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Toddler gets drunk at restaurant

LAKELAND, Fla., April 13 (UPI) -- A restaurant in central Florida said it accidentally served a toddler Sangria instead of the orange juice his mother ordered for him.

By the time the mistake was discovered, 2 1/2-year-old Nikolai Van Heest had already consumed most of the beverage, WOFL-TV, Orlando, reported.

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"He was visibly drunk," said the boy's mother, Jan Van Heest. "His eyes were dilated, they were red. He was getting loud."

Van Heest took her son to the emergency room at Lakeland Regional Medical Center where he was given I.V. fluids and released several hours later.

A spokesman for the Olive Garden restaurant, where the incident occurred March 31, said he was relieved the child was not seriously harmed.

"This was an extremely regrettable accident caused by the failure of an employee to follow our strict operating procedures," said Rich Jeffers.

Van Heest said she has contacted an attorney and requested her son's medical records to determine the exact level of alcohol that was in his system.

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