Upper Chesapeake Youth Football League

Here are the key points to keep in mind in making sure your child drinks enough fluids while playing sports to perform at her best and avoid dehydration: 

• Kids should drink before, during and after sports. To prevent dehydration, or, worse yet, heat illness, you should encourage your child to drink cool fluids before, during, and after physical activity.
• Kids should drink on a schedule, not when thirsty. Your child need to regulate his fluid intake by drinking according to a schedule, rather than in response to thirst, because thirst is not an accurate measure of a child's need for fluid. By the time your child says he is thirsty, he is already dehydrated. Consuming cool fluids at regular intervals during exercise protects your child's health and optimizes athletic performance.*
• Kids should drink from their own water bottles. Children should have their own personalized water bottles and need to be reminded to drink 5 to 9 ounces (10 to 18 1/2 ounce "gulps") every 20 minutes during activity, depending on weight (Teenagers should drink more). Younger children should be given water bottles with marks on the sides showing how much they should drink each time or told how many "gulps" to drink.
• Kids' fluid intake needs to be supervised. Children do not instinctively drink enough fluids to replace water losses, so it is essential that you watch to see how much water they actually drink. Parents should remind their kids to drink to stay hydrated, and make sure that their coaches see that they drink enough fluids during practices and games.
• Kids need to be watched for signs of heat illness. During prolonged exercise, children and adolescents may not recognize the symptoms of heat stress and may push themselves to the point of heat-related illness. It's your job, and the coach's, to recognize the warning signs and act immediately.

Choosing the right fluids

• Sports Drinks Are Best. The best source of fluid to hydrate the body - especially during intense exercise in the heat - is a sports drink. Your child will be more likely to drink the fluids she needs if you give her a flavored sports drink that tastes good and stimulates thirst. While sports drinks are absorbed just as quickly, and promote optimal cardiovascular function and temperature regulation as well as plain water, they offer the following advantages: 
  
  • Sports drinks contain glucose and sodium, which increase the rate of fluid absorption by the small intestine;
  • By providing carbohydrates for working muscles, sports drinks improve performance during both prolonged exercise (lasting an hour or more) and when exercising for an hour several times a day; and
  • They encourage drinking by "turning on" the thirst mechanism (research has shown that children stay better hydrated when drinking sports drinks compared to plain water). 
• For optimal absorption and performance, look for sports drinks that contain: 
  
  • 4 to 8% carbohydrate (10 to 18 grams per 8 ounces)
  • About 36 to 77 calories per 8 ounces. 
• Because most sports drinks contain 5 to 8% carbohydrates, it's a matter of personal preference: have your child try several sports drinks to find the one that works best for her. Note, however, that research has shown that children and those in early adolescence prefer grape-flavored sports drinks to apple or orange.
• Avoid sugary or carbonated beverages.  Beverages that contain more than 10% carbohydrate (about 96 or more calories per 8 ounces), such as fruit juices, or energy drinks, or are high in fructose, like carbonated soft drinks, should be avoided. They are absorbed more slowly and can causes stomach cramps, nausea, bloating and diarrhea.
• Avoid caffeinated beverages. Children should avoid drinking ice tea or soft drinks containing caffeine because they are diuretics (promote urination), and because the potential side effects - agitation, nausea, muscle tremors, palpitations and headaches - work against peak athletic performance.  Energy drinks should NOT be used for hydration.

* Note to parents of water and winter sport athletes. Don't be lulled into thinking your child doesn't have as great a need to replace fluids as other athletes. A swimmer still loses body water through sweat in the pool, and can become dehydrated by sitting on the pool deck (a hot, humid environment) between exercise sessions or during a long meet (they always are!). Winter sports athletes (figure skaters, hockey players, skiers) also may not realize the importance of fluid replacementbecause they practice and play in a cool or cold environment, and because their clothing and equipment reduces the ability of the body to cool itself.

Sports Drinks Versus Water: Which Hydrates Kids Best?
By Brooke de Lench Reviewed by Susan Yeargin, Ph.D, ATC

Sports drinks hydrate better than water
A number of studies in recent years have shown that sports drinks re-hydrate kids who are active in the heat better than water. Given a choice, kids will drink a lot more of a sports drink than of a glass of water.

An oft-cited 1999 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology reported that drinking a properly formulated sports drink with carbohydrates and electrolytes(sodium and potassium) increased fluid intake by nearly one-third (32%) compared to water. Because they taste better than water, sports drinks encouraged kids to keep drinking until their fluid needs were met. Another study, from 2003, reported that when drinking water, kids will drink only about 50 percent of what they need.  A Canadian study in the 1990's found that a flavored drink containing 6 percent carbohydrates and electrolytes (the amount found in most sports drinks) encouraged kids to drink 91 percent more than water alone.

 

Sports Drinks	Water
Maintain thirst, so kids keep drinking until fully hydrated	Eliminates thirst, so kids stop drinking before they are fully re-hydrated
Contain carbohydrates which provide energy for peak sports performance	Contains no carbohydrates, so it does not provide the energy a child needs for running and playing all day
Contain electrolytes (sodium and potassium) which speed rehydration, create thirst, makes them taste better, and prevent heat cramps	Contains no electrolytes and lack the taste appeal of a sports drink

 
 Sports drinks replace electrolytes
Electrolytesare chemicals in the body fluids that result from the breakdown of salts, including sodium, potassium, magnesium, and chloride, which the body needs to maintain proper amounts of water inside cells, nerve conductivity, and allow for proper response by the cells to outside stimuli.Electrolyte deficits, particularly sodium, can cause lethargy, muscle cramping, and mental confusion, and even seizures. A properly formulated sports drink containing salts, particularly sodium, replaces electrolytes that active children lose through sweat and, because of their taste, promote re-hydration by maintaining thirst and encourage fluid intake.


Read more: http://www.momsteam.com/nutrition/sports-hydration/fluid-guidelines/sports-drinks-best-at-keeping-sports-active-kids-hydrated#ixzz2ZJP4XnUX

Here's what you need to know about electrolytes:
Important for bodily functions

Electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, and chloride are necessary for:

• Maintaining fluid levels in the body
• Muscle contractions;
• Nerve impulse transmission; and
• Conservation of fluids.

Lost during sports

• Sweating results in the loss of both electrolytes (particularly sodium) and water
• Water losses are proportionately greater than electrolyte losses, so the body's cells end up with a greater electrolyte concentration (this is the imbalance that is believed to lead to heat cramps)
• As the body becomes acclimated to the heat, the sodium content of sweat decreases
• As children matures they also conserve more salt but sweat more.

Replaced by foods in balanced diet

• Salt: Your child's regular diet should provide an abundance of salt. For instance, a 2-pound loss of sweat results in a loss of only 1 gram of sodium -- an amount easily replaced by moderate salting of food (one half teaspoon of salt). Recommendation: Do not give your child salt tablets
• Potassium: Replacing the small amount of potassium lost during exercise is easy. Orange juice, bananas and potatoes are all excellent sources of potassium. For instance, a large glass of orange juice will replace the potassium lost in about 4 pounds of sweat. Recommendation: Do not give your child potassium supplements: not only are they unnecessary, they can cause excessively high potassium levels in the blood, resulting in an abnormal heart rhythm.

When deficits occurElectrolyte deficits, particularly sodium, can occur under the following conditions:

• When acclimatizing to a hot environment
• After repeated workouts in hot weather
• During ultra-endurance events (50-mile runs, 100-mile cycling races, triathlons)
• Hot weather in which sweat losses are greater

• In an individual who is a "salty sweater."

Sports drinks containing sodium:

• Reduce the risk of hyponatremia
• Promote re-hydration following exercise by maintaining thirst (which keeps your child drinking) while delaying the production of urine. By contrast, drinking plain water eliminates thirst so your child stops drinking, and stimulates urine production.
• Encourage fluid intake because the sodium makes them taste better.

Athletes often look for a quick boost to gain an edge.

 

Some – including youth players whose bodies can’t handle the elevated levels of caffeine – are turning to caffeinated energy drinks to provide a burst prior to practices and games.

 

This is a short-sighted and sometimes dangerous approach, said St. Vincent Sports Performance sports dietician Lindsay Langford. A proper diet and adequate hydration provide young athletes all the energy they need.

 

Caffeinated energy drinks increase heart rate and can lead to an irregular heartbeat, Langford said. Minors often have difficulty seeing the warning signs or can become more easily addicted to the effects. That’s why she doesn’t recommend caffeinated drinks to anyone under age 18.“

 

Kids on caffeinated drinks get so amped up, they can’t focus on the game,” Langford said. “They just wind up with a nervous, jittery body.

 

”The proper approach, according to Langford, is drinking water beforehand, using sports drinks that restore carbohydrates and electrolytes during activity and replacing nutrients afterward with chocolate milk or a healthy meal.“

 

If you are properly fueled going into the event, sports drinks are all you need to replace what you lose and keep energy levels up,” she said. “After the game is when it is important to recover any lost protein.”

 

As president of the Heartland Football League, an 800-player organization in Omaha, Neb., John Manna meets each preseason with club members about safety precautions. He discusses concussion awareness, proper hydration, inclement weather measures and the dangers of kids ingesting caffeine.“We have a lot of different programs and emergency procedures,” Manna said. “Dealing with an over-caffeinated player is one of them. We encourage families not to let their kids drink that stuff. 

 

We have had instances where kids are throwing up on the field. Thankfully, we haven’t had anything more serious than that.”Players in the Heartland Football League are immediately removed from games or practices if they show signs of being over-caffeinated. Some of those signs are similar to concussion symptoms – including inability to concentrate and nausea.

 

Manna reinforces good eating habits and better choices for pregame drinks. Some kids, though, succumb to peer pressure or copying what they see at school and on TV. For others, it’s become a habit reinforced by past actions.“

 

Some kids eat the same meal or go to the same restaurant the night before a game if they think they play well because of it,” Manna said. “Some kids have said they take the energy drinks because they had a good practice or a good game one time, so they keep doing it. What about the other times when they felt sick? Why not stop doing it because your body is telling you that?”

 

Michael Koenig is president of the Omaha (Neb.) Storm, a club with 250 players. People have told him about flag players in the league as young as 6 who take caffeinated energy drinks.“

 

We strongly discourage this, and we let the parents know that they are not giving their kids any advantage,” Koenig said. “Drinking that stuff at such a young age can be detrimental to a kid’s health. The jitters it produces are more of a detriment to the player than anything they would get out of it.”

 

Studies have shown that adults in certain situations can see enhanced performance, according to JohnEric Smith, an associate principle scientist with the Gatorade Sports Science Institute.

 

Those same studies, including one by the American College of Sports Medicine, found that individuals who ingest caffeinated energy drinks more often suffer mistakes because of over-arousal, an increased heart rate, increased blood pressure and a disrupted sleep cycle.

 

Another study by the American Academy of Pediatrics warns about increased anxiety and arrhythmias as a result of children who take caffeinated energy drinks. Overuse can lead to caffeine toxicity, and doses of 200 to 400 milligrams can be lethal.

 

Caffeine can also affect a child’s developing neurological and cardiovascular systems. Most health experts do not recommend caffeinated drinks for children under 18.“

 

Ingestion rates high enough to elicit performance benefits can also lead to increased anxiety, jitteriness, lightheadedness and decrements in performance,” Smith said.

 

Carbohydrates and fat are the primary fuels for the human body, Smith said, with carbohydrates the dominant energy provider during short-term exercise. Replenishing carbohydrates during exercise is the best way to maintain performance.“

 

While caffeinated energy drinks and products may seem like a quick fix to fatigue, they are in fact a short-term facade hiding the body’s needs,” Smith said. “Proper nutrition, training, sleep and recovery habits are key for athletes to avoid fatigue and perform at their best.”

 

The first goal is to convince parents of the dangers, Koenig said. Leagues can outlaw the drinks at practice and game fields, but players are consuming them at home and during car rides.“

 

The last thing we want to do is find out a kid has a heart condition and has a reaction from drinking too much caffeine,” Koenig said.