Dehydration and
Heat Illness
With the hot days
of summer come summer sports -- baseball, tennis, football practice -- both in
the neighborhood and at camp. Before you send the kids out to practice -- or
just for a long day of play in the sun -- learn to protect your child against
the dangers of dehydration and heat illness. WebMD turned to Albert
C. Hergenroeder, professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and
chief of the sports medicine clinic at Texas Children's Hospital, for answers
to parents' common questions.
1. What puts my
child at risk for dehydration?
The same things
that put you at risk for dehydration: prolonged exposure to high temperatures,
direct sun, and high humidity, without sufficient rest and fluids. The
difference is that a child's body surface area makes up a much greater
proportion of his overall weight than an adult's, which means children face a
much greater risk of dehydration and heat-related illness.
2. What signs
of dehydration should we watch for?
Early signs of
dehydration include fatigue, thirst, dry lips and tongue, lack
of energy, and feeling overheated. But if kids wait to drink until they feel
thirsty, they're already dehydrated. Thirst doesn't really kick in until a
child has lost 2% of his or her body weight as sweat.
3. What can I do to
prevent dehydration in my child?
-Make sure they
drink cool water early and often. Send your child out to practice or play fully
hydrated. Then, during play, make sure your child takes regular breaks to drink
fluid, even if your child isn't thirsty. A good size drink for a child,
according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, is 5 ounces of cold tap water
for a child weighing 88 pounds, and nine ounces for a teen weighing 132 pounds.
One ounce is about two kid-size gulps.
Know that
dehydration is cumulative. If your child is 1% or 2% dehydrated on Monday and
doesn't drink enough fluids that night, then gets 1% or 2% dehydrated again on
Tuesday, that means your child is 3% or 4% dehydrated at the end of the day.
"They may be gradually developing a problem, but it won't show up for
several days," says Hergenroeder. "You should always monitor your
child's hydration." One way to do this: weigh your child before and after
practice. If his weight drops, he's not drinking enough during his workout.
A simple rule of
thumb: if your child's urine is dark in color, rather than clear or light
yellow, he or she may be becoming dehydrated.
4. If my child
develops heat illness, what can I do to treat it?
The first thing you
should do with any heat illness is get the child out of the sun into a cool,
comfortable place. Have the child start drinking plenty of cool fluids. The
child should also take off any excess layers of clothing or bulky equipment.
You can put cool, wet clothes on overheated skin. In cases of heat cramps,
gentle stretches to the affected muscle should relieve the pain.
5. Is it ever
too hot for my child to practice or play sports?
A growing number of
athletic programs suggest that it is sometimes too hot to practice. In fact,
many are restricting outdoor practice when the National Weather Service's heat
index rises above a certain temperature. The heat index, measured in degrees
Fahrenheit, is an accurate measure of how hot it really feels when the relative
humidity is added to the actual temperature.
You may consider
martial arts in an air-conditioned center during the hot days of summer.
Contact us for information on classes this summer.
Phone -
614-899-9033
Web: http://www.koguryoma.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment