Is it time to start taste testing your child’s sippy cup after having it filled at a restaurant? Maybe.
A fifteen month old boy in Michigan was apparently given margarita mix instead of the apple juice his mother expected at at Madison Heights Applebee’s Friday night. His mother, Taylor Dill-Reese, told MyFoxDetroit.com that her son started acting oddly a few minutes after he started drinking from his sippy cup. When she tasted the drink, she discovered why. Her son was having his first margarita.
The baby was rushed to the hospital, where doctors discovered that his alcohol level was .10, which is higher than the legal limit for an adult driver. Thankfully no lasting damage seems to have occurred and the family took the child home later that night.
“Nobody at the table ordered alcoholic drinks,” Dill-Reese told Fox Detroit. “So, he definitely shouldn’t have received one.”
Dill-Reese says a manager apologized to her, but didn’t know what else to do. Applebee’s has issued a statement calling the incident “unacceptable” and promised to work with local authorities and even conduct their own investigation. Since it seems difficult for a server to have inadvertently filled a sippy cup with margarita mix, investigation seems warranted.
Meanwhile, the lesson here for parents is probably that you shouldn’t give your kids things to eat or drink that you haven’t at least seen or smelled, if not tasted. Whether the margarita mix up here was intentional or not, mistakes happen all the time. Double checking pre-packaged drinks and snacks before handing them off to your child prevents mishaps like this one.
