POTS

[VelmaKelly]

My teenage daughter has recently been advised to increase her salt intake by 2 tsp per day to counter the effect of low blood pressure and POTS. I'm finding this hard to do in a way which is healthy.

Has anyone had experience of this? Got any advice?

I have POTS. I eat a lot of salted nuts, sometimes carry a pot of salt around if I know I'm not feeling great and drink lots and lots of water.
If this doesn't work I would suggest you ask if starting on fludrocortisone is appropriate

My daughter has suspected POTS. She is a minor- 15 now - but has 5 slow release sodium tablets twice a day. Her blood pressure without the sodium varies but typically 70 over 40. A friend's adult daughter has POTS and was recommended 3l of water a day, regular but small meals, compression socks and has different medication. In our area it seems you don't get a tilt test etc unless you're an adult.

I have POTS (obvs much older than your daughter). My cardiologist advised minimum of 500ml fluids before getting up in a morning, 3 litres over the day He recommended adding electrolytes - I tend to use the Hi-5 soluble tablets first thing as they're easy to manage from bed! Have a big container of the powder for later in the day Salt on meals. As pp said salty snacks like nuts are good to keep with you. Not sure if your dd drinks coffee but I have a good grind of salt in mine each morning rather than sugar now.

If you're considering compression waist high (tights/leggings) much better than socks ime.

DD drinks Oxo / Bovril. Also crispy seaweed snacks. I think it depends if she likes the taste of salty snacks - if yes, then salted nuts etc are fine. If not, electrolyte solutions may help. Or you can get slow sodium without a prescription.

Thanks all. She doesn’t like nuts so that’s out but likes seaweed so I’ll get more of that.