This paper will examine children’s understanding of when to drink. The Natural Hydration Council (2017) proposed that children do not always recognise the early stages of thirst and this can mean that they are vulnerable to becoming dehydrated. Kenney and Chiu (2001) earlier found that children rarely exhibit voluntary dehydration for activities lasting 45 minutes or less. Therefore, it could be proposed that children will not often exhibit the ‘drive to drink’ or express themselves as wanting a drink after physical education lessons, as most physical education lessons in England and Ireland last up to 60 minutes with children being active for approximately 45 minutes.
Previous research has considered what children are drinking at mealtimes, (UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey, 2016) and focused on the water consumption of children attending secondary school. A study in France (Bonnet et al. 2012) concluded that more than two-thirds of children aged 9-11 years were not drinking enough. This paper focuses on children aged between 4 and 12 years, and their understanding of when to drink in relation to their participation in physical education classes.
It is hypothesised in this paper that children do not understand when or how much to drink to remain hydrated, before, during and after physical education classes. This paper will examine children’s intakes and understanding of how much children should drink, according to the total amount of fluids recommended by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The results will also make comparisons between ages, gender and location of the children to ascertain if there are similarities or differences between England and Ireland.
The paper will offer innovative perspectives on children’s understanding of when they are driven to drink or not and help practitioners and teachers to support children to stay hydrated within, before and after physical education lessons.
• Innovative perspectives on physical education, physical activity, health and wellbeing a
