How To Keep Your Kids Hydrated At School

Adequate hydration is not only important to the health and overall well-being of school children but equally vital in cognitive function. Drinking enough water helps children with their learning, socialising and behaviours. However, many parents struggle to get their kids to drink enough water during the day in such a distracting school environment. In this video, we will discuss how to create proper habits of hydration at home; ways for your child to take a water bottle to school; and the psychological foundation that guarantees that your habit sticks.

Why Hydration Is Critical For Children

Before suggesting ways to get kids into healthy hydration routines at home, it's important to understand what makes hydration so important in the first place. The fact is that water makes up about 60% of a child's body and serves as a medium for the conduction of proper body temperatures, moving nutrients around the body to the cells, and removing waste products from the body. Problems that can be manifested in kids who do not drink enough water include headaches, difficulty in focusing, and irritability. More serious effects include things like kidney stones. It is more problematic with children because they are less likely to report thirst; besides, the body water turnover is very high compared to that of an adult. This is the reason why both parents and teachers need to ensure that a child is well-hydrated at all hours of the day.

Getting Into The Habit of Drinking Water At Home

Habits created in the home setting spill over into other life departments; schools are not an exception. Parental efforts to encourage children to drink more water at home are the first important steps to ensuring that this habit is taken up by children and they remain hydrated during school hours. Here's how to do it:

Lead by Example: Kids learn from watching their parents. If they see you drink water throughout the day, they will be more likely to do the same. Make a regular habit of drinking water with meals, during playtime, and at all times of the day.
Make Water Easily Available: Keep water easily available for your kids. Whether it is a pitcher on the dining table or a small bottle that they can carry around the house, ensure that they have access to it without needing your help.
Establish Routine Drinking Times: Integrate water drinking into your daily routine. For example, make kids drink a glass of water when they wake up, before meals, and before bed. These consistent cues will help reinforce the habit.
Positive Reinforcement: Praise and reward your children when they choose water over sugary drinks or when they remember to drink water without being reminded. Positive reinforcement cements habits so they become more likely to stick.

Insight From Research: Habit Formation In Children

An article in the European Journal of Social Psychology indicated that the average time for a new habit to form was 66 days. But these numbers may vary from person to person, based on personal factors and the complexity of the habit. In children, environmental factors and imitation of others' behaviours have strong impacts. A study published at the National Centre for Biotechnology Information stated the importance of parental modelling for inculcating healthy habits in children. When parents make it a routine to instil healthy habits in their children, such as drinking water, the children adapt to these habits.

Relate Home Habits To School Life Using Water Bottles

Now that your child has developed the habit of drinking water at home, the next big question is how to keep this habit alive in school. Schools are a very busy place, with lots of distraction, and it's easy for children to forget to drink. By providing them with a water bottle to take to school, you can bridge that gap.

Why A Water Bottle Is Necessary

Convenience: A water bottle makes it convenient for children to drink water wherever they are, whether in the classroom, on the playground, or during sports activities. It lessens the effort of looking for a water fountain that might end up consuming most of their time, hence discouraging many kids from drinking as much water as they should.
Visual Reminder: The water bottle reminds children to drink water by just having it in plain sight. Every time they look at their desk or inside their bag, it reminds them to take a sip.
Personalisation and Ownership: A child is provided with an element of choice when it comes to their water bottle, allowing for a favourite colour, character-themed design, or even one with their name on it. This increases attachment and, therefore, use.
Tracking Water Intake: Some water bottles have measurements marked on them, which can enable children (and even teachers) to track how much they've had throughout the day. This function can assist them, especially if they lag in their levels of optimums.

School Policy and Teacher Involvement

It is even better when parents are advocating for water consumption with their school system. Most schools have come to recognise the importance of hydration and have started implementing policies that permit kids to take in water bottles into classes. Discuss your home efforts with your child's teacher and see if they may provide gentle reminders to the children to drink water throughout the school day.

Psychological Case Study: Building Habits In A Distracting Environment

An interesting field experiment, involving 40 elementary schools, 8,000 children, and 400,000 child-day observations, shows how short-run incentives can have long-run impacts on kids. The experiment was designed for one aim: to encourage children to eat more fruits and vegetables at lunchtime by offering a small incentive over the course of 3 or 5 weeks.

Key Findings

Increased Immediate Consumption: The incentive program doubled the fraction of children that consumed at least one serving of fruits or vegetables, from a baseline rate of 39% to significantly higher rates during the incentive period.
Long-Term Impact: Remarkably, even after the incentives were removed, the impact persisted. At two months post-treatment, consumption rates were 21% higher than baseline for the 3-week treatment group and 44% above baseline for the 5-week treatment group.

Implications For Hydration Habits

This indicates that through brief interventions, it may be possible to encourage enduring behavioural change in children. Similar strategies could work in encouraging hydration. For example, providing small rewards for drinking water continuously over a couple of weeks can create the habit of water drinking that will last into the future. Once a habit has been created, then one is less likely to need further extrinsic motivation, but the behaviour continues.

Implications For Schools

Schools may implement these findings by providing short-term rewards for drinking water. This could be as simple as giving out stickers or other small prizes for finishing a water bottle each day. Gradually, as this habit gets imbibed, children will drink water all through their lives without having to be rewarded indefinitely for it.

Peer Influence

If children do not notice others drinking water or, for some reason, your child feels embarrassed to drink in class, then they may not keep up their hydration schedule. Request your child to discuss with their peers why they bring a water bottle and are seen drinking from it regularly so that such behaviour becomes normal for all of them.

Boredom With Water

Some children may feel that plain water is just boring after a long time. To make it more exciting, at times, they can be given water with a slice of lemon, a slice of cucumber, or some berries. This will not only add flavour to the water but can also make it look more delicious.

Conclusion

Good hydration habits in childhood set the stage for a lifetime of healthy behaviour. Physical health, cognitive function, and emotional well-being are all hinged on hydration; it could make a great difference in how your child performs and feels at school. Setting up these habits at home, supporting them with a water bottle at school, and involving educators in the process will ensure that your child remains hydrated and healthy during the school day.