Health and the Heat - I have queries!

A can of fizzy pop with a pinch of salt provides approximately the right combination of salt and glucose in a sterile solution to act as a rehydrating fluid, and both are available in any cafe. During our years living in desert climates before western medicine was easily available, this was the company doctor’s advice.

Yes .
I went to a garden party in a silk trouser suit .
Sheer vanity .
Everyone else was wearing cotton dresses .
I stood for a long time in the hot part of the garden .
Other people were sitting in the shade .
I'd drank some wine ,then orange juice and a lot of water.

Later on indoors I drank tea .

I went to get out of bed and ended up on the floor - sick , dizzy , head throbbing and the room was spinning .

I had heat stroke .

It would have been far better if I'd eaten lots of salty crisps with the water and juice apart from the stupid choice of outfit and perhaps joined the other ladies in the shade .

Drinking too much water is just as dangerous to health as drinking too little, it dilutes the sodium in your bloodstream and upsets your electrolyte balance. The hospital must have believed that your daughter could manage by herself or she wouldn't have been discharged.
When my children were little and had gastric upsets our GP recommend that they drink flat Coca-Cola which apparently has the teach elements needed to keep electrolyte balance correct. I have to say that it put them off drinking Coke for the rest of their lives

Trace not teach!

If you have an upset and don’t have electrolytes at home, or coke, the water from boiled rice will do the trick.

I thought most people knew that drinking too much water was bad for you?

There’s an easily made electrolyte drink you can have instead of plain water. It’s also useful for tummy upsets.

Dissolve teaspoons of sugar and half a teaspoon of salt in one litre of water. Keep Refrigerated and make a fresh batch every 24 hours.

six teaspoons of sugar.

I make a similar mix SueD I use cooled boiled water for it to kill any impurities too.

Orange juice and a bag of ready salted crisps is good for a quick fix if you’re feeling the effects of the heat.

We have excellent water here, thankfully, Pittcity but I used to used boiled and cooled water when we lived in developing world countries.

I’ve never needed to make it in the US but where my son lives, their tap water isn’t fit for drinking! ?

I think I'd rather have a can of Coke and a bag of salty crisps!

When we lived in the Middle East, salt tablet were routinely supplied by dh’s company. They were certainly needed during a certain time in the summer when it wasn’t just stinking hot, but there was also around 100% humidity. Many of the staff, inc. dh, had to spent much of the day out of doors.

I was surprised when dh and I were in Darwin (Oz) a few years ago, during a very hot and incredibly humid period, when we were endlessly exhorted to drink loads of water, but nobody mentioned salt - a bit of a dirty word nowadays.

At one point (on a tour of Kakadu) I started to feel very tired and weak, but then remembered the salt tablets we used to take. Plenty of salt on my chips at lunchtime and I was soon fine again,

I grew up in the Middle East and children were encouraged to have a salt tablet with fruit juice (disgusting powdered stuff) before going to school. They would often be covered in chocolate which made us hate them even more.

My Dad had the right idea though. We all loved peanut butter on toast so he’d sprinkle salt on each slice because, ‘It’ll stop it sticking to the roof of your mouth.’

It was a tasty way of getting salt inside us and I still sprinkle salt on peanut butter to this day.

I lived in the Far East for a while as a child and I can remember taking a daily salt tablet. The other thing to notice, if you are sweating on your face and sweat gets into your eyes and irritates them, then you are losing salt and need to replace it. Always worked for me.

i thought this was quite well known.
hope your DD is feeling better now.
it's lesson learned i guess.

I've lived in India and Pakistan. If we'd sweated a lot and had muscle cramps we'd stir half a teaspoon of salt into a glass of water and sip it. If we couldn'taste the salt it was apparently a sign of salt deficiency so we' d then add salt to food, yoghurt and drinks. Seemed to work!

When my DC were unwell I used to buy electrolyte replacement sachets, then I was advised to use flat lemonade.
Is it as effective as flat Cola?

Thank you all for this alert/ reminder and advice. A good headline, powerful personal account, and helpful comments. Note taken.

My SIL I had been suffering from hyponatraemia in hospital it has been corrected now

Nannagarra

When my DC were unwell I used to buy electrolyte replacement sachets, then I was advised to use flat lemonade.
Is it as effective as flat Cola?

I assume it isn’t sugar free coke or lemonade? I must remember to buy some dioralyte sachets. I always used to have some in the cupboard.

If you’re replacing fluids lost be diarrhoea or vomiting, flat fizzy pop isn’t a bad idea, but if your tummy is ok, fizzy + salt is fine.