Many of us have kids. I personally have five of them, ages 3 to 10. If you’re like me, you’ve probably noticed that drinking water isn’t your kid’s top priority in life. But developing good hydration practices is critically important to your child’s development. When it comes to kids and hydration, it’s important to develop good drinking skills now that will carry them throughout their life.
Most of our kids are dehydrated. The main reason for this is most kids don’t recognize the early stages of thirst such as a dry mouth or fatigue. They are also dehydrated because they are usually non-stop balls of energy, running here and there, which puts a lot of demand on their bodily fluids.
Dehydration, even just a mild case of it, can cause tiredness, headaches, lack of concentration, reduced mental performance and even dry skin. Is your kid struggling in school? Are they irritable? Do they have a hard time getting their homework done? They could be thirsty!
While hydration requirements vary from child to child based on their level of physical activity, their age, their gender, and even the weather, it is a generally safe guideline that kids should be drinking six to eight glasses of water each day. Each class should be approximately 8 ounces.
Your child should drink their first glass of water right after they wake up. This glass of water will start their metabolism and help them eliminate toxins that their body processed during sleep. After that, they should drink about a glass every single hour. Younger kids will drink smaller amounts throughout the hour. A child ages 1 to 4 should drink about 4 ounces at a time. An older child can drink 8 ounces at a time.
If you have a child that states that they just don’t like water, it could be that they are addicted to sugar, which is a drug. They may also be addicted to caffeine or artificial colors and flavors. Withdrawal from any of these chemicals can cause cravings and irritability. The way to solve this problem is to continuously push water on your children. Eventually they will develop a taste for it and they will begin to seek it over other beverages because it makes them feel better.
I recommend that you should not purchase any beverage from the store that is not 100% juice. Even if it is 100% juice, you should limit your child’s intake to a glass a day because juice is still high in sugar and unnecessary calories. Gatorade or any type of sports drink is not a good idea because there are too many calories, unnatural coloring, salt, preservatives and chemicals that your child simply does not need.
The quality of the water your kids drink is also critically important. At the very least it should be filtered so that all of the unnecessary chemicals and contaminants are removed. Ideally, your kids should be drinking a mild alkaline water that has antioxidants in it. The alkalinity will neutralize acid waste and the antioxidants will detoxify their bodies. That means every family should get a water ionizer for their home.
When we are born, water makes up about 75% of our body weight. When we’re older, it makes about 60% of our body weight. Water is constantly being lost from our body when we urinate, breathe, and sweat, so it is easy to become dehydrated. Besides hydration, water helps our bodies in numerous ways. It carries nutrients to our cells, it removes waste products from our major organs, and it even helps to control our body temperature.
So, do your child a favor and teach them good water drinking habits early on. Help them develop a taste for water so that those habits will continue on throughout their life. Life is challenging enough without our kids also having to deal with fatigue and lack of concentration and all the other symptoms of dehydration. So, when it comes to kids and hydration, make it a top priority for your family.
