Hydration is important for the health of people of all ages, but it is especially important for children as their bodies are developing and growing. Unfortunately, too many children are not drinking enough water on a daily basis. Here is a look at the importance of your child drinking water and how you can help them drink more of it.
Short Term Health Concerns
Your child may already be showing signs of mild dehydration that are easily missed. Tiredness, lack of concentration, and headaches can all point to dehydration. This can affect academic performance, mood, and behaviour so it’s important to make sure your child is drinking enough water throughout the day if they are experience any of these things.
Long Term Health Concerns
One of the biggest long term health concerns for children who are not consuming enough water is obesity. This is because when children aren’t drinking water, they are usually drinking other drinks that are high is sugar and calories— a huge component to unhealthy weight gain. Also, dehydration slows down the body's metabolism, making it harder for you to burn fat. Other long term concerns for dehydration in children include problems with the brain, liver, and kidney.
Why Filtered Water is Best for Your Child
Without getting into all the potential health risks of drinking from plastic bottles, there are other reasons why tap water is the better choice for your child. When your child drinks tap water, they are getting important minerals such as magnesium, calcium, and iron. Magnesium and calcium are both important for children’s bone growth and development and a lack of iron can cause fatigue and loss of energy in your child.
Even though there are health benefits to be gained from drinking tap water, there are still things in unfiltered tap water that we don’t want our children to be consuming, which is why we recommend investing in a water filter that can filter out contaminants such as lead, chlorine, chloramine, and cysts.
How to Get Your Kids to Drink More Water
While you may already know that your child should be drinking more water, motivating them to do so can still be a challenge. Our first recommendation is to make water a part of your routine as a family by drinking it at meal times and snack times and saving sugary drinks for a rare treat on special occasions. Our second recommendation is to make it exciting! Infuse your water with your child’s favourite fruits or let them do it themselves and decide what to put in it! If you still need more motivation for your child, try getting them a special cup or a reusable water bottle, specifically for drinking water from, that they can decorate with stickers or markers!
Sources https://www.webmd.com/
https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/
https://www.webmd.com/
https://theberkey.com/blogs/
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