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Water is the base on which human life is made. We use it for our day-to-day activities from washing to cleaning to drinking. Without it, we cannot imagine our existence. Our bodies, the cells, organs and tissues need plenty of water everyday to perform bodily functions, that keep us alive and healthy.
Additionally, water also helps in eliminating harmful toxins from the body, it protects our tissues and joints, helps in digestion, keeps us energized and promotes cardiovascular health.
It even helps in maintaining the optimum level of moisture in sensitive areas like our brain and keeps the spinal cord protected by acting as a lubricant for its perfect shape and movement.
Due to excessive demand, a lot of water is lost from the body in the form of breathing, sweating, digesting and urinating. Therefore, it is extremely important to rehydrate yourself continuously and drink sufficient water throughout the day to stay hydrated and live a healthy life.
Now as easy as it may sound to us adults, it can be a huge challenge when the above piece of information needs to be explained to kids. Making their children drink enough water every day is very challenging for many parents. It is a constant everyday battle that is unavoidable and most of us struggle with it.
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It becomes even harder when kids come across fancy drinks and juices. They want to drink sweet and tangy flavors such as apple juice, chocolate milk and more. The idea of drinking more water and less of these drinks often doesn’t go very well with children. They like the sweet taste and get more inclined towards these. Yes, these drinks are essential too as juices and milk are packed with nutrients that can help your child’s growth, but the importance of water cannot be matched or replaced.
We have to ensure that our kids drink the necessary amount of water each day. Advised quantity of water to drink per day is 30-40 oz for kids and 60-80 oz for adults. But how can you convince kids that water is the most important drink and make them have more of it without forcing it on them? Well, it’s tricky to be honest, but by adopting a few tricks, you can ensure that your little ones stay hydrated every day.
5 Hacks to Make Your Kids Drink Enough Water
To ensure that kids drink a lot of water every day, the best approach you can take is to make it attractive. There are a lot of tricks and hacks that you can follow for this. Here, we have listed out the top 5 hacks that you can turn to now.
1. Make it Fun/Add Games
What do kids love to do the most? The answer is straight and simple – playing games and having fun throughout the day. Why not just make drinking water a fun activity? You can do it by buying your kids special cups or glasses that they will have fun drinking from.
You can try glasses that glow when filled with water or you can go for differently shaped straws. Moreover, you can come up with some inventive games to attract your kids towards drinking more water. You can try simple games such as a race to drink more glasses in one day between you and the kid. Similarly, you can buy different sized bottles, a smaller one for your kid and a bigger one for yourself, and have a fun little competition with your kid on drinking more bottles in a day.
This can motivate kids and lead to an increase in the quantity of water intake.
2. Easy Accessibility
If you want your kids to drink more water, then you should ensure that it is within their reach all the time. Place it in common areas such as their bedside, dining table, living room table etc. for easy reach. You can also teach them how to add ice cubes to their cups, glasses and bottles. This can be very attractive for them and they will be tempted to drink more water.
The sense of independence and responsibility that comes with this can be hugely motivating and exciting for them. Besides, if the water is always in sight, it will remind them to drink it, ensuring that their hydration levels are always up to par.
3. Be a Role Model
If you want them to drink enough water every day, then it is equally important for you to drink enough of it yourself. Kids learn from their elders and reciprocate what they see. To instill good habits in your children, you need to make sure that you follow those good habits yourself first.
If you tell your children to drink a lot of water every day, then it is highly likely that your words will get ignored. However, if you set an example for them by drinking a lot of water and seemingly enjoy it, then your youngsters will more often than not follow suit and do as their parents. Copying what they see is very appealing. Making them observe how you drink water every few hours can make both you and them healthy.
4. Try Alkaline Water
Alkaline Water is different from regular tap water, as it has a higher pH level of around 8-9. But this isn’t the only difference. Alkaline water tastes different, a bit similar to spring water and kids are more likely to enjoy drinking it owing to its crisp taste.
But the major benefit of alkaline water is that it gets absorbed into the body cells better and can keep kids hydrated for a longer period. On top of it, alkaline water is very healthy for your kid, as it restores the pH balance of the gut. It also protects from acidity, heartburn and similar problems in the stomach, which are very common for kids.
It can be a bit difficult to get your hands on alkaline water to give to the little ones every day. But to make it easy, you can get the new 16 oz or 21 oz DYLN Bottle’s. The DYLN Bottle creates alkaline water on-the-go and keeps it cold for up to 24 hours. It comes in various bright color options that kids love and find very attractive. They will love to call the bottle their own and will have access to healthy alkaline water throughout the day.
You should have them carry their favorite water bottle to school and make sure that they stay hydrated and healthy even when they are away from home.
5. Try Alternate Ways
If you are worried about your kid not drinking enough water, then you can try other ways to keep them hydrated. You can give them various other drinks such as lemon water, coconut water and fruit-infused water. Try making the lemon water and fruit-infused water with alkaline water as well, ensuring high nutritional value and a good gut health for your child.
Moreover, you should include food with high water content into their diet. Tasty fruits like watermelon, oranges, lime, strawberries and pineapple have high water quantity and are enjoyed by little ones. Similarly, vegetables like cucumber, lettuce, zucchini and tomatoes too are rich in water content. By including these in the dishes you prepare for your children, you can ensure that they stay hydrated even if they skip drinking the required amount of water some days.
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Final Words
Water is the fuel for our body, needed to perform various bodily functions. But with our busy lives and gruesome schedules, it can be difficult to remember to drink water throughout the day and keep ourselves hydrated. If you struggle to drink adequate water in a day yourself, then you will not be able to help your children drink the required quantity as well.
Despite seemingly being a huge challenge, you can ensure your kids’ hydration by following the hacks discussed above. Of course, you cannot expect all things to work as you would like, especially with kids who can be careless and stubborn at times. If you correctly implement the ways discussed above, you can be sure that gradually your kids will develop a new healthy habit.
That being said, you should always monitor the quantity of water that your children drink through food and other drinks as well. The important point here is ensuring there isn’t any shortage of water in the body, not to overload it with water.
Stay alert, teach your kids good habits, be a great role model and stay healthy.
