The importance of water in childhood and the mistake of replacing it with other drinks

Water has vital functions in the body, such as promoting concentration and brain performance, helping to regulate body temperature, transport nutrients to the cells or help the digestion of food. On the contrary, their lack manifests itself with distraction, irritability, fatigue and even apathy, sy

Water has vital functions in the body, such as promoting concentration and brain performance, helping to regulate body temperature, transport nutrients to the cells or help the digestion of food.

On the contrary, their lack manifests itself with distraction, irritability, fatigue and even apathy, symptoms that we must take into account to prevent and try not to appear.

The importance of drinking water in childhood

Although water is transcendental throughout life, childhood is a particularly sensitive stage in terms of their needs. Children need, proportionally, more water than adults for several reasons:

- They have more difficulty than adults to regulate and maintain their body temperature, so, if it is hot, the risk of dehydration is even higher.

- They are not usually able to detect body alarm signals, such as dry mouth when thirsty, until it is too late.

- They are more active than adults, always on the move and not always looking for the most appropriate places, like shade in summer.

- Water in childhood is basic to its growth.

The mistake of replacing water in childhood with other drinks

Recommendations, under normal temperature conditions, and performing normal physical activity, are approximately four to five glasses of water per day for children between one and threeyears, and progressively increasing the amount from 4 years until reaching the approximately 8 glasses that are recommended from adolescence to adulthood.

Water does not only come from drinking, but obviously, some foods already contain it por, so it is not strictly necessary to drink that number of glasses of water, but that would be the total need, covered by all the food of the diet.However, when parents try to keep their children hydrated,

sometimes they turn to drinks that are not water, and that, far from solving the problem, they can cause a bigger one . Substituting water in childhood for other beverages is a mistake:- on the one hand, the dental health of children has worsened during the last decades, and in large part it is due to the amount of beverages harmful to the teeth that exist at reach of the little ones.

- on the other, being overweight, in addition to unhealthy eating habits and physical exercise, is also due to an increase in the intake of undesirable drinks.

The observed trend is alarming,

children drink less and less water, and instead consume tremendously caloric , as well as cariogenic drinks. Not only are included in this group those whose sugar content is high, such as shakes and juices, natural or industrial, but also carbonated or carbonated drinks, whose acids attack the dental enamel, leaving room for Streptococcus mutans, the bacterium mostly responsible for tooth decay, adheres to the tooth, promoting the appearance of caries.It is not necessary to force the child to drink, but always have water, and only water, within reach.