A 2-year-old girl was accidentally given alcohol instead of apple juice at a restaurant in Salinas and ended up in the emergency room.
What was supposed to be apple juice was actually cooking wine that had been mislabeled and served to the child at Fujiyama Japanese Restaurant, her parents and restaurant officials said. KSBW on Thursday. The parents didn’t notice until the toddler started showing signs of intoxication and then smelled her drink.
“She was rocking, she was falling over, she was leaning against walls, she couldn’t hold her head up, she was slurring her words,” her mother, Noemi Valencia, told the television station.
A trip to the emergency room showed the child’s blood alcohol content was 0.12%, above the legal limit of 0.08% for an adult over 21, her parents said. She has since made a full recovery.
The restaurant told KSBW that a large container of cooking wine was mislabeled as apple juice, which the server accidentally poured for the child.
Local police said a report was filed Aug. 17 regarding the incident, according to the news station. The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control said in a statement that it is working with local authorities to investigate.
The parents urged other families to taste what is served to children in restaurants as a precaution.