Six Fun Facts about Water that Your Child must Know About

Team StoryWeavers|September 14, 2021, 11:35 IST| 29

‘Stay hydrated!’

This is a common piece of advice given to everyone. It’s important for adults and children alike to drink sufficient water. Water has plenty of health benefits and keeps our bodies running like a well-oiled machine. 

 Children need at least six cups of water everyday to stay healthy. While enough has been written about the benefits of staying hydrated, children may need to understand how drinking water is important to them in an engaging way. Thereby, they will take an initiative to drink water and simultaneously learn about their body. 

Here are some fun facts about water that will kindle their curiosity to learn more about the benefits of drinking water and also urge them to stay hydrated:

Drinking water makes you happy

Be happy and hydrated

There are some chemical messengers called hormones in our body that travel in your bloodstream. These hormones help you grow, feel happiness or sadness and stimulate all other functions that your body performs. Happiness hormones called endorphins make you feel good and when you drink enough water, these endorphins circulate better in your body.  If drinking sufficient amounts of water makes you happy, wouldn’t you drink a lot more of it?

Drink enough water to learn better

What if we told you that drinking water might help you improve your grades!

Expert scientists from top universities in London such as Westminster say that students who drink more water scored 5% higher than those who drank less water. 

 What’s the connection, you may wonder! 

The brain – which helps you think – is made up of a lot of water (almost 75%). And when you drink enough water, it functions better! Your focus improves and you become more creative too. When you focus better, you obviously learn better and the outcomes also improve. 

Don’t wait until you’re thirsty

A lot of you might forget to drink water after a long day at school. You suddenly feel thirsty and remember to have a cup of water or two. Sometimes, if the lessons are particularly interesting, you might even ignore the feeling of thirst. Feeling thirsty is not the cue to have water. It is an indication that your body has lost up to 2% of the total water that it needs to hold. So, don’t wait until you are thirsty. 

 Have those six or eight cups of water everyday!

Drink more water!

 Drinking sufficient water is more important than food

A balanced, nutritious diet is important, without doubt. However, you need to drink sufficient water – it is more important. While food helps your body receive sufficient nutrients and strength, water helps the nutrients flow in your body, helps digestion and is important for your body as a whole to function properly.

In fact, did you know that the average person could live without food for nearly a month, but could only survive about 3 or 4 days without water? 

What are you waiting for? Go have a glass of water now!

Water helps you fight illnesses

You may learn later in your science classes that your body has an immune system to protect you from diseases. Water is an important factor in building up the immune system, scientists say. With flu and covid infections around you, it is important to build up your immune system, right?

Besides, when you have sufficient water, it also flushes out the toxins ( unhealthy substances) in your body through your urine when you excrete. That’s one of the reasons why you are asked to drink extra water when you are down with the flu. You recover a lot sooner!

Sipping vs guzzling: which one is better?

Do you take water in small sips or do you just gulp it down? Next time you have a gulp of a lot of water, remember to take sips. 

When you gulp a lot of water, it gets distributed unevenly in your body because a gush of water enters your body and most of it goes off as urine. However, when you sip water, it enters your body in equal, small amounts and you reap the benefits of water more effectively.

You can drink too much water

There is no number on the number of cups of water that you can have, but you can drink too much water. 

So what happens when you drink too much water?

Your brain works slowly, you may be more confused and your stomach might have some cramps. You wouldn’t want that, right? So, ensure that you drink six to eight glasses of water on a normal day and a little bit more during summer. 

Any other fun facts about water that you want to explore? Share your answers with us in the comments.

 

About the Author


Aparna is a mom, singer and dreamer. At BYJU\'S, she writes stories about learning for children. She believes in the power of music, especially ghazal, the magic of the universe and happy learners. When not writing or singing, you will find her intensely engaged in conversations about life and the power of words.