SMoody wrote: We do stuff with her in moderation. I dont want her to be one of these kids that is never allowed it and when they get invited to a party goes totally wild at the cooldrink and sweets table as she is never allowed it.

Yep what she said!!

OK so I certainly wouldnt be giving my 1 year old V! Not going to say my kids havent had fizzy though, yes they do in moderation, we drink it on the weekends and they are allowed a wee bit too.  NOT coke though and nothing red lol.  Not the baby obviously though lol!  And certainly water and milk are the only other choices to drink. Along with that goes the tooth brusing thing, DS has seen all the gorey pics that the dental nurse shows with rotten teeth from fizzy and sugary drinks and they are both good at brushing their teeth.

I can't beleive that parents would be so silly as to let their babies have any type of fizzy drink, esp an energy drink  I wouldn't even drink that crap myself, an apple or a cup of blackcurrant juice is going to give you more energy than a bottle of V.  I suppose it's the power of marketing.

I'm never quick to judge though when I see children with interestingly coloured bottles.  Obviously sipping from a V bottle's a given that they're drinking something that's no good for them but someone mentioned a red cordial in a bottle.  If the child had a UTI the parent may have been giving it diluted cranberry juice. 

When Michaela was 1 she was anal retentive for several months and on docs advice we had to try everything to induce diaorehha (sp?).  As well as the prescribed laxatives she was given heaps of bottles of all sorts of liquids.  Her brown looking liquid was diluted prune juice and the green one was kiwi crush.  The worst thing is getting accusing stares from ignorant (albeit well-meaning) strangers when you're just trying to help your child who is suffering from an extremely uncomfortable and painful condition.