WHO SAID THERE WAS A LEGAL DRINKING AGE

Less than a month ago a family in an area right outside of Detroit went to an Applebee’s thinking they would have a nice evening with family. That was before their 15-month-old toddler was served a margarita instead of apple juice. With a blood alcohol level of 0.10 (where the legal limit for adults to drive is 0.08) the boy was taken to the hospital escaping alcohol poisoning and possibly death.

Less than a week later an Olive Garden in Florida served a 2-year-old boy sangria instead of the ordered orange juice. The mother reports that “he was acting up, misbehaving, [and] his eyes were bloodshot.” After 30 minutes of this behavior the restaurant finally realized the boy was served a mixture of orange juice, pineapple juice and white wine, one of Applebee’s sangria mixtures. The young boy was rushed to the hospital, treated with IV fluids and released with no permanent damage.

This past Sunday yet another spout of alcohol interference with a toddler hit a mainstream restaurant. A 4-year-old little girl was given a mudslide blended drink instead of a chocolate milkshake at a Chili’s in the Chicago area. Brooklyn Morris, after taking a few drinks said “I don’t like it” causing her mother to take a drink immediately tasting alcohol. Brooklyn was taken to South Medical Center in Blue Island, Illinois and was diagnosed with alcohol ingestion overdose.

Mistakes happen, but when it comes to children extra precautions should be taken to ensure they don’t. Granted, all three restaurant chains have changed their standard protocols on serving children beverages, unfortunately it shouldn’t have had to come to flirting with toddler alcohol poisoning to do so.

What do you think about these ‘mistakes’ made and how they were all made so close to one another? Does this happen more often and go unnoticed?

Needless to say, check your child’s drink before this happens to you.