Aided by the Gator

If a love for a certain beverage makes one a Gator, I will soon need to start writing checks to the University of Florida. You see, a week of stomach stress has left my poor little guy a Gatorade addict. It all started innocently enough. We were battling dehydration and I asked the pediatrician if I should give him Pedialyte. The doc said (and I quote), "Have you ever had that stuff! It's gross! He's old enough for Gatorade." All righty then. I won't be testing that out. For the record, I did not try a single baby food that I fed Jackson. Not one. The potential for retching in front of him when the strained peas passed my lips was far worse than the thought that I haven't previewed every morsel he's ever consumed. But I'm not sure Gatorade is any better. USA Today gives this little history on Gatorade development:

"In 1965, Florida researchers, led by Robert Cade, after studying sweat to see what nutrients the body lost during athletic activity, created a fluid to replace them. The researchers convinced the Florida football team to use it, but they could not interest their own school in marketing the new-fangled concoction, and couldn't find a anyone else until Stokely Van Camp began producing it in 1967."

Yeah, I think I'm going to pass on that marketing angle as well. "Gatorade. This is what your sweat tastes like."

Regardless, Jackson LOVES the Gatorade. So we gave it to him instead of milk all last week. This afternoon, his stomach completely recovered (mostly because he gave the nasty bug to me!), he ripped open the fridge with super-human strength so that he could show me that his beverage of choice was in there. And there were to be no substitutions. I was becoming concerned that he would stage a sit-in right there in the kitchen. He won that round. However, he was later tricked into drinking the moo juice because there was a straw option.

Oh, and he prefers the BLUE Gatorade. Surely it's because RED and BLACK RAIDERADE is not available!