Beverage Consumption and Hydration for Kids
By Vishal Patel
Hey all you Nuun lovers! We hope you have had a fabulous summer and Nuun was able to help you stay hydrated for all of your summer fun. Now that school is back in session a lot of little ones are returning to their favorite sports and here at Nuun we want to help you address their hydration needs. As you might recall, our last post spoke about hydration and the dangers of over-consuming sugar; we want to now focus on hydration and sugar-sweetened beverages in regards to children. Here at Nuun, we want to make sure the entire family is hydrated, healthy and happy! It has been widely researched and demonstrated that an over-consumption of sugar- sweetened beverages can lead to weight gain and many other health complications. This especially applies to children as their bodies are very reliant on food and beverage intake. On the other end of the spectrum, studies have shown that children who incorporate a healthy and adequate fluid intake are more likely to make other healthy choices. So, it's a great time to review what health professionals have said about how much and what your child should be drinking to stay healthy.
First, let’s take a look at what the Institute of Medicine has to say about children’s water consumption. One of the many things this organization has done was creating a system of nutritional recommendations used by professionals throughout the US and Canada known as Dietary Reference Intake (DRI’s). A given DRI is what the professionals at the institute of medicine agree is an adequate amount of water to intake to improve and/or maintain health and wellness. They make the follow suggestions for each respective age group: four to eight year olds are recommended to consume 57 ounces; males aged nine to thirteen years old are 81 ounces; and females’ age nine to thirteen are 71 ounces. Keep in mind that this does not take into account individual needs and activity levels, either!
Recently a publication was printed in The Nutrition Journal that summarized data that was taken from parent interviews about their children. The report was geared towards finding out the amount, type, and frequency of water and beverage intake for children aged four to thirteen while comparing those given values to the DRI’s recommended by the institute of medicine. The conclusion was that 75% of children aged four to eight did not meet the recommended water intake. On top of that, 87% of females aged nine to thirteen and 85% of boys aged nine to thirteen didn’t meet the recommended water intake either! For children, the vast majority of daily fluid intake should be in the form of water. A healthy intake of water can lead to increased absorption of other nutrients that aid in growth and can lead to a healthier and happier lifestyle.
The report then goes on to explore what exactly are drinking. Surprisingly, only 27.3% of a child’s daily beverage intake came from water! Milk accounted for 17.8% of daily fluid intake, fruit juices and fruit drinks accounted for 12.3%, soda was responsible for 9.4% and sports drinks attributed to 2.4% of daily intake. In conclusion, with a child taking in about 1.5 liters of fluid per day, children ages four to thirteen had an intake of only 16 ounces of water per day.
By drinking more water, or Nuun, and staying properly hydrated children can potentially reduce the intake of other beverages that contain sugars and excess calories. Our main focus here at Nuun is to help you and your family with all of your daily hydration needs! While most sugary sports drinks these days contain extra calories and contain ingredients that promote weight gain and other health complications, Nuun makes for a portable, sugar-free and low calorie electrolyte drink for kids that is healthy and easy to use! Nuun contains all the necessary nutrients to help you hydrate the right way and none of the stuff you don’t want, for you or for your kids!
