Restaurant serves toddler alcohol in North Carolina

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WSOC) — A family is still in disbelief after their 2-year-daughter was served alcohol at an Asheville restaurant.

The family went to a Texas Roadhouse to celebrate Derek Gilliam's 25th birthday. They ordered food and non-alcoholic drinks, including cranberry juice for their daughter, Gabriella.

They said Gabriella drank it and it tasted funny. That's when the parents tried it and noticed something was off.

It turns out Gabriella was served sangria.

"I had to rub her belly the whole night and she slept with us because I was scared that she might not wake up," her mother Tiffany Gilliam told Asheville's ABC affiliate WLOS. "That she'd choke on her throw up and not wake up. It was the most horrible feeling ever."

The parents immediately took her to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed her with accidental alcohol ingestion.

"She was staggering and she was kissing everything," Tiffany Gilliam said.

Family members said she is doing better now, but it was a scary couple of days leading to little sleep.

A Texas Roadhouse spokesperson said it was an honest mistake. The restaurant apologized, comped their meals and sent one of the employees to the hospital with the family.

"It was very scary. I mean me my mom, his mom, we were all in tears. I don't want that to ever happen to anybody else's child, Tiffany Gilliam said.

Cox Media Group