I wonder whether parents realise drinking coke leads to mineral leaching? (depletion).

Interesting that it leads to dehydration instead of hydration. It's not a drink at all... more like a 'sponge'.
people treat me like a puritan when I say that Oscar doesn't drink it EVER...yeah, what a terrible deprivation!
Also, I too think of it as exactly the opposite of quenching a thirst and I make sure I drink water or a mineral drink in the same session.
The whole product is pretty loathesome, especially when I remember being in Central America and seeing families with next to no money buy bottles and bottles of Coke for their kids who are brainwashed with the marketing from the US. I have cousins there who drink it, I kid you not, instead of water because they think water is horrible...and before anyone thinks that this is because water quality is crap there, I'll tell you now that everyone there drinks bottled water (when they're not drinking Coke or Pepsi!), so they're opting to buy more expensive Coke than nice water.