To prevent heat stress and dehydration in your child or teen—especially during outdoor sports practices or games—follow this advice from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Make sure your child's coaches and camp counselors are following it, too.
- For activities lasting 15 minutes or more (such as sports practices or games, or outdoor summer camp activities), reduce intensity levels when heat or humidity is high.
- Kids or teens who are currently ill or recovering from an illness, especially those involving vomiting, diarrhea, and/or fever, should avoid or limit exercise in the heat.
- If kids are starting a new, strenuous exercise program (say, the first football practice of the year) or have just traveled to a warm climate, they need to acclimate slowly to the environment, intensity, duration, and volume of physical activity and to the insulating effects of uniforms and protective gear. Limit exposure to these and gradually increase it over 10 to 14 days.
- Athletes, parents, and coaches should be aware of conditions that may increase risk of heat illness. These may include obesity, diabetes, medications that affect hydration (including some used to treat ADHD), lack of sleep or rest, and poor fitness.
- Before prolonged physical activity, children should be well hydrated and should not feel thirsty. During exercise in hot weather, kids should have water or a sports drink always available and drink it every 20 minutes. Generally, 100 to 250 mL (approximately 3 to 8 oz.) for 9- to 12-year-olds, and up to 1.0 to 1.5 L (approximately 34 to 50 oz.) per hour for adolescent boys and girls is sufficient (as long as they start out well hydrated prior to activity).
- If the weather is excessively hot and humid; if exercise is more prolonged (including multiple sessions per day) and strenuous; or if children are sweating copiously, they should substantially increase their fluid intake. After an hour of exercise, children need to drink a carbohydrate-electrolyte beverage to replace electrolytes lost in sweat and provide carbohydrates for energy.
- Clothing should be light-colored, lightweight and limited to one layer of absorbent material to help sweat evaporate. Replace sweat-saturated shirts with dry clothing.
- Shorten practices and games played in the heat and institute more frequent water/hydration breaks, preferably in the shade. In hot weather, athletes should rest for two or more hours in between practices or events.
- Check air quality levels before outdoor activity. Use extra caution when the air quality index is above 100.
- Ensure that personnel and facilities for effectively treating heat illness are readily available on site. In response to an affected person, promptly activate emergency medical services and rapidly cool the victim.
Sources: American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Sports Medicine and Fitness: Climatic Heat Stress and Exercising Children and Adolescents. Pediatrics Vol. 128 No. 3, September 2011.
American Academy of Pediatrics: Summer Safety Tip Sheet, June 2010.
