The Water Bottle

The Water Bottle

This past weekend I was at an Autism Event. As I watched the children run around the football field flapping their hands, and having a sensory experience with the thunderous music and soft grass on their bare feet. I was smiling all day about what I get to experience everyday…the joy that these special children bring.

It was towards the end of the day and I saw a mother with her child. Mom had a 16-oz water bottle in her right hand and a son in her left, trying to dart for the jump pit like an Olympic sprinter. The first thought in my head was, “Water bottle… I am so glad it is not Gatorade or Vitamin Water.” However, mom was trying to hold her son because a security guard was calling over to her. As I investigated the issue all I could hear from the security guard saying was “water bottle.” I was confused, so I moved closer.

As I got closer I heard the security guard say, “You can’t have that water bottle on the field.” To avoid any confrontation, she released her son and made a dash for the garbage can, then raced to find her son.

I then walked in circles and decided, ‘I am going to talk to him.’ I didn’t understand…the grass was real?...how could water hurt it?

I greeted the burly security guard and asked “what was the problem with the mom and her child” He said that you cannot have water on the grass because the field cannot get ruined. By the way, the field had over 1,000 people on the field. I then said, “you know that is a boy with autism, right?” “Where,” he said. Maybe he couldn’t see because of his sunglasses.

I then said something like this…. ‘I don’t get it. We have this event to educate about autism and a mother is trying to do everything she can, and bring her child to this event and you are worried about water on the field?’

Then, typically, the blame was put on his supervisor. Ironically, the supervisor walked up to me. “What the problem.” I repeated myself. The supervisor then but the blame on the football team that used the field. “They don’t want their field messed up,” he said. I smiled and walked away.

I am getting anxious and angry writing this. While there are thousands of autism awareness groups out there, the general public is still not being educated. This needs to stop and I will continue to do everything that I can so this will not happen again!

And of course I have to talk about the benefits of water, right? I am the health guy…Water makes up nearly 80% of a child’s body. Water comprises nearly 90% of their brain. Our bodily systems are electrical. And the electrical transmissions within our nervous system make us sensing, learning, thinking acting organisms. Water is essential for maintaining the electrical potential within our bodies.
Water, which seems so unremarkable, colorless, odorless and tasteless, is truly “magical.”

Don’t buy the soda, Gatorade, or Vitamin Water. Keep it out of the house or your child will be more inclined to crave it.

Talk to you soon….

Yours in Health,

David S. Geslak