Increased thirst with normal blood sugar

How much fluid do children of different ages drink?

Each child's needs are individual. This applies to both infants and preschoolers.

How much water he drinks per day, in addition to physiological parameters (age and weight), depends on:

• metabolic rate;
• physical activity;
• dietary features;
• outdoor weather and indoor microclimate.

Therefore, we can only talk about the approximate daily norm (it includes not only pure water, but also other drinks, soups, and water in food):

For babies, a lot depends on the type of feeding. Formulas contain more protein than breast milk - to digest them, the baby needs water from birth.

Breastfed babies begin to drink only at 4-5 months. They are “accustomed” to drinking gradually, with 30-40 ml per 1 kg of weight per day.

Important! A newborn who refuses to drink should not be forced to drink. Babies have very strongly developed instincts; he himself will “tell” his mother when he begins to feel thirsty.

How to wean a baby?

In order for a child to stop waking up at night and asking for a drink, the source of this behavior must be eliminated .

Constant monitoring of the child’s well-being will help to promptly detect any malfunctions in the body’s functioning that cause constant thirst.

Nutritious food

It is not surprising that after eating salty and dry food you become very thirsty. Especially if it is eaten shortly before bedtime.

Therefore, the following dishes should not be included in dinner:

• fried;
• salty;
• spicy;
• pickled;
• sweet;
• baked goods;
• sweet soda.

Shortly before bedtime, it is better to feed your baby low-fat cottage cheese or yogurt, fruits, berries, or give him milk to drink. When changing the diet, new foods appear that the baby is not yet accustomed to. They can also encourage you to drink more.

Due attention

If the baby is in comfortable conditions, did not eat anything contraindicated before going to bed, and is not overcome by the symptoms listed earlier, then by demanding to drink, he attracts attention to himself. This is a clear signal that the child lacks it during the daytime.

Therefore, in order to get rid of the bad habit of drinking at night, you need to pay more attention to your child. This has a beneficial effect on the baby's psyche.

Most psychologists recommend spending at least a little time with the child in the evenings, hugging and caressing him more often. It is advisable to read to him before bed to set him up for a restful sleep.

Before going to bed, you cannot involve your baby in active and gambling games . This will excite his psyche and then he will definitely not be able to fall asleep quickly, but will look for a reason to continue frolicking.

Why children are water-drinkers - reasons

“Water feeding” manifests itself in the fact that a small child has to be put to the breast more often. Older children are asked to drink during and after meals, before bed. The reasons explaining this can be divided into several groups.

Physiological factors for children 4-5 months:

• 
  Weather. Drinking more in hot weather is absolutely normal for a child of any age, but it is especially common for babies.
  High temperature provokes increased loss of water - it leaves the body through sweat.

  For the same reason, a baby may drink a lot after bathing (the body warms up in hot water), and if he is dressed too warmly, he is tightly bundled up.

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• Indoor conditions . In winter, in most apartments, the air humidity is lower than in summer - it is “dried” by radiators and other heating devices. Excessive dust in the room also provokes thirst. Infants are most sensitive to these factors.

In children aged one to two years, sweetened water is most often the culprit. It quenches thirst worse than usual, so the baby’s needs increase.

Parents who initially give him sweet water accustom him to this taste, so the child will most likely refuse plain water, considering it “fresh.”

In a 3-year-old child, you need to pay attention to changes in diet. If a child begins to drink too much, it is necessary to analyze changes in nutrition. New products often provoke an increased need for water.

6-year-old children are often influenced by other physiological factors:

1. Eating fried, salty, spicy, smoked, fatty, sweet.
2. Least favorite food. If the food is not liked, the child does not produce enough saliva. He asks for water while eating in order to chew and swallow it, and after the meal, wanting to “wash away” the unpleasant aftertaste.
3. Physical activity. Exertion naturally causes thirst in anyone, this is due to increased sweating. The more active a child is, the more he drinks.

Psychological nuances (the first two are typical for children aged 1-3 years, the last - for those older than 4-6 years):

• 
  Formed habit. The child, to a certain extent, becomes “attached” to a bottle with a nipple or a sippy cup.
  In the future, he drinks from it very little, but often, drinking it simply to “calm himself.”

  You can cope with such “addiction” caused by the sucking reflex by offering him a drink from a new, bright or unusual mug or glass each time in response to a request.

• Attention deficit. By asking for a drink, a small child naturally receives a portion of maternal attention. This situation is not uncommon when a baby is weaned - having gotten used to seeing his mother nearby both day and night, he experiences a psychological need for this.
• Nervous overload. They can be caused by anything - problems in kindergarten, school, the moral climate in the family. Any stress factor that makes the child very worried provokes increased thirst.
• Reluctance to go to sleep. To delay the “unpleasant” moment, young children come up with any excuses - to drink, eat, go to the toilet, listen to a fairy tale. Therefore, in the evening they may drink more than they actually want.

Diseases:

1. Diabetes insipidus . Constant thirst is accompanied by frequent trips to the toilet and an increase in the volume of urine.
2. Diabetes. Excessive drinking and frequent desire to urinate are complemented by general lethargy, weakness, irritability, decreased muscle tone, and a sharp increase in appetite (the child is especially drawn to sweets). Also characteristic are increased sweating, frequent itching, sudden changes in weight (in any direction), deterioration of skin regeneration, and sticky urine.
3. Any kidney problems. Associated symptoms are lethargy, increased fatigue, pallor, swelling (especially in the legs), pain in the lumbar region and/or when urinating, increased temperature for no obvious reason.
4. Pathologies of the liver and gall bladder. One of the main symptoms is a constant bitter taste in the mouth. Wanting to “wash away” it, the children drink almost incessantly.
5. Worm infestation and other parasites in the intestines. Increased thirst is complemented by pain in the lower abdomen, frequently changing appetite, attacks of nausea, problems with bowel movements, severe itching in the anus, and frequent mood swings.

Treatment and specialists

Only a qualified specialist should treat thirst in a child. Only a doctor can tell you how to treat adipsia, how to get rid of the complications of polydipsia and prevent its occurrence.

The following doctors can answer the question of what to do if a child becomes thirsty:

• Pediatrician;
• Therapist;
• Infectious disease specialist;
• Toxicologist;
• Neurosurgeon;
• Endocrinologist;
• Nephrologist;
• Urologist;
• Surgeon.

Treatment is prescribed by the doctor only on an individual basis and after the underlying process that led to the appearance of the symptom has been identified. If thirst does not arise as a result of any pathological process, then it does not need therapy. In this case, children need to replenish the body’s water balance as often as possible by consuming the appropriate amount of liquid.

Arm yourself with knowledge and read a useful informative article about thirst in children. After all, being parents means studying everything that will help maintain a degree of health in the family on the island.

Find out what can cause the disease and how to recognize it in a timely manner. Find information about the signs that can help you identify illness. And what tests will help identify the disease and make a correct diagnosis.

In the article you will read everything about methods of treating a disease such as thirst in children. Find out what effective first aid should be. How to treat: choose medications or traditional methods?

Is there a difference between drinking during the day and drinking at night?

If a child asks to drink more often at night than during the day, there is a completely logical explanation for this.

During sleep, the kidneys work more actively , removing excess water into the bladder.

Its loss is also aggravated by sweating if the room is hot and stuffy. An adult can easily sleep until the morning in this state; children are more susceptible to this.

Other possible causes of night thirst:

• Just a habit. When a small child woke up at night, the mother invariably brought a glass of water. Over time, she stops doing this, and he simply cannot fall asleep again without drinking. To get rid of this habit, parents will need a lot of patience.
• Food. You need to remember what the child ate for dinner. If it was salty, spicy, or just heavy food, thirst is understandable.
• Attention deficit. If a child wakes up at night, he considers it necessary to remind his mother about himself. Any excuse is suitable for this.

Attention! Most pediatricians consider drinking at night and drinking heavily in the evening to be harmful to the body. This increases the load on the kidneys and excretory system as a whole, which is undesirable in a relaxed state during sleep.

What to do if you are very thirsty?

1. Contact your general practitioner or family doctor.
2. Take a clinical blood test and sugar test.
3. Biochemical blood test for electrolyte content (potassium, magnesium, calcium).
4. Fecal occult blood test.
5. Contact an endocrinologist to rule out pathology of the endocrine glands.
6. Contact an oncologist to rule out malignant neoplasms.

If after examination the cause is not established, it is recommended to do a computed tomography to exclude brain tumors, strokes and cerebral aneurysms and consult a psychiatrist to exclude mental disorders. Only after establishing the cause of thirst can treatment begin, which consists of eliminating the underlying pathology that caused this symptom.

Constant thirst is when a person wants to drink more often than usual, and this desire arises regardless of physical activity, air temperature, salinity of food and other external factors.

Normal thirst itself is a normal response of the body to a violation of water-salt homeostasis, because water plays a vital life-sustaining role and is involved in almost all metabolic processes. But if there is a constant unquenchable thirst (polydipsia), then it is necessary to understand the causes of this abnormal condition.

What could be the consequences?

If a child’s increased thirst is easily explained, parents should not worry.

It is enough to eliminate the “irritating” factor , and everything will return to normal by itself.

But it should be remembered that constantly drinking little water at any age is simply dangerous (due to impending dehydration), and drinking too much is harmful.

There is even a special term in medicine – “water intoxication”. Drinking significantly more than the norm is harmful to all organs and tissues (digestion especially suffers).

Excess fluid entering the body:

• "knocks down" metabolism
• disrupts the water-salt balance,
• “leaches” electrolytes and nutrients.

As a result, the permeability of cell membranes increases, they simply cannot perform their functions and die.

Reference! Symptoms of “water intoxication” are swelling, causeless irritability, constant drowsiness, low body temperature, convulsions. They appear most quickly in young children (under the age of one year).

Another dangerous consequence is that the kidneys remove more sodium from the body than usual. Its deficiency in combination with excess water can provoke cerebral edema, increased intracranial pressure, and chronic severe migraines.

“Water intoxication” naturally provokes an increase in urine volume and more frequent urination. The bladder stretches, and when the volume of water consumed daily decreases, it can no longer perform its functions normally.

Night thirst

There are children who drink a lot of water at night (increased thirst). At the same time, other pathological processes are observed - sleep disturbance and eternal whims. Parents are haunted by this child’s condition. Because of this, the mother has to constantly get up at night and calm the child, which leads to a stressful state. As a result, the mother's breast milk production decreases.

A common cause is the room in which the child is located while sleeping. The child's room may be less humidified or there may be a source of huge amounts of heat. This fact is one of the most basic.

It is very unfortunate that in the absence of proper attention to the child, he begins to drink a lot of liquid. Thus, your child wants to attract attention. Children should always be given attention.

As you know, children love juices and teas. Parents pamper their offspring and give them such liquids before bed. Usually, if children are not sleeping, they demand drinks from their parents. This habit must be eradicated, because these liquids do not quench thirst. On the contrary, they provoke the consumption of large volumes of water. If you continue to give your child your favorite drinks, some unfavorable processes may occur in the endocrine glands. Disturbances in the normal condition of teeth may also appear.

Possible associated symptoms

Constant extreme thirst may be a symptom of a serious illness if it is accompanied by:

• heavy sweating;
• nausea, vomiting;
• diarrhea;

• 
  high temperature, dry skin and mucous membranes, cracked lips;

• changes in urination (volume, quality, color of urine);
• sudden weight fluctuations;
• lethargy, fatigue, drowsiness;
• swelling;
• pale skin;
• sunken eyes.

In this case, only a doctor can make a diagnosis based on laboratory or other tests.

Is thirst dangerous at night?

The body's loss of water from 1-2% causes thirst. Often a person begins to experience it when the body is dehydrated. The body indicates a lack of moisture with symptoms:

• pain in the limbs and back;
• mood swings;
• dry and pale skin;
• fatigue and depression;
• constipation and infrequent urination;
• dark colored urine.

If the urine has become dark, the body is trying to solve the problem of removing toxins by retaining water in the kidneys. Doctors advise, especially older people, to pay attention to the color of urine. You should be alarmed if you have not urinated for several hours.

Most causes of thirst indicate pathology in the body. Monitor your condition - if thirst is not related to medication or diet, consult a doctor.

What should parents do?

To understand whether something needs to be done at all if the child drinks a lot and often, parents need to analyze the situation as a whole:

1. “exceeding the norm” - is it a constant phenomenon or has it arisen recently;
2. when there is increased thirst - all day or only in the evening, at night;
3. what exactly does the child prefer to drink?
4. Are there any other symptoms?

When increased thirst in a child of any age is caused by a physiological or psychological factor, it is enough to eliminate it:

• For children aged 4-5 months - normalize the indoor microclimate. The optimal level of air humidity in a nursery is 50% or higher, the recommended temperature is 22-24°C.
• For one- and two-year-olds – reduce the amount of sweet drinks. It is simple to check whether a child is really thirsty: just offer plain water instead. It is recommended to gradually dilute compotes and juices with more and more water. Children are taught to drink this way from about six months of age; if you do not get rid of this habit before they are a year old, problems may arise later.
• For 3-year-olds – adjust the diet in favor of healthy eating principles.
• For 6-year-olds - to normalize the psychological situation: pay more attention to the child, protect him from clarifying relationships in the family, help solve problems in communicating with peers. Children at any age are equally sensitive to the moral climate, even if they cannot say about it yet.

Important! If none of the above helps, the only option left is a visit to the hospital, and you can’t delay it. It is first recommended to roughly calculate how much and what the child drank per day, what was the volume of urine.

What should you do if your child has these symptoms?

If you notice more than one of the recurring symptoms, take him to see a doctor. There a decision will be made about the need to take tests.

What tests are taken?

There are several types of tests, but children are usually tested for randomly detected blood sugar. This is a test to detect type 1 diabetes and is done to find out how high your blood sugar levels are, as recommended by Mayo Clinic specialists.

It is also possible to perform a glycated hemoglobin test, which measures the average glucose level in the blood, or a fasting blood sugar test. It is also possible to conduct other tests to determine the type of diabetes.

Will my child ever be able to eat a piece of cake?

Thanks to modern developments in science, treating diabetes is not an insurmountable problem and children affected by this disease can do the same things as their healthy peers, including eating sweets. On the other hand, you will have to plan what they should eat and how much so that they get certain foods in reasonable quantities. But limiting any child, not just a diabetic, in eating sweets is good for his health, isn’t it?

How will life change?

Most likely you will often have to visit doctors. This is mainly due to the need to make sure that both you and your child know how to deal with the disease and to measure blood sugar levels.

You will also need to take blood tests for sugar and, as we have already said, develop a nutrition plan for a healthy lifestyle. Your doctor will help you deal with all this.

What happens if diabetes goes undiagnosed?

Diabetes is a terrible disease if it occurs without medical supervision and without detection at an early stage. In the long term, the results can be eye cataracts, kidney failure, damage to the central nervous system, even stroke and heart attack.

However, many children, together with their parents, are diagnosed with diabetes in time and do not end up with such serious consequences. Knowing the symptoms will help you avoid serious consequences of the disease. published

PS And remember, just by changing your consumption, we are changing the world together! © econet

Causes

Thirst can be a manifestation of diseases of the oral cavity and internal organs. The most common causes of this symptom are the following conditions:

• diabetes mellitus (including gestational);
• atrophy of the salivary glands, gingivitis, stomatitis;
• damage to the brain centers responsible for fluid intake (hypothalamus);
• fever of any origin (infectious diseases);
• hyperacid gastritis, peptic ulcer;
• impaired absorption of water in the digestive tract;
• taking certain medications - antibacterial, antiallergic;
• diseases of the hepatobiliary system (cholecystitis, biliary dyskinesia);
• pancreatitis;
• impaired nasal breathing (polyps, deviated nasal septum, nasal injuries);
• parotitis;
• renal failure;
• taking diuretics;
• alcohol or drug intoxication;
• nervous disorders - schizophrenia, psychosis, neurasthenia;
• acute blood loss, burns, uncontrollable vomiting, prolonged diarrhea.

Feeling thirsty is not always a sign of illness. In healthy people it occurs in the following cases:

• pregnancy and lactation;
• in the summer season;
• severe stress or physical strain;
• constant stay in an air-conditioned room;
• drinking liquids low in minerals for a long time;
• taking diuretic herbs, alcoholic beverages, vegetables and fruits;
• eating salty, spicy, bitter foods.

Additional signs

The following symptoms accompanying constant thirst may indicate the onset of the disease:

• Frequent urination, dry mouth, need to drink up to 10 liters per day - with diabetes.
• Low blood pressure, dizziness, headache - with hypotension.
• Sweating, irritability, trembling hands - with damage to the thyroid gland.
• Chills, fever, cough, sore throat - with an upper respiratory tract infection.
• Bone pain, muscle weakness, and memory loss are observed with pathology of the parathyroid glands.
• Personality changes, nervousness, frequent mood swings, isolation - in mental disorders.
• A strong desire to drink in combination with swelling on the face, legs, a rare urge to urinate - with pyelonephritis, glomerulonephritis.

Regardless of the cause, insufficient fluid intake leads to dehydration. It is manifested by dry mouth, sagging skin, the appearance of wrinkles, sharpening of facial features, apathy, and severe weakness.