To think that school children should have easy access to drinking water?

[Schnullerbacke]

I'm sure this has been done before so apologies.

My DD (7) has just had a new teacher who changed the routines around a bit. They are now only allowed to drink water at lunch and are not allowed to quickly grab their bottles whilst going down / coming back up from break time or assembly. This is apparently done so they won't have to go to the toilet too often (which is just outside their door).

I think its a bit out of order but before I have a word I wanted to check whether IABU. I know its important to stay hydrated and I don't think this is achieved by drinking before school start and only then drinking again some 3 hours later.

[mrsjay]

Do you think children should have access to food whenever they we hungry too? I have a 12 year old ds who would love to be nibbling all day......

wel that curlew my dds will say oh Im a bit hungry and go and have something at home cant imagine the teacher being best please if she opened a sandwich in the middle of English

[newyearhere]

YANBU

[DreamingofSummer]

The 8 glasses a day is a myth. The original "study" was sponsored by a drinks/water company

theweek.com/article/index/248725/where-did-the-8-glasses-of-water-a-day-myth-come-from

[DreamingofSummer]

Euphemia



"Doing your teaching input" What do you teach? Corporate speak?

I presume you meant "teaching"

[Retropear]

It's funny my kids drink buggar all at home.They drink a lot at meal times but don't sip all day.

Got a call from school last week as DS had left his water bottle at home and apparently was so desperately in need of it(even though there are plenty of water fountains) he couldn't concentrate and I had to take it in.

Let's just say we had quite a heated chat when he got home.

[KellyElly]

Some kids need to drink a lot. My DD is prone to UTIs and even at nursery has a bottle of water on hand to drink throughout the day.

[cory]

I wonder how this would have worked in prehistoric times. Presumably according to this theory hunters and gatherers would have to spend all their time walking next to a river (with the risk of being eaten by lions and crocodiles) because they would get dehydrated if they ever stepped away from the water for half an hour.

According to a similar theory every path would have to be lined with edible fruits and suitable prey, because it is natural to eat all the time.

(In real life, of course, we know this is not how hunter-gatherer societies work).

In all historic times I can think of, children have played outside for hours on end: nobody has hovered over to make sure they had constant access to drink and the scarcity of cheap unbreakable bottles has meant that they have not been able to cart water around with them. If they wanted drinks they had to interrupt play and go home or go off to find the nearest drinkable stream. This is certainly how I remember my own childhood: you went home for meals three times a day but the rest of the time you spend outside without access to refreshments.

A child who was unwell would have special arrangements made.

But I do feel a bit worried by the modern tendency to treat all children as potential invalids.

[cory]

Even in my days, special arrangements would be made for a child prone to UTI's. But then special arrangements were made until very recently for my dd who had mobility problems- does that mean no child in the school should have had to walk up and down the stairs or do PE?

[KellyElly]

cory I think with girls especially, during the stage when they are learning to clean themselves, water should be readily available as UTIs are more common then. I think reception and KS1 it's sensible to have frequent access to water.

[cory]

Yes, the question is what we count as frequent access to water. There is no reason to believe that say having access every 30 or 45 minutes would not be adequate. It would still be frequent, just not constant.

The only difficulty, I strongly suspect, is that many girls don't drink when they are supposed to. If that was supervised, it would almost certainly be sufficient for everyone except the most stubborn medical cases. But as parents we would have to be prepared to back the teacher up and tell them that you go and find your bottle when the teacher tells you.

I have had one of those children who claimed he didn't get to the loo when he needed to. Further investigation revealed that he never went when he was supposed to/told to because he was busy having fun with his mates. He wanted that time to come out of the maths lesson rather than "his own" time or the more fun parts of the lesson.

[KellyElly]

I have had one of those children who claimed he didn't get to the loo when he needed to. Further investigation revealed that he never went when he was supposed to/told to because he was busy having fun with his mates. My DD is like this too! Probably why she gets UTIs from holding her wee because she too busy playing! She's only in nursery now, so isn't such an issue but I can imagine her being like that when she has more formal lessons.

[CouthyMow]

I must admit, it doesn't HAVE to mean constant sipping - it didn't in my DD's case, just that she took on a certain amount of fluids before 4pm, which DID mean during the school day, as we had buses to catch home.

However, my DS2 drinks reluctantly, and barely drinks 75ml at a time. The ONLY way for him to take on enough liquid IS to constantly sip.

So it's not necessary for EVERY child to have continuous access to water, but it IS necessary for some.

[Retropear]

But UTIs are caused from not wiping properly and constipation.Learning to wipe properly,eating plenty of fibre alongside emptying the bladder every 4 hours are surely the most important things.

If the above were sorted(which for the maj clearly they are) and kids were trained to drink properly at meals alongside remembering to go to the toilet there would be no need for endless swigging.

[ormirian]

Why? Are they living in a very hot dry environment? Will they dry out and shrivel like frogs without a constant water supply? How often do they drink water at home? How often do adults drink water at home?

[Lucylouby]

How many of you saying that your child needs a drink all the time, fed your little babies their milk every four hours. Surely if a baby can go four hours without a drink a child can too?
Surely children can manage to go for an hour or so without a drink, a healthy child with no medical issues will not dehydrate if they are not allowed to drink constantly throughout the day, especially in our climate. If they are thirsty they will drink at break times and maybe after a few days they will remember to have a drink before they sit down so they don't get thirsty.
I don't think I know any adults who sip drinks continuously through the working day. A lot of adults I know end up snatching a drink really quickly before getting on with the next task that needs doing. Their isn't time for sitting/standing around drinking all day.

[ormirian]

lucy - I will confess that I have had times when I have tried to drink as much as I could - usually when I was trying to lose weight. I daresay I was v healthy but I must have had to visit the ladies about 20 times!! It's annoying but not as annoying as it would be when an entire class of 7 yr olds is doing it. It's simply not practical.

[FanFuckingTastic]

UTIs can be caused by strong urine (through less fluids) and holding the bladder.

I have constant access to drinks at college, work or home. Why should it be different for children.

[Feminine]

Like adults, some days we feel very thirsty...others not.

That is why it should be available when needed.

When my children attended school in the US , we didn't have any of this trouble.

Human thirsty = Human must drink!

They even allowed snacks!

I send my dd with regular tap water.

I sneak cordial in to my son's as he is very underweight and suffers with low blood sugar.

[Retropear]

But fan if you drink enough during the day ie at break and meal times you won't gave strong urine.

[FanFuckingTastic]

My daughter would be far too busy enjoying herself at break times to think about drinking more than a little bit. That's why more constant access would ensure she drank enough. Dipping in and out is going to be more effective in the long run for the majority than specific times to drink only.

[SuburbanRhonda]

If you check children's water bottles in school, you'll see that most of them have teeth marks around the spout.

That suggests to me that children who have their bottle in their mouth whenever they want are chewing it, not drinking from it.

[Feminine]

are chewing it,not drinking from it

Still not a problem IMO, at least it is not their nails!

[Feminine]

laQueen

I'm glad you were never thirsty at school.

I was. It was horrible.

Some of it was during the '70's.

I'm not worried about on the hr snacks.

Just don't know why this country makes such a fuss out of nothing!