sorts of immune difficulties also. Do a google search on the effects and you will almost certainly avoid any thing 'sugar free' again! This is obviously irrelevant if you are already using some of the (rare) natural sugar squashes available.

Would your son consider diluted fruit juice at home? My daughter will only drink pineapple juice, which I have gradually diluted more and more over time so that she effectively drinks 2/3 water and 1/3 juice...she cannot tolerate full strength juice any longer because it now seems far too strong in flavour for her. Hopefully the day will come when water becomes palatable, but until then it is better than nothing.

I can understand the school sticking to their policy that water is the only acceptable drink in a bottle that is used in the classroom, but hopefully they will be reasonable about allowing other beverages in the playground!

Good luck to you and your DS.

Maybe we've just got a bad batch then colditz and teacher? The ones we have have got purple colour tops, but are identical otherwise. The school charges £1.50 a bottle.

When I tried to freeze bottled water the bottle just split. They also taste very plasticy and DD has to pull so hard to get the cap bit to open I'm convinced she'll pull her teeth out one day! We used to use them at home for juice, but the bottle keeps the taste of it no matter how well washed.

So now she's got one that she takes to school, doesn't use at all and still looks immaculate - but hey, it keeps the teachers happy even if she doesn't actually drink anything!

We'll just carry on as we are, DD isn't suffering, but I still think its a bit shit for OPs DS.

I wonder how teachers would react if they were told they were not allowed tea or coffee, or biscuits, in the staffroom? I do think a "Healthy School" should have a water and milk-only policy for absolutely everyone, not just the children.

Some schools do have this policy. My last school did. Staff were allowed tea and coffee at lunch time only. We were expected to have a water bottle the same as the children for the rest of the day. The only time we were allowed biscuits in the staffroom or sweet treats was for someone's birthday.

As for the link to the above water bottles. They are good water bottles. Strong, easily labelled, can be easily put in the school dishwasher and you can see if they are going a bit manky as they are clear. No problem with those bottles.