Water break: is your child drinking enough fluids this summer?

Most children in the United States do not drink enough water, and when it’s hot outside, they may need to drink even more.

But getting children to drink water can be a challenge. We spoke with medical experts, coaches, camp counselors and parents to find out how much water kids should drink in the summer, and how adults can help make sure they’re getting enough.

How much water should kids drink on a hot day?

The Institute of Medicine offers recommendations that children ages 4 to 8 should drink about 2 quarts a day. That amount goes up as they get older, with 3.5 quarts a day recommended for teenage boys and 2.4 quarts a day for teenage girls. But that doesn’t necessarily apply to a child playing tag on a hot asphalt playground.

“When children are outside and it’s hot and humid, they need to drink more,” says Stella Volpe, chair of the Department of Nutrition Sciences at Drexel University and member of the panel who set the recommendations. “Their sweating mechanisms aren’t as well developed as in adults so they could tend to overheat faster.”

Although it may seem to some that parents, teachers and coaches are hyper-conscious about kids’ water needs today, research shows that most American children are mildly dehydrated.

There is no exact calculation for figuring out how much water is enough as kids run around faster and the temperature climbs higher. The good news, according to Dr. Kelsey Logan, director of the Division of Sports Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, is that in most cases kids will drink when they need to if water is available.

That makes sense to Sue DiPietro, a girls field hockey coach based in Westminster, Md. “I honestly have never felt like any of the girls have overexerted themselves to the point of dehydration or exhaustion,” she says.

According to DiPietro, the first- through eighth-graders she coaches look forward to the water breaks she schedules roughly every 15 minutes during practices and games.

Still, if children don’t have regular water breaks built into the day they can forget to drink, Logan says. “Some kids may get caught up in what they’re doing and may exercise for a long time without even thinking to drink.”

That’s when parents, coaches and camp counselors need to step in and make sure that kids are drinking enough.

Does juice count?

Yes! All liquids in beverages and foods are included in a child’s daily fluid intake. “Watermelon, soups, a milkshake, all count toward water needs because there’s water in all those foods,” says Volpe. “But we do want children to choose healthier beverages.”

In most cases, medical experts agree that water is the best drink for hydrating kids. “Many parents think the first thing they should reach for is the sports drinks,” says Dr. Patrice Evers, a pediatrician at Tulane University School of Medicine. “But really it should be water, unless your child is in the more elite athlete category.” [+] Read More…

Author: Carolyn Beans

Photo Credit: Photo by NPR

Author: Carolyn Beans

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