Saturday, March 19, 2011

Oral Rehydration Solution

What do you do when your little one is sick with a GI bug, getting dehydrated, but is allergic to Pedialyte? You save yourself a trip to the store, for once save money, and mix up your own rehydration drink!

This recipe is courtesy of the World Health Organization. I was able to locate it thanks to one of my little guy's team of doctors, so I'm reposting it here since even he had a difficult time finding the exact recipe. The more people that know the recipe the better!

Here is the original recipe, which can be found at rehydrate.org. C's nutrition specialist recommended the recipe #3.

For 1 Liter of oral rehydration solution mix:

  • 1 Liter cold drinking water
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt (I used Kosher)
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 Tablespoons sugar (can substitute honey)
Stir until sugar and salt dissolve.  Store cooled and discard any remaining solution after 24 hours.

I tasted it afraid it was going to be salty and it wasn't! I was pleasantly surprised! To me the commercial drinks are far too sweet, where this is just slightly sweet. If I end up with this rotten virus I'll be mixing up some of this solution for myself instead of chugging the dye-filled Gatorade my husband has been drinking.

*Update* I tasted some of the solution after it sat in the refrigerator overnight and it was horribly salty! I guess when I first tasted it the salt hadn't dissolved completely.  So in the future I will be sure to mix up really small batches because it sure tasted better at first!

5 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for this, my daughter can't have pedialyte either. I hope your family is well soon!

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  2. what about using coconut water as a rehydration beverage - natural, tastes yummy. Really helped my husband after working hard outside rebuilding a retaining wall - was getting some muscle cramping through he was drinking lots of water - the coconut water really went to work fast and helped the cramping -

    http://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/hwnl_4-4.htm

    Be well, Lori

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  3. Thank you for this, but can I used hot boiled water instead of cold drinking water? I will cool it down before give it to my son

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  4. Anonymous, I think boiling water then cooling it would be absolutely fine to use for this solution. Take a look at http://rehydrate.org if you have more questions-- that's where this recipe came from and I wouldn't be surprised if they mention boiling the water first if you have concerns about water cleanliness.

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