The importance of hydration is one of the few things everyone in the health industry can agree on. Being well hydrated plays a massive role in overall health and well-being. Kids are particularly vulnerable to dehydration because of their active nature and fast metabolism.
Most people don’t know that the percentage of water that makes up our bodies varies depending on age and gender. Our body’s composition of water is highest when we are born and slowly decreases as we age. Infants are made up of approximately 75% water. This number then decreases to 65% for children and settles at around 50-60% in adulthood.
Water serves us in many ways:
- Regulates body temperature
- Controlling fluid balance in cells
- Insulates the brain, bones, and organs
- Metabolizes proteins and carbohydrates
- Removes waste and toxins from the body
- Acts as the main solvent for everything that is ingested
- Carries oxygen and nutrients through the body
Hydration affects almost all of our bodily functions. It’s not always easy to drink enough water to get to the recommended eight glasses per day. This can be even more difficult for kids; drinking water isn’t exactly the first thing on kids’ minds. Kids are easily distracted and don’t understand the importance of staying hydrated—it’s easy for them to forget to drink throughout the day.
Supplementing with electrolytes is an easy way to help kids stay hydrated.
What Are Electrolytes?
Electrolytes are a mineral substance that conducts electricity when dissolved with water. Electrolytes play a huge role in our body’s hydration as well as serving numerous other bodily functions.
Common electrolytes are minerals such as sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and chloride. These minerals help conduct electrical signals through your body, connecting the brain and muscles. Many of these electrolytes can be found in healthy foods that are already in our diet. For example:
- Salt, pickles, and cheese contain sodium
- Bananas, potatoes, and mushrooms contain potassium
- Spinach, nuts, and avocado contain magnesium
Our electrolyte levels can be too high or too low, and both imbalances are unfavorable.
Electrolytes leave our body through fluids like sweat and urine. Any illness that causes vomiting, diarrhea, or fever will increase the risk of becoming dehydrated. Profuse sweating from an intense workout or extreme heat are also common ways for people to lose a lot of fluid.
An imbalance of electrolytes can cause symptoms like dizziness, fatigue, muscle weakness, nausea, vomiting, and more.
What Do Electrolytes Do?
Electrolytes help our bodies carry out many of their essential tasks. This is largely because electrolytes play a big role in balancing our hydration, and hydration is crucial for just about every bodily function.
Electrolytes support functions such as:
- Proper hydration levels
- Regulating blood pressure
- Cell health for the nervous system
- Muscle functioning
- Internal pH levels
Changes to the amount of water in our body can cause our electrolyte levels to become either too high or too low; both imbalances will negatively affect our health and well-being.
Why Kids Need Their Electrolytes
Electrolytes are too often overlooked as an important factor in our overall health. Kids require up to eight cups of water during the day to stay properly hydrated. We all know to drink that much water is not as easy as it sounds. Achieving this recommended intake is even harder for younger kids. Kids are especially vulnerable to dehydration because of their active nature, fast metabolism, and in all honesty, picky eating, and drinking habits.
Recovery from Sickness
Sicknesses can cause symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, and fever, all of which will deplete their hydration levels. Unfortunately, a sick child is even less likely to toss back their daily eight glasses of water a day than they normally are. Being well hydrated plays an important role in the recovery from illness. Electrolyte products are an easy way to help your child hydrate, feel better, and get back on their feet as soon as possible.
Recovery after Physical Activity
A high- energy exertion day can leave kids feeling drained without the ability to recognize that dehydration is what they’re experiencing. Dehydrated children will exhibit symptoms such as fatigue, confusion, irritability, and muscle soreness. While these symptoms could be attributed to several things, they can often be resolved by rehydrating.
Boosts Energy Levels
Playing and exploring is one of the most important things in children’s development. It helps them learn, keeps them active, and encourages social interactions. Electrolytes promote the body’s ability to absorb fluids and nutrients; this helps muscles feel energized. An analogy of a car may help convey how this works: if your body is a car, food is the fuel, and electrolytes are the engine oil. Both components are crucial for a strong, smooth ride. Supplementing with electrolytes will help produce energy to fuel muscles. Healthy and hydrated muscles enable kids to walk, run, skip, and be their playful selves.
Improved Performance in the Classroom
Dehydration can cause fatigue and affect memory, attention span, and motor skills, all of which negatively impact your child’s ability to learn. With gym class, running around at recess, and playing in the playground, it’s easy for children to become dehydrated while they’re at school. Electrolytes support hydration, which promotes clear thinking and can improve kids’ academic performance at school.
The Problem
Electrolyte supplements are a healthy and easy way to keep kids hydrated. The problem is that most oral electrolyte solutions are made with artificial chemicals and sweeteners. Some pediatric electrolyte solutions have extensive ingredient lists that include unnecessary and highly engineered ingredients like Sucralose, Acesulfame potassium (Ace K), Blue 1, Red Dye 40, and Yellow No. 6.
Ingredients that we can barely pronounce are not something that should be in children’s supplements.
Some companies have tried to make their rehydration products more “natural” by adding juice. However, juice just doesn’t cut it. As a sweetener, juice doesn’t rehydrate directly to the bloodstream the way that glucose does. Juice-like drinks are perfectly acceptable for their pleasant taste, but they do not produce medical-grade hydration results that oral electrolyte solutions do.
4 Things To Look For in Kids Electrolyte Products
1) Efficacy
Choose products that use dextrose, and avoid fructose (juice). Fructose is a complex sugar that has to be further broken down in the digestive system before it can be absorbed; this is the “slow lane” for absorption.
The solution is instant absorption technology (IAT). IAT is a delivery system designed to transport electrolytes and other nutrients to the bloodstream faster. IAT mixes glucose and sodium and leverages their co-transportation property, which allows the body to absorb nutrients earlier during the journey through the digestive tract.
Look for products that use dextrose to ensure your little ones feel better, faster. Kinderlyte is the first company to offer Instant Absorption Technology in a hydration product.
2) Doctor Formulated
Look for an oral electrolyte solution that is formulated by doctors and dieticians. Our kids’ health means everything to us. Only trust the experts to create the most effective, healthy, and natural supplements for them. A doctor-formulated supplement contains more electrolytes, potassium, and zinc than other leading brands, making it the obvious and only acceptable choice for our loved ones.
3) Clean Ingredients
Avoid supplements that contain harmful ingredients like artificial colors, flavors, and sweeteners. There are product options that work even better and are free from any artificial additives, making them both natural and effective.
An artificial sweetener like sucralose is damaging to gut health. A 2008 research study found that sucralose can reduce healthy gut bacteria by 50%, increase the intestine’s pH level, and get absorbed into and accumulates in fat tissue. Why would we want to give our kids something harmful to them when they’re already feeling their worst?
Look for an electrolyte product that is made with real, natural ingredients. Juice supplements can be deceiving because of the use of fruits and vegetable images on packaging. Remember that adding juice to a supplement slows down absorption and hydration – no sub-par supplements allowed. Look for clean ingredients to help you choose effective hydration that is powered by nature.
4) Fun Taste
Kids need something that tastes good. It’s easy to help kids hydrate when there’s a beverage supplement that comes in their favorite flavors. Kinderlyte creates electrolyte solutions in delicious flavors like orange, grape, and fruit punch.
Other products commonly contain coconut water or honey to try to achieve a pleasant taste. However, these additives result in slower absorption, which diminishes their efficacy; this defeats the point of the beverage in the first place.
Not All Supplements Are Created Equal
Water is the most essential element in any and every diet. Kids need to be well hydrated to feel their best and have the energy to learn, play, and grow.
For parents, a child’s health is the most important thing. With hundreds of things to worry about at any given moment, hydration doesn’t need to be one of them. An oral electrolyte solution is an easy, effective, and tasty way to help kids rehydrate.
Not all electrolyte supplements are created equal. When we’re trying to help our children feel better, the last thing we should be giving them is juice drinks or electrolyte solutions with long ingredient lists full of unnecessary chemicals and artificial additives.
Look for solutions that are doctor-formulated, effective, and made with real, natural ingredients.