Toddler’s apple juice mistakenly swapped for wine in Salinas restaurant

A 2-year-old girl was mistakenly given alcohol instead of apple juice at a Salinas restaurant 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 told KSBW on Thursday. The parents didn’t notice until the toddler began to show signs of intoxication, then smelled her drink.

“She was swaying, she was falling over, she was leaning on walls, she couldn’t hold her head up, she was slurring her words,” her mother, Noemi Valencia, told the TV station.

A trip to the emergency room showed the toddler’s blood alcohol content was 0.12%, over the 0.08% legal limit for an adult over 21, her parents said. She has since fully recovered.

The restaurant told KSBW 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 it is working with local authorities to investigate the matter.

The parents urged other families to taste what’s served to children at restaurants as a precaution.