THE NEWS
The study, published 6/1//2015 by the American Journal of Public Health, found 54.5% of children ages 6 to 19 needed to drink more WATER.
Note that in children even mild dehydration can be associated with headache, irritability, poorer physical performance and reduced cognitive functioning.
They found boys and black children were more likely than girls and children of other races to have highly concentrated urine and thus less water intake.
The study showed 22% of children drank no water, but the average child drank three 8 oz. servings a day, along with two sugar-sweetened drinks and a serving of milk.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
All living things must have water to survive.
People can survive for up to 4 weeks without food but cannot live without water for more than a few days.
More than half of your body weight is water.
Blood and lymph are the main ways the body gets food and oxygen to your cells and the way wastes get taken away – this is a very important job for water!! Blood and lymph also have special cells in them which fight infections – they are part of your immune system. We need water to digest our food and get rid of waste.
You also use water to keep your body temperature at about 37ºC.
Water is needed for digestive juices, urine (pee), and poop.
water is also the main ingredient in perspiration, also called sweat.
In addition to being an important part of the fluids in your body, each cell depends on water to function normally.
HOW MUCH WATER?
There is no magic amount of water that kids need to drink every day.
Try to drink around 6 cups of water a day, more if it’s hot, or you’ve been running around a lot, or you feel thirsty.
If the child is going to sports practice, a game, or just working out or playing hard, drink water before, during, and after playing.
When your body doesn’t have enough water, that’s called being dehydrated.
WHAT NOT TO DRINK?
Be careful with some fizzy drinks. They have water in them, but some of them have lots of sugar too.
Some drinks, like cola drinks or coffee have caffeine in them. Coffee and tea both have caffeine in them and so do chocolate drinks.
