Hydration Checks/Chants at Encampment

[Spaceman3750]

How is it that every time we talk about hydration we jump off the proverbial turnip truck and talk about how water kills you? If someone is burning through two Camelbaks an hour that's a problem, but it's far less prevalent than dehydration.

[Perez]

In all honesty I don't think hydration chants are necessary, but in my opinion that shouldn't stop anyone from doing it. They're fun, help develop a sense of esprit de corps, and it ensures cadets don't wait until they've lost a significant amount of water and get thirsty to start drinking.

Over last summer I begun so much water that my mom was worried I would over hydrate, so I decided to cut back on my water intake; it didn't do me any good and I actually felt worse for it. The thing is that if it's not all at once, and you're eating regular meals/ drinking any kind of sports drink, your body will have time to replenish electrolytes. In grade school I had a friend who drank so much water than he actually ended up regurgitating some. While this probably wasn't a good idea he survived to tell the tale and is now a happy healthy member of my squadron.

[jimmydeanno]

I see two factors at play.

1) Cadets underestimating the importance of water to the function of life.  They often get caught up in the excitement of encampment, or they're afraid of drinking at certain times.  They often wait until they're thirsty to drink (sign of dehydration), fail to tell people they're out of water, or think that they can make it to the next meal where there's "flavored water" available.

2) Staff overestimating the necessity of water.  In response to factor 1 above, the staff "makes" the cadets drink 10X more water than they need, so they don't have to fill out safety forms.  So, encampment policies result in hydration checks like this.

I've had cadets complain to me that they couldn't possibly drink any more water.  One encampment I went to required that cadets drink a specified number of canteens per day.  However, policies like that fail to realize that individual body composition requires differing amounts of water. 

I can usually point out the cadets that are going to have trouble with doing things like drinking water pretty early in the week.

[spacecadet97]

Speaking from experience, a good general baseline for drinking water at encampments/ES work is about one canteen every 1-2 hours, with a sports drink mix being served at lunch. Commanders can then judge if its too much(very rarely), too little (which happens sometimes), or just right ( which happens >80% of the time).

[Hawk_Girl]

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/hydrationandfluid/qt/How-Much-Water-Should-You-Drink.htm

Obviously you can't have them all weigh before and after PT or marching, but the minimum is 1 canteen an hour according to what athletes should be drinking. (Canteen = 1 quart)