Going out to dinner as a family is something that almost feels like a luxury now, but it’s still something families enjoy doing. When you go out to dinner with your kids, it can sometimes be a stressful experience, especially when you’re eating with toddlers. Toddlers always make having dinner outside of the house an adventure.
Still, one California family couldn’t have anticipated that their family dinner out would end up with a toddler in the emergency room. When the toddler was mistakenly served alcohol during their meal, the night took a turn.
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The family went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant.
A family went to dinner at Fujiyama Japanese Restaurant in Salinas, California. The parents ordered their 2-year-old daughter a cup of apple juice. When the toddler received the cup, which came with a lid, the parents didn’t think anything of it. But when she started showing some odd behavior, the parents knew that something was off. Turns out she had been served a cup of house-made cooking wine.
The toddler was beginning to show signs of being drunk.
“She was swaying, she was falling over, she was leaning on walls, she couldn’t hold her head up, she was slurring her words,” the toddler’s mom, Noemi Valencia, explained to local news affiliate KSBW.
The parents rushed their daughter to the Salinas Valley Memorial Health Medical Center’s emergency room, where they spent the night. The family said their daughter’s blood alcohol level was 0.12%.
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The restaurant maintained it was a 'mistake' that the child was served alcohol.
KSBW reached out to the restaurant, and the manager confirmed that it was a mistake. The manager explained that the house-made wine was being stored in a container labeled “apple juice,” which is how the server made the error.
Salinas police did confirm to the news outlet that a police report was filed on August 17 and that it was looking into the matter.
The parents had a firm warning for restaurant staff and parents.
Thankfully, the family shared that the young girl had sobered up and fully recovered from the alarming experience. Her parents are grateful for her recovery and acknowledge that the situation could have been much worse.
“Take proper precautions and how you store things or label things properly so that this doesn’t happen to anybody else,” Valencia warned all business owners.
She also had a warning: “Parents: taste what’s served to your kids.”
