It is important that you teach your children that water is important because it makes up between 60 – 70% of their bodies and that they need to drink water regularly throughout the day to replace the fluid that they lose via sweating, urinating etc.
Explain to them that drinking carbonated drinks is not the same, and that they still need to drink plain water. Get your children in the habit by giving them a breakfast that includes water, milk, and fruit juice or vegetable juices.
Inform your children of the following facts:
- Water is lost from our body constantly (when we go to the toilet, when we breathe, when we sweat) so if we don’t drink enough we become dehydrated.
- Water helps our body in many ways:
- It carries nutrients to cells;
- It helps to remove waste products from our major organs;
- It helps us to control our body temperature.
- Water can be found in all drinks, including orange juice and milk; it also in food such as fruit and vegetables, and these can make up around 20% of the daily required liquids, but the other 80% needs to come from drinking plain water
Dehydration means that we become thirsty, our lips get dry, we get a headache, and we may struggle to think clearly or to do mathematical calculations.
Explain to your children that when they are doing sports or it is very warm outside they perspire a lot, and that means that they are losing more water, which means that they need to drink more water than on other days.
If your children do not like drinking water, you can help them to develop a taste for it by adding a slice of lemon, some cordial or fruit juice to give it a better taste, or give them a curly straw to drink it with.
Investing in a water cooler is another way of getting them to drink more water, and it is a far healthier way too, as most water coolers are fitted with filters which ensure that the water is free of all pollutants and toxins.
