Not drinking enough water can jeopardise your child’s school grades —Experts

Many mothers are conversant with their children after playing for a while coming to say that they are thirsty and want water. Often, mothers see it as something to disturb their activity or catch attention. Even at school, teachers turn them back because it also means very soon, they will request to go and use the bathroom.

Certainly, no mother will want to let them use this as an opportunity to wet their clothes or the floor while they serve themselves water. Still, it is an urge that must be met because it is healthy and surprisingly supports their brain development, alertness to school work and promises better school grades.

Children need to drink enough water throughout the day to stay hydrated and for health benefits. Now, researchers say that water intake among children has fallen far below European guideline recommendations, and data suggest that drinking more water can lower sugary drink consumption and even improve cognition.

The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF says no fewer than 26.5 million Nigerian Children do not have enough water to meet their daily needs and are experiencing high or extremely high water vulnerability. This figure represents nearly one-third of Nigerian children.

The Nigerian Government and UNICEF had released a WASH NORM study that showed that although about 70 per cent of Nigerians are reported to have access to basic water services, more than half of these water sources are contaminated. And although 73 per cent of the country’s population has access to a water source, only nine litres of water on average is available to a Nigerian daily.

What is remarkable is that in affluent homes, children drink on average more [sugar-sweetened beverages] than water. Parent surveys show children prefer other beverages, do not realize they should drink more water or water is not available.

“About 75 per cent of the human body is water and without it, the body cannot survive. Dehydration, which results from this is both a deficiency and could be a silent killer,” said Mr Tunde Ajobo, a dietitian at the University College Hospital, Ibadan. He spoke at the World Dietician Day celebration of the Institute for Dietetics in Nigeria (IDN), Oyo State Chapter.

Mr Ajobo said school-aged children should be drinking at least six to eight glasses of water each day to stay hydrated and avoid becoming mild or moderately dehydrated.

According to him, “it will help them to stay alert and focused, keep their bodies at a safe and healthy temperature, and may improve cognitive functioning. Most occurrences of dehydration can be easily reversed by increasing fluid intake.

“Children have immature thirst mechanisms, relatively high rates of fluid loss and high activity levels, and are therefore at a higher risk of becoming dehydrated during hot weather or intense physical activity.

“Particularly in this season, they will demand more for water to replenish that which is lost. They should be given and not shut down. How much water is lost depends on age, body size, physical activity, health and environmental conditions. Dehydration can happen slowly, unnoticed and quickly.

“In fact, younger children and babies are more likely to be dehydrated. Since, there is no provision for water storage in the body, their demand for water will be more and as such, they must be allowed to drink, whenever they so desire to replace water lost.”

The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Academy of Science, Dr Oladoyin Odubanjo stated “most Nigerians are dehydrated; it accounts for our tiredness, headache, and poor ability to concentrate and so on. This can lead to children not being able to concentrate properly in school partly because they are tired and their blood circulation is not good enough.”

Odubanjo, a public health physician, said mothers only need to control the intake of water in children at mealtimes to ensure drinking too much water does not make them become full and unable to eat their meals.

According to him, “As the body system begins to perceive dehydration, it triggers off systems within the nervous system that tells you to drink. And if the child feels that he wants to drink, it is a natural body system that is trying to prevent dehydration, so it should be encouraged.”

In a three-intervention crossover study published in September 2019 in The Journal of Nutrition, researchers investigated the effects of water intake on urinary markers of hydration and cognition among 75 children aged 9 to 11 years (43 boys).

Participants maintained their usual water intake or consumed high (2.5 L/day) or low (0.5 L/day) amounts of water for 4 days before coming to a laboratory to complete cognitive testing. Primary outcomes were performance on cognitive tasks requiring inhibition, working memory and cognitive flexibility assessed using a modified flanker, go/no-go and colour-shape switch tasks, respectively.

During the high water intake intervention, researchers found that children exhibited 34% lower working memory during the switch task relative to the low intervention. Also, higher urine concentration was associated with lower accuracy on the switch task. Children’s cognitive flexibility selectively benefits from greater habitual water intake and hydration.

Easy access to water at school and encouragement to drink during the day are vital in maintaining a good water intake in school children. No doubt, if Nigerian children do not have enough water to meet their daily needs, it can jeopardize the primary educational function of the school day and their overall wellbeing.