by Terri Combs-Orme Ph.D.

Created on: May 23, 2008   Last Updated: December 14, 2011

From all of us moms to waiters and restaurant managers: Please go away, and take that soft drink refill with you.

Somehow, experts in the "family restaurant" business have decided that the way to make children happy (here is the first error  -it is the parents who have the wallets) is to supply them with bottomless soft drinks. They do the same for me, of course, grabbing my glass and replacing it with a new one each time I take a sip of iced tea. What's wrong with this picture?

For just a moment forget the waste (of the waiter's time in an under-staffed restaurant, of the untouched liquid poured down the drain, and of the water and energy used to wash six barely touched glasses for each patron). Forget the constant interruptions of conversation. Think for a moment about parents' efforts to teach moderation and good nutrition. I often feel that the obstacles out there are insurmountable.

Obesity rates in children have doubled since 1980, and you don't need to pore over the details of research reports that document the role of soft drinks in this trend to see the connection. Since 1978, soft drink consumption has tripled for boys and doubled for girls. One-fifth of one- and two-year-old children drink soft drinks!

When my son was a pre-schooler I felt comfortable saying to the waiter "No, thank you, no more for him," despite his pouts. When he was a tween, I was all right with asking the young waiter to please wait for us to ask for refills when she put the first glasses on our table. Sometimes she even complied. As he got older, however, it became increasingly embarrassing for my son to have his mother constantly monitoring his consumption and interceding with the waiter, so I stopped. Over-consumption of sugar on that occasion seemed less damaging to a young adolescent than such public control.

And as our son got older, my husband and I tried to remind him before we went out to dinner, suggesting that he say "no" before the waiter could whisk away his nearly-full glass. He was young enough then that his daily consumption of soda and other junk was controlled by what I kept in the house and the absence of such things at school, though, and soft drinks were a treat for him. It was not easy for him to stand up to say "no" to yet another full glass. Of course once he was going out on his own and once his high school bought into the profits the school system was able to garner from placing soft drink machines in the schools, my influence on my son's soft drink

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