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Since kids can get dehydrated very quickly it's worth thinking about whether your children are getting enough during the day.

Infants have a higher percentage of water in their bodies and a very vulnerable to dehydration. They lose much more water from their weight compared with adults - 15% of fluid per day compared with 4%. For example, a 5 Kg child needs 0,75 litres per day to replace lost fluids compared with 2,9 litres for a 70 Kg adult male. A 10 Kg child needs around 1 litre (about 4 standard cups of water). A ten-year-old also needs around 1 litre.

When children are playing or exercising, they use up their body's water supplies and it's important that they replace the fluids they lose through sweating and being energetic.

How Do I Know If My Child is Dehydrated Enough?

There's no quick answer to this because our bodies don't tell us when they're running low on water. By the time your child says they're thirsty they will already be dehydrated and may be exhibiting some unwanted side effects. Here are some symptoms of dehydration in pre-schoolers:

• Dry coated tongue
• Thirst
• No tears when crying
• Slightly sunken eyes

However, this list doesn't cover all the possible symptoms of dehydration and your child may not experience all of them during an episode of dehydration.