Our body is composed mainly of water and it is being taught in the school too. But even though the kids know about the importance of water for their body they are still not conscious about it. And some parents are not aware too that their kids are not drinking enough water. But before I tell you some tried and tested 5 Ways To Encourage Kids To Drink More Water, let us answer first the very basic question: How many water does a kid needs? We know that adults need at least 8 glasses of water or at least 2 liters of water a day. How about the kids? Do they need the same amount of water too? Is 8 glasses of water not too much for the kids?
From Healthy Kids, kids ages 5 to 8 years old need at least 5 glasses of water of 1 L. Kids ages 9-12 years old need at least 7 glasses while kids 13 years old and up needs 8-10 glasses of water. I am quite surprised when I first learned about this. Clearly, my kids are not drinking enough water. It’s a sad discovery for me but the good thing is I can do something about.
How to encourage the kids drink more water? Here are tried and tested 5 Ways To Encourage Kids To Drink More Water:
1 L bottle water with straw. That’s the first thing we did. We started with 1 L even with the older kids. I bought them drinking bottles with straw. I make sure that within the day, they were able to finish all what’s in there. From there we work on making it 2 bottles per day. The straw really helped them in making it easier to drink water.
Make water available. This can be really tricky at first and can be very stressful for the mom. You need to always make sure that there is a supply of water for the kids. It can be cold or warm depending on what they like. My kids like it cold so I always make sure that their water bottle is full of cold water all day.
Timed Drinking. This is very helpful in establishing a routine for the kids. Make drinking an hourly habit. This works well with kids who are not yet going to school, that age is the best age too to practice drinking more water.
Water only please. Your house should not offer any other drinks, only water. Here in our household, we seldom buy colored drinks such as fruit juices and soda.
Remind. Remind. Remind. Yes you need to do it not just twice, thrice but every chance you can get. If it needs to be reminded every 30 minutes, do it.
Water is very crucial to the body specially in boosting the immune system and keeping the kids healthy. I hope your kids are drinking enough water.
