Month: January 2015

How to convince your kids to drink more water

Water will always be an important part of our lives, no matter how old or young you are. Just as you would encourage a child to start reading when they’re young to help their literacy, you’ll want to encourage them to reach for a glass of water to quench their thirst so they stay healthy and hydrated.

Children’s bodies function differently than adults’ and since their body weight is much less, they retain less water.

A study found that many children (84 per cent) were mildly dehydrated at the start of a school day. Children who drank water during the day performed better on evaluations testing their ability to recognize the relationship between words, while those who didn’t, had trouble remembering the numbers they heard. The study analyzed the drinking water habits of 168 children between the age of 9 to 11 to see how dehydration affected their vigor and fatigue levels.

Mild dehydration alters our brain’s structure and functionality, which can impair our ability to concentrate, stay alert, do arithmetic and retain short-term memories. But these changes aren’t permanent and once your thirst is satisfied, your brain will return to normal functionality.

We know H2O offers great benefits, but a challenge faced by many parents is convincing their kids to pick up a glass of water when they’re thirsty.

Children between the ages of one to three years old should be drinking 1.3 litres of water each day and this should increase to 1.7 litres when they’re four to eight years old, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. As they grow older, children should be drinking more water. Girls between the ages of 9 to 13 should drink 2.1 litres each day and boys of that age should drink 2.4 litres each day.

We scoured for some great tips and tricks parents have taken on:

Make drinking water cool. Put on your creative hat to think of ideas that help your child enjoy drinking water. Don’t underestimate adding a small decoration to their drinking, such as crazy straws, quirky cups, neat ice cubes or innovative water cooler machines. Let them decorate their own one-of-a-kind water bottles that they can show off while on the go, which makes kids excited to use them. Dressing up water in a different way every time can help your child warm up to the idea of reaching for a glass of H2O, despite its “boring” taste.

Explain why it’s good. Help your young ones understand the importance of H2O in their lives. Explain to them how not enough water in their bodies can affect their day-to-day and books can help illustrate and demonstrate how our bodies rely on water.

Water makes up more than 50 per cent of our bodies, but it makes up a greater percentage when you’re younger. As a baby, water makes up 78 per cent of your body, but within a year, this drops down to 65 per cent, according to a professor of pediatric neuroscience at Allegheny University.

By showing your kids how to easily fill up their water bottles, you can also sneak in some good lessons about the importance of practicing green habits and how their actions affect the environment.

Make it easy to access. Parents aren’t around to watch their children all the time, which is why it’s important that if children are feeling thirsty, they know where they can find drinking water. Make sure your children know where their cups or water bottles are stored, but also encourage them to tell you or their caregiver when they’re thirsty, especially on warm and humid days. If they are too young to get hot water by themselves, make sure there’s a system in place. Also, whenever they’re out and about, keep water on hand so they become accustomed to taking small sips throughout the day.

Slowly introduce them to the change. It’s the same with breaking any bad habit, whether it’s trying to eat healthier or stop smoking, going cold turkey doesn’t go over well for most people. In many cases, this has the opposite effect. If you want your kids to drink water more frequently, the solution isn’t to pour it down their throats and ban other beverage options; you need to have them slowly switch habits on their own so it sticks, even when you’re not around.

For example, if your children have become accustomed to having juice and pop available at meal times, on a few days a week, have water as the only beverage option at the dinner table. Once your kids become accustomed to this, turn water into the primary drink of choice and make other beverages an occasional treat. Also, you can lead by example and when your kids see mommy and daddy always drinking water, they’ll want to too. By refilling water bottles with a water cooler, you’ll also save yourself money with this change.

Avoid constipation during pregnancy

(Photo credit: Bayu Aditya/Creative Commons)

No one enjoys the feeling of constipation. It’s downright unpleasant to face a difficult and painful time when you’re using the washroom.

If you’ve had the good fortune of never experiencing constipation, consider yourself lucky. Constipation is when it’s difficult to empty your bowels or you pass hard painful stool when you do. Many Canadians, both young and old, suffer from this condition with one in four Canadians experiencing symptoms.

Pregnant women face many changes to their body during pregnancy, but they also have a higher chance (11-38%) of experiencing constipation.

During pregnancy, the body adapts to a growing baby by having your intestines absorb more water, which causes the stool to dry out, and releasing higher levels of progesterone and lower levels of the hormone motilin, which leads to food taking longer to pass through the digestive system. Combined with pregnant mothers resting more frequently and taking more vitamin supplements, the likelihood of constipation increases.

Water is usually a simple solution to relieve expectant mothers from the pain and annoyance of constipation, but it also helps them avoid it too.

Mothers to be should be drinking 2.3 litres of water a day. This will help pass more urine through their bodies and loosen up the stool in their systems, which means they’ll use the washroom more frequently and with less stool each time.

But that’s not the only way to banish discomfort the next time you go to the washroom.

You are what you eat. Indulging in a high fibre diet is just what you need to stop constipation in its tracks and women should be eating 25 to 30 grams of dietary fibre each day. Whole grain and whole wheat foods are great sources of fibre, along with vegetables, fruits and legumes. If you enjoy prunes, you might be surprised to hear that they’re a well-known remedy thanks to their laxative qualities from the fibre and sorbitol, an alcohol sugar.

Go when you need to. You may have picked up the habit of ignoring the urge to use the washroom when it’s inconvenient, but it can lead to constipation in the long run. When you hold it in, you are creating a backlog in your bowel that could have trouble passing through the next time you use the toilet. Going to the bathroom shouldn’t be a painful or rushed process.

Keep your body moving. Exercise gets the blood flowing, the heart pumping and helps move food through your digestive tract. Sitting for long periods of time is the new smoking and adults should be doing some moderate exercise, whether it’s swimming or walking, at least three times a week for 20 to 30 minutes. You’ll feel happier too thanks to the endorphins being released.

Redistribute your supplements. Instead of taking a large dose of calcium or iron at one time, split it into smaller doses. Your bowel movements will thank you for that.

As a future mother, you have enough on your plate. Don’t let dealing with constipation slow you down – simply make sure you have a convenient and inexpensive water cooler solution nearby.

Exercise: How much water should you drink?

(Photo credit: Learn English at DCU/Creative Commons)

Want to pump more weights, run a longer distance or be a better soccer player?

“Practice makes perfect” is one of the best pieces of advice out there for anyone looking to improve their performance, but there’s another habit that all athletes follow – drinking cold water while exercising. It’s simple advice that’s sometimes forgotten.

The warmth you feel while working out is your body working harder, which raises your core body temperature above its normal 37°C. To regulate your body temperature, you sweat. But when you sweat profusely, your body sheds water and electrolytes and once you lose more than two per cent of your body weight, you’re dehydrated and your performance takes a hit.

The warmer your body temperature, the harder it is to focus and combat fatigue. Ignoring the symptoms can result in heat stroke, which is more likely if you’re exercising on a hot day or in a humid environment.

One study discovered that taking sips of cold water before and after your workout improves your endurance by about 23 per cent since less heat accumulates in your body. If you’ve watched the Olympics, you know how much of a difference one or two seconds can make in speed skating event, a 100-kilometre race or a hockey game.

Like many things, moderation is key. Drink too much and your stomach cramps. Drink too little and your body loses its ability to function properly.

The amount of water you drink varies based on many different factors, such as how much a person sweats and how much electrolytes they’ve lost, the type of exercise, the length of exercise time, the weather, the equipment used, metabolism and heat acclimatization.

According to the American College of Sports Medicine, if a 154 pound (70 kg) person does moderate exercise, such as a brisk walk or slow jog, they should drink about 0.6 litres of water per hour.

If you take it up a notch with high intensity exercise, you’ll need to monitor your fluid intake before, during and after your exercise.

Pre-workout: You should be drinking liquids hours before you lift your first dumbbell since this helps your body absorb fluids and retain normal urine levels. Don’t feel thirsty? Eat a small meal or salty snack to encourage your thirst.

How much water should you drink? Before exercising, drink five to ten millilitres (mL) of water for one kilogram of your body weight. This means someone who’s 154 pounds should drink 350 to 700 mL at least four hours before working out.

During workout: Each person loses water at a different rate. To figure out the amount of water you should be drinking, weigh yourself before and after you exercise and replenish your body’s fluids with drinks packed with electrolytes. Carbohydrates will also help balance your electrolytes and boost your performance.

How much water should you drink? Drink six to twelve mL of liquids for one kilogram of your body weight for each hour of exercise. A 154-pound person should drink 400 to 800 mL per hour, which is about three to four servings.

Post-workout: Restore your body’s hydration faster by ingesting drinks and snacks with sodium.

How much water should you drink? For every one kilogram of body mass lost after exercising, drink 1.5 litres of fluid, unless you’ve been working out for hours and replenishing your fluids at the same time.

Don’t worry about having enough hot or cold water stored away with the right water cooler solution. You’ll be saving money and helping the environment too by regularly refilling your water bottle.