Man is a being whose body is largely made up of water, we need fluids for metabolism, proper kidney function and flushing out pollutants. Without water, no important organs, including the brain, can function. The body weight of an adult is made up of 50-70% water. For children, this percentage is even higher, for example, for toddlers it is 75-80%. It is clear that there is a different need for fluid intake at different ages of life. Due to physical processes, we lose about 2.5 liters of fluid per day. Although the human body can produce some of its own metabolic processes - about 500 to 900 milliliters, but the rest needs to be supplemented with drinks and food. With a lack of water, the body cannot cope very well. Even a mere 5 percent dehydration is unfortunate. It's enough for us to feel the problems. You may know it - overheating, headaches, fatigue, decreased performance and concentration, and so on, that's just the beginning.

A young athlete moving on the field in the summer will have a different fluid intake and an older lady, for example, who will take only a few steps around her apartment a day. However, there is a general formula for calculating the drinking regime, which is derived from body weight: weight in kg x 0.035 = daily fluid requirement in liters. For every 11 kg of overweight, add 0.25 liters. So if our daily fluid intake is between 1.5 and 2.5 liters, we are probably within a reasonable range. We take into account the individual regime, physical activity, sports activity, sweating, the temperature of the environment in which we move. Fluid intake also includes fluids in the diet, so its appropriate composition can also affect the result. The best indicator of adequate fluid intake is urine color. If it is light yellow, odorless 5-7 times a day, everything is fine.

We mean addiction to drinking water. If you carry a large bottle of water with you everywhere, you are constantly drinking, pay attention. It is a psychological matter where you calm down by drinking every 10-15 minutes. Drinking more than 4 liters of fluid a day can also be dangerous for the kidneys. The worst thing for the body is binge drinking. If you drink 10 liters of water in half an hour, the kidneys are not enough to filter out excess water from the blood, creating a hypotonic environment (cells draw water in), which poses a risk to brain cells, for example.

Sometimes it is not at all easy to get enough fluids into children. In addition, a child's body needs more fluid per kilogram of weight compared to adults because it is made up of a larger proportion of water. The best way to find out how much your child should drink is to calculate simply. For every kilo of body weight, it is advisable for the child to drink 60 ml of fluids. If the child weighs 28 kg, he should drink about 1.7 l. We include fluids in food. When choosing water for children, it is necessary to monitor the composition of the water, especially the amount of nitrates and nitrites, heavy metals, the amount of minerals, the pH value (so that the water is not acidic with low pH).

Children, and especially the youngest, do not feel thirsty like adults, they are often just annoyed, crying, tired, and it is up to us parents to recognize their need. It is important to give them water at regular intervals in small doses and not wait until the acute symptoms of thirst.

The younger the child, the more water his body contains and at the same time he is more endangered by insufficient fluid intake. The capacity of his bladder is relatively small and he needs to get a drink in & nbsp; regular smaller doses. An annual child needs approximately 1 to 1.5 liters of fluid, which he can get partly from the diet and partly replenish by drinking. Basically, every hour, except for sleep, he should drink about 50 ml. The ideal measure is the number of pee diapers (approx. 5-6 per day).

Breast milk is the ideal and most suitable basis for the drinking regime of babies at least half a year old. Refilling the drinking regime with water at this age is only needed in warm weather or at an elevated temperature of your baby. If we start with feeding, it is advisable to include in this process also the teaching of the right drinking regime - a simple rule applies here - clean water is the most suitable choice.

The water that young children drink has its recommended values, it should definitely not have a mineral content higher than 500 mg / l. Most waters with a higher content of minerals contain more sodium, it is necessary to carefully monitor the values of nitrates and nitrites, as well as fluorine, chlorine or other undesirable substances, such as in tap water. It is necessary to choose the softest water that the child's body can process as easily as possible without load.

Chlorine is a volatile substance, so it would seem that it should be removed by boiling. However, it is more realistic that it will evaporate by boiling the water rather than boiling it. There are studies where the amount of chlorine in the water increased during boiling, the most significant increases were when boiling without a lid. As for nitrates, they behave the same, by evaporating the water during boiling, their concentration in the resulting beverage increases. These studies warn against boiling for 5 or 10 minutes, as it can cause more water to evaporate and thus a higher concentration of potential harmful substances (chlorine, nitrates, sodium) in the resulting drink.