A simple and effective way to monitor a child's hydration status is to check the color of his or her urine. Light yellow urine indicates adequate hydration while darker urine indicates dehydration. You can also weigh your child before and after activity. Any weight loss as a result of activity would indicate water loss, which should be replaced.
This answer provided for NATA by the Marist College Athletic Training Education Program.
The first step to avoiding dehydration in exercise is to start with a full tank. Drinking 1 to 2 cups of water in the half hour before exercise is generally enough. Don't force yourself to drink. Your thirst is your best guide. For those who wish to be more scientific about it, you can find out your own sweat rate for a given temperature and exercise intensity.
This is how you do it:
For example, if you lost one pound in an hour of exercise then that equals 2 cups of fluid. Therefore, you should drink a cup every half hour in your exercise.
So this gives you how much to drink, but what should you drink?
Well, to understand this we must remember that hydration involves not only water, but electrolytes also. Most important is sodium. Sodium is the most important in hydration and even in muscle cramping. Sports drinks, like the original Gatorade, were developed for a reason. After exercising 30 minutes to 1 hour, electrolyte depletion becomes an issue. Good sports drinks will have sodium chloride as a major ingredient and sugar also, about 15 gm/8 oz. The sugar helps in the absorption of the electrolytes.
Hydration after exercise is also important, but once again listen to your body (thirst). If you have exercised more than 4 hours, be careful not to drink too much afterwards. This can contribute to low sodium levels, a potential medical emergency.
Androgen insensitivity syndrome is not the same thing as gender dysphoria. Androgen insensitivity syndrome is a genetic problem that affects sexual development. People with complete AIS have female physical characteristics, just no female reproductive organs. People with partial AIS may have ambiguous genitalia and physical characteristics of both males and females, and they may have either a female or male gender identity. AIS is often considered an intersex condition. In gender dysphoria, physical characteristics develop normally, but an individual feels that they have the "wrong" sex's physical characteristics. That means that genetic males with gender dysphoria feel like they're females, and genetic females may feel like they're actually males.
The most important, and probably most obvious, way to prevent dehydration during exercise is to drink plenty of fluids. You should drink fluids before, during and after any form of exercise. Pay attention to your environment, as it is much easier to become dehydrated out on a sports field in the middle of the summer than it is in an air-conditioned gym. Therefore, your environment should play a role in determining what type of exercise you will be doing and for what duration.
The last and probably most important tip is to listen to your body. As you become dehydrated your body will give you signs and encourage you to rehydrate. Some signs of dehydration include dry mouth, thirst, sweating, fatigue, muscle cramping, flushed skin and dizziness. If you begin to develop any of these symptoms you have already waited too long to hydrate and should start drinking fluids immediately.
