Proper rehydration after experiencing diarrhea or vomiting will be essential, especially if your child has had a severe episode that led to significant loss of fluids.
Pedialyte is one option, but I can recommend a much better, DIY alternative. The concept of Pedialyte is a great one, but this commercial drink is too rich in artificial ingredients to be 100 percent beneficial.
What Is Pedialyte?
First off, what is Pedialyte and why do we drink it?
Pedialyte is a commercially-produced electrolyte solution designed to help a person overcome fluid loss after experiencing diarrhea and/or vomiting.
Pedialyte is suitable for usage by both children and adults, according to manufacturer information. This drink can be used to prevent dehydration caused by a stomach bug or food poisoning.
Pedialyte ingredients:
The main ingredients of Pedialyte include dextrose, sodium chloride, citric acid, potassium citrate, zinc gluconate, water and sucralose.
The problem with Pedialyte is that it contains sugar, artificial colorants, flavors and synthetic minerals. You can achieve the exact same result in a much more natural way.
Here is my recipe for a homemade Pedialyte alternative.
A Natural Alternative
You are going to love this recipe because it is exceptionally simple. When you open up a coconut, you have the meat, milk, and water. The water is the highest in natural sugars and minerals, which are the most important to replenish after you’ve been sick.
The ingredients that you are going to need are one cup of organic coconut water and 1/8 to a quarter of a teaspoon of sea salt. Stir the salt into the coconut water until it gets fully dissolved. This is it – your homemade rehydration drink is ready.
Interesting to Note: Coconut water’s composition is very similar to human plasma. So much so that, in wartime, coconut water has been used in blood transfusions! (Source: Campbell-Falck, Darilyn et al.
“The Intravenous Use of Coconut Water”American Journal of Emergency Medicine 18.1 (2000): 108-111.)
And it’s loaded with nutrition.
Coconut Water Nutrition Facts
Coconut water is the liquid found in the middle of the coconut. This water contains natural sugars, as well as a medley of minerals that can restore the balance of bodily fluids after severe dehydration.
Pedialyte contains 25 milligrams of calcium, 2.5 milligrams of magnesium, 25 milligrams of phosphorus, 192 milligrams of potassium and 253 grams of sodium.
In comparison, coconut water contains nearly 58 milligrams of calcium, 60 milligrams of magnesium, 48 milligrams of phosphorus, 600 milligrams of potassium and 252 milligrams of sodium.
Also, it is a wonderful source of iron, zinc, copper, manganese and selenium.
Because of the significant amount of potassium that coconut water contains, you will need to add a bit of sea salt to get a one to one sodium to potassium ratio.
DIY Natural Pedialyte Recipe for Baby, Kids & Adults
- 1 cup high-quality coconut water
- 1/8-1/4 tsp. of high-quality sea salt, to equate to ~400 mg of sodium
Just mix the ingredients and drink. Doesn’t get much simpler than that?
This recipe is much easier and much more natural than Pedialyte. You will be getting sugar but from a natural source and you will be freeing your body from the effects of synthetic minerals.
The drink is suitable for kids, even for the youngest ones. If you find it difficult to make your child drink coconut water, you can add some apple juice to it and make the mix a bit more familiar and palatable.
Disclaimer: This recipe is recommended for children who are older than 1, generally healthy with properly functioning kidneys, and not experiencing severe dehydration or high fever (which would probably require direct medical attention anyhow). And, as always, follow your own doctor’s advice over anything you find on the internet.
hiba says
07/08/2015 at 12:28 pmYou’re right about healthy food but believe me I’ve completely left unhealthy food in fact I never had habit of eating unhealthy food. I really use fruits in my diet and always try to avoid unhealthy food. But I don’t where is the problem 🙁
Anyhow I’ll follow your post and will hope for the best results. Thank you so much
hiba says
07/07/2015 at 2:12 amMa’am whenever I use cucumber juice or aloe Vera gel on my face and let it overnight or at least for 20 minutes, my face produces oil and that mask becomes of no use for me:(
I am facing problem of excessive oiliness on my entire body specially in these hot summer days, though I use multani matti+basin+lemon+rose water mask twice a week, it doesn’t benefit me at all, I still get pimples on my face and have dull face including eye area. I am really frustrated due to this problem plzzzzzz can you suggest me something to get rid of it. Thank you
Calleigh says
07/07/2015 at 9:25 pmhi Hiba,
I’m not sure if you’ve heard that about “we are what we eat” cliche. Indeed, we are what we eat and it shows in our skin. if you keep eating unhealthy food, your skin will show the effects of it. Try changing your lifestyle or eating habits and hydrate yourself by drinking lots of water everyday (8-10 glasses a day). Also, you can detox your body by drinking warm lemon water after you wake up in the morning and before you sleep at night.
Read my post here: https://beautytips4her.com/13-natural-skin-care-remedies-for-oily-skin/
and follow the lemon toner and see how it works for you.
Dolores says
05/14/2015 at 6:11 amthanks fo the good InformatIon but the adds on thIs sIte follow you around and get In your way as you try to read It makes It very hard to read i almost left the page before i was able to read any thing..
Calleigh says
05/15/2015 at 2:13 am@Dolores,
Are you using your cellphone? If so, it’s the phone itself showing the ads. I’m not really sure why there are some pop ads in my site but I normally use my PC and see nothing about pop ads.
My apology for the inconvenience.
Kachu says
05/19/2014 at 9:24 pmHigh quality means
Calleigh says
05/20/2014 at 12:07 am@Kachu,
It means, not the cheap ones