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.

"rrbrigi...well done on successfully teaching your child to disobey teachers and that there is no reason to show them respect."

Yes. Suggesting that a parent might have a bit more agency over their child's nutritional intake than a teacher is the first step on the road to threatening the teacher with a knife.

Honestly.

What a pathetic problem this is. All these children dehydrating because they won't drink. Ignoring their parents' instructions and their teachers' advice. Suffering migraines and kidney infections and constipation.

All for the lack of water.

You would think that they lived in a place where they had to walk two miles to collect it in a bucket. Thousands of people would be so grateful for clean tap water.

This thread has highlighted how spoiled and ungrateful some of us are in this country. Turning our noses up at a bit of water. What a fuss. What a disgrace

Oh do give over fairenuff, are you really suggesting my water refusing NEWBORN was 'spoiled' and 'ungrateful'. Really? Give your head a shake lovey.

Newborns can drink milk. But when they move on to the next stage, if water was the only thing available, that's what they would drink.

we aren't talking about newborns were are talking about a TEN YEAR OLD

Well if we're treating 10 year olds the same as we treat new borns we have even bigger problems.........

Fairenuff posted earlier that there MUST have been a point at which he DID drink water. I replied to that post giving my personal experience of having a child that NEVER drank water. From birth. I gave a quite detailed account of what can happen when you try to force a child into drinking water.

For fairenuff to read that and then post about 'spoiled' children was rather 'off' and more than a little silly. But I see she has further posted in the same vein - bloody good job she's not a doctor in that case...

Funny really, the number of times when my DD was hospitalised - not ONCE did the medical professionals try to force her to 'only have water - in fact the very FIRST time she has squash was in hospital...up till then I had concentrated on giving her diluted pure juice. The medical professionals concentrated on FLUID not a SPECIFIC fluid.

OP may find that her GP feels the same (as did the doctors in Cyprus who made the pre-school change its rules )

working9while5...yeah telling a child to disobey leads to knife welding incidents did you not know? How about ppl teach a child to follow the rules instead of whinging when they get told off because they were encouraged to break the rules. The rules that were there when said parents decided that they wanted to send their child to that school. The ones they were told about during their induction or in the prospectus. The ones that the majority of parents can cope with. The ones that the minority think doesn't apply to them!

I get migraines. Have gotten them since I was 2.

Hunger and thirst are triggers for me too. I knew this as a child but would still refuse to eat and drink and end up with a migraine. And I never drank more than a sip of water til I was pregnant, can't stand it, still can't.

Saying 'hes 10 and should do x' is pointless, he's a child, if he doesn't like the drink he'll avoid drinking it, he doesn't have the maturity to think through consequences

Can't believe the sense of entitlement. Children who "can't" drink water. Whatever next.

You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. Insert 10 year old instead of horse.

Heggie, people who like water never believe me but water does taste horrible to some people.

I'll drink it if I'm parched but I'll avoid it unless stuck, and even then I'll only drink a sip.

The ops son needs ti drink large amounts of fluid, if he doesn't like water he'll only drink the bare minimum which isn't enough to keep him healthy.

Look, he can have squash before he goes into school, presumably juice or squash at break and in his lunchbox, and squash when he comes out of school. All the school is asking is that the bottle he drinks out of during lessons has water in it. He is being denied access to squash for a whole 90 minutes or so at a time. Call the European Court of Human Rights!

I kind of agree with Curlew. I can see that it's not as simple as saying 'make him have water' but I can also see that its not reasonable for a teacher to put up with sticky squash around the classroom, all the parents complaining that exemptions are being made without medical need (in the sense that the medical need is for water, and the squash thing is not directly medical), etc, etc.

Surely ways could be found to make squash available at more acceptable times - break, lunch - without it being on tap all day?

I didn't like water as a child. I wasn't given squash. I drank water.

It's not difficult.

I didn't. I went whole days without any liquid. And then ended up puking ill with a migraine.

Not all kids are wired the same way.

Two of my kids will happily drink water, they even request it over other drinks. The third won't, at all. If I give him a drink he doesn't like (for instance his movicol which he's currently refusing) he'll go all day without a drop of liquid. Now medicine is one thing, I can stand over him and bully/bribe the dose into him mixed with very little water and give him a drink of squash when he's downed it. But that's not an option for getting liquid into a child at school when the school are refusing remind the child to drink, and aren't allowing a drink he'll drink voluntarily.

Actually OP I think you need to discuss that aspect with the head. Our teachers are fanatical about insisting the children have tonnes of drinks and will constantly remind them to drink, especially in hot weather or when they exercise. DS1 often runs out (despite bring a litre of water/squash daily!) and they refill his cup to make sure he always has a drink on him. DD doesn't drink enough usually but her teacher gets almost a litre a day into her by constantly reminding them to take sips.

My nephew never cared for water and he often used to nod off at his desk in primary school because he was dehydrated.

They r obliged to take "reasonable steps"so as not to disadvantage your son. Its part of disability rights legislation. They are disadvantaging him if they don't take reasonable steps to accommodate his medical needs - I'd say drinking squash was pretty reasonable.

My experience is in the employment version of disability discrimination law, but I'd be careful about arguing reasonable adjustments. The medical need is for plenty of liquids, not for squash. The school isn't preventing his fulfilling his medical needs from a medical perspective. It could easily be argued that the refusal to drink water is a behavioural or personal preference issue and not part of the disability per se, and I could see how that argument could succeed in a tribunal. Also, despite the way schools tend to behave these days, there is actually no need for a child to constantly, constantly drink. The need to drink proper amounts could also be fulfilled by a big drink before school, squash at break, squash at lunch and after school. We are only talking very short gaps each time if the school compromise on squash at break time.

at "reasonable adjustment" to drink squash!

We used to have disgusting plastic cups to drink out of at school. With black slime at the bottom.

At least my children can take their own water bottles to school. We use the Sigg bottles.

If it is a medical need you can always turn up at school with his "medicinal squash drink" every hour - or how often you feel it is necessary ...

Actually, if it is a medical need , most schools are only allowed to medicate children with doctor prescribed medication rather than over the counter remedies. So you would need squash with a prescription label on it for it to be administered.

But if it is a medical need a parent can ask for their child to be taken to the office and the parent can administer their "medicinal squash" as often as needed.