to wish that parents would send their children with water bottles etc

[katydid02]

Children are hot and thirsty with this lovely weather and yet parents are sending them to school with no water bottles, no sun hats and without suncream. 2/30 had a sunhat today and only about 10 had water bottles.

[LadyBryan]

My daughter's school provide hats and water bottles for every child. The bottles are filled up each day and they're allowed access to them whenever they want. I think its an excellent message to be teaching quite frankly, that water should be drunk throughout the day.

The teachers apply suncream to the children as and when it is required.

[marriedinwhiteagain]

Viviennemary we did too but looking back to my 60s/70s childhood with a sip of tea or milk at nreakfast because I didn't really like it and half a plastic cup of tepid wayer at lunch with an occasional slurp at a water fountain because I couldn't really do it, and I know the cause of my regular and debilitating headaches - the sort I only geyt now oif I have a hamngover :(

[DonutForMyself]

I send mine with a bottle of water or juice in their lunchbox and a bottle of water for the classroom. They invariably bring both home with about a teaspoon of liquid missing. I then pour almost 2 entire bottles per child down the sink/onto the plants/put it back in the fridge so they can drink another teaspoon the next day.

If for whatever reason they don't take an extra bottle I can't imagine they will miss it.

I also don't send them with sun cream every day, as their skin became so dependent on it a few years ago that they could barely step outside without burning. Since using it less they have built up some natural protection from the 20 minutes or so that they are outside. They do take hats, but I don't know if they wear them.

If they're outside for a few hours then fair enough, but when they spend most of the day indoors, they end with sore eyes from rubbing the sun cream into their eyes and feeling sticky and horrible, I think it's unnecessary all the time.

[umpti67]

Oh how i wish they were allowed to take water bottles. They're not. And they only provide 15 cups for 30 dc. So every day mine comes home gasping for a drink, dehydrated with a headache. Thank god she's leaving in two days.

[curlew]

". The bottles are filled up each day and they're allowed access to them whenever they wantI think its an excellent message to be teaching quite frankly, that water should be drunk throughout the day."

Could you tell me why you think water should be drunk throughout the day?

[Feminine]

Well, I've known about it drinking before thirsty for years. Long before sports drinks.

But, I'm glad to be proved wrong. My bladder is not what it once was, this news will be quite liberating!

[pudding25]

Oh for god's sake. Again, schools getting bashed. It is bloody boiling. Classrooms are stuffy and overheated. Mine was 32 degrees all week. Children are hot, bothered and thirsty. I know I am. All the kids in my class (Yr 5), have water bottles, have regular access to them throughout the day, and are drinking lots in this weather because they are thirsty!

As for not suffering from the heat in the 70's-I used to regularly get burned to shit in Scotland. Not great and worry about skin cancer in the future.

Such a fuss from some people over nothing.

[kooksi]

Another 'I'm a better parent than you' thread *yawn

[Emilythornesbff]

I think it would be a good idea for children to take water bottles to school. Or have good access to a water fountain.
I love the deranged and paranoid delusion suggestion that thirst and dehydration is a marketing ploy though. Bloody hell. Do you not get thirsty in the heat?
Thirst, headaches and constipation are all seen more commonly among children during hot weather because fluid loss is increased through perspiration
Excellent idea op.
I suppose many schools don't allow it though?

[parakeet]

Dear Emily you haven't been reading our posts properly. No one is saying thirst is an invention of the drinks industry. No one is saying you don't feel more thirsty in the heat. And if you didn't respond to that thirst, then yes, you probably would become dehydrated.

What we're saying is, all you need to do to prevent dehydration is drink when you feel thirsty. It's a mechanism that has served us well for millions of years, when we lived in places a lot hotter than the British Isles.

[Emilythornesbff]

WipsGlitter Thu- 18 -July-13 17:35:56

"it's not the Serengeti. People here are obsessed with dehydration. It's a marketing ploy to get you to buy water!!"

I can read.

[Emilythornesbff]

If they don't have access to water (via bottle or easily accessible fountains) then they can't drink when they're thirsty.
Can they?

Or can they?

[Cremolafoam]

"How did we survive the 70's"

Can I just say some if us didn't. My brother died from skin cancer and both me and my sister have had malignant moles removed .this as direct result of over exposure with out protection.
Sun cream and a hat could save your life.

[Emilythornesbff]

Sorry cremolafoam
Very salient point.

[curlew]

Of course thirst and dehydration is not an invention of the drinks industry.

The idea that you have to sip water continuously to avoid these things is.

[wonkylegs]

Our DSs school doesn't allow water bottles aside from with packed lunch but does give access to water all day.
We are asked to put suncream on children before they come to school as they won't allow it to be brought in (no time to put it on and it makes a lot of mess)
Hats are allowed but there is also shade in the playground.

[curlew]

I do think it's fascinating that the necessity to sip water continuously has become such an article of faith that nobody questions it. Those who have questioned it on this thread have generally been ignored.

As I said,I wish I had bought shares in a bottled water company in the 1980s.

[LadyInDisguise]

Or perhaps, people are also completely over the top re hats and suncream?
I mean, if you have ever lived in warmer countries, you will have learnt that:
1- you can live wo a hat and suncream on and no it doesn't mean you will get skin cancer/sunburnt or whatever.
2- You can live wo any permanent damage top your health in a 30oC heat.
BUT
3- you just don't go out running in the sun when it's at its highest. Or not for hours and hours
4- you do adapt what you are doing to your own skin tone (eg my dcs have been in the sum wo a hat and suncream but haven't had one sunburn)
5- you use that fantastic time we finally have with some sun to make the most of it, incl making the most out building up your vitamin D stock.
6- And yes either the school has a fountain or children need a water bottle. I am more when the school insists on water bottle when there are some water fountains available because apparently, children should have access to water at any time.

[LadyInDisguise]

This drinking a bit everyday is linked with the fact that some people tend to drink only at meal time and drink at meal time means a coffee/tea/soft drink which doesn't hydrate properly.
So a quick fix solution is to say that you should drink little all the time to help that (ie you will have drunk some water during the day and not just tea/soft drinks etc...)
However, I would question how on earth we have become people who are so out of touch of your body that you can't recognize the sign of thirst!

[curlew]

"a coffee/tea/soft drink which doesn't hydrate properly."

Yes, they do. Honestly. Bodies are clever than you think they are!

[shufflehopstep]

Bodies are clever than you think they are!

Exactly. It doesn't matter what you eat, your body will break it down into its component parts and use all the bits that it needs. This includes water. So, unless you're eating dry dog kibble all day long, most of your fluid intake will be in the food you eat anyway, and if your body is short of it, you will get thirsty. You will then drink until your thirst is quenched and will be fine again.

[MrsHeinzDoofenschmirz]

HeySoulSister I did originally say migraine, you were actually the one who asked how I knew it wasn't just a headache.
And yes, people do get migraines for other reasons all year round. I get blinding ones if I don't get enough sleep over a certain length of time. But I wasn't talking about migraines in general, I was talking about my son getting one because he was dehydrated due to being overheated and not drinking enough water. He also gets them if he doesn't drink enough at other times of the year. But because it's been a lot hotter than usual the past couple of weeks, he's needed more water than normal.

[Emilythornesbff]

Tea, squash etc are perfectly adequate for hydration. (interesting fact)

But an ice cream parlour in the school refectory would really be the best thing this week. That would get my vote

And a sprinkler in the playground.

[parakeet]

Dear Emily are you really sure you can read?

"it's not the Serengeti. People here are obsessed with dehydration. It's a marketing ploy to get you to buy water!!"