My two-year-old daughter doesn’t balk at all the water I give her to
drink. But when I told my 7-year-old son to drink a glass of water, he
said, “But I’m not thirsty. Can I have root beer instead?” Suddenly I
got a flashback to my early years. There was never a dull moment with
my family growing up, but I didn’t learn the importance of drinking
water. Water just tasted bad to me, and I chose not to drink it. I
didn’t have a clue that I was depriving myself of the most important
factor for enjoying good health: drinking plenty of water.
What turned me around was something I learned in my late 20s while
watching a show on television. An object lesson was used to teach the
importance of drinking water. In essence, if you washed your dirty
dishes with orange soda, they wouldn’t come clean. In fact, they would
be sticky and disgusting. Water is required to get the dishes clean.
Well, what about the inside of our bodies? If we only drink sugary
beverages and never drink water, how will our insides be cleansed?
The object lesson somehow persuaded me to overcome my dislike of the
taste of water and begin to drink H2O regularly. It didn’t take long
before I became accustomed to the taste of water, and I even began to
like it. Drinking several glasses of water a day became my practice, to
the exclusion of virtually every other beverage.
My health improved remarkably as a result of drinking water. I had
more energy than I could remember having since early childhood. I
experienced fewer aches and pains after exercising. Best of all, I
became regular for the first time in my life. My bowels finally had a
chance to work the way they were meant to; and I felt like I’d gained a
new lease on life, all because I started drinking water.
I’ve realized it’s time to persuade my son about the importance of
drinking water. I already tried the dirty dish object lesson, and it
didn’t take. Since he likes science, perhaps I should go the route of
medical evidence. Here are a few persuasive arguments that may do the
trick:
- Did you know that our brains are 90% water and without plenty of water, our brains don’t work as well as they could? An easy way to be smarter in school is to stay well hydrated. (Hydration means the condition of having adequate fluid in the body tissues.)
- Drinking plenty of water is necessary to be energetic. The reason for that is because water creates electrical and magnetic energy in every cell of the body and provides a natural boost of power.
- Our bodies are more likely to get sick without plenty of water. There are lots of symptoms associated with lack of hydration, and they can be prevented by simply drinking plenty of water every day. Just a few of those health problems are: weight gain, constipation, eczema, and urinary infections.
- There are tubes in your heart called arteries, and plenty of drinking water is required to keep those arteries from getting all clogged up. A clogged artery in the heart is like a clogged drain. It’s difficult for blood to circulate through the heart and body if the artery is closed up like that. (This explanation seems like it could be kind of scary to a 7-year-old and may not be a good way to explain to a young person the importance of drinking water. I have to think on this one.)
While preparing my argument for my son, I learned even more about the
importance of drinking water than I knew before. If none of the above
facts convince him to drink up, there are plenty more I can educate him
with. Water is truly amazing, for all it does to contribute to health
and well-being.
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