Water is essential for maintaining your children’s health. Just like adults, hydration is vital for your kids’ minds and bodily functions. As a parent, it’s important to ensure your children replenish fluids to keep up with their active lifestyles. But how much water should your child drink daily? 

Why Hydration Matters 

Hydration plays an important role in sustaining your child’s health. Drinking the right amount of water a day helps to regulate body temperature, improve cognitive functions, and flush out waste. 

Throughout the day, your kids are very active. The more children run around, the more hydration they need to replenish lost energy levels and prevent dehydration. Staying hydrated also improves brain health, keeping children focused in the classroom. 

How Much Water Does a Child Need? 

According to the European Food Safety Authority (efsa), how much your children should be drinking daily depends on variable factors like age and gender. On average, the guidelines for a child’s daily consumption of water are: 

Children aged 2-3 years: 1,300ml a day 

Children aged 4-8 years: 1,600ml a day 

Boys aged 9-13 years: 2,100ml a day 

Girls aged 9-13 years: 1,900ml a day 

In general, younger children should receive smaller servings of water a day. For 4-year-olds, it’s recommended they drink 150ml, whilst an older child can drink 250ml. 

Affecting Factors for Water Intake 

Whilst children should drink water more regularly to replenish energy levels in general, there are various factors that increase how much water they should consume daily. 

Hot Weather 

Young children are less heat tolerant. On sunny days, it is vital children drink more water to replenish the fluid lost through sweating. Drinking water in hot temperatures allows for your kids’ bodies to stay properly hydrated, which reduces the risk of dehydration. 

For younger children, smaller but more frequent sips are necessary to combat dehydration, allowing their bodies to continue regulating a normal body temperature. 

Physical Activity 

It’s well known that children run around more. At school and on weekends, your children are constantly active, playing games and sports that cause them to sweat. The more your kids’ run around, the more water they’ll need to replenish their energy levels and keep them healthy. 

What Are the Signs of Dehydration in Children? 

There are multiple warning signs for when a child is dehydrated. Your kids may not always recognise these signs, but it’s important for parents to watch out for these symptoms, especially on sunny days. 

• Irritability or mood swings 

• Lack of concentration 

• Tiredness 

• Dry skin 

Even in cases of mild dehydration, your children may show these signs.  

Fun Ways to Encourage Your Child to Drink More Water 

Knowing your children need to drink more water is easy but getting them to drink it can be hard. Inventing, fun creative ways to encourage your kids to stay hydrated can help. 

• Make it a game: Why not make a reward chart, giving your children stickers for every glass of water they drink a day? 

• Add juice: Water is still water, even with a few splashes of fruit juice in it 

• Incorporate water-rich foods to their diet: Fruits and vegetables like cucumber and watermelon have a high-water content, replenishing the fluid your child needs 

• Homemade popsicles: In summer, why not freeze some fruit-infused water into fun shapes for your kids to enjoy? 

By ensuring your child drinks enough water daily, especially when they’re active or it’s hot outside, you help them stay refreshed, energised and focused. Our 200ml bottle of natural mineral water is the most convenient hydration essential in a compact size to ensure a refreshment pick-me-up. 

Smaller in size but filled with everything you need, our 200ml is easy for your children to hold and fits perfectly into their school lunchboxes. It’s the ideal size to slip into your bag for short trips to the park, giving your children a quick boost of energy. 

Avant Natural Mineral Water is available to buy on our website, from 200ml, 330ml to 5L to suit any occasion.

Source of information: European Food Safety Authority (efsa)