2014 - 52 in 52 #1 Homemade Electrolyte Drink

Our household is sick right now.  Definitely a less than ideal way to ring in the New Year.  We have that same crud that everyone has that is going around - cough, congestion, runny nose, etc.  I think every third person in the Metroplex has this junk right now. 

This morning when my son woke up, I looked at him and could instantly tell that he was considerably worse than the night before when he went to sleep.  He was coughing but you could tell that the mucus in his chest almost sounded solid.  He was acting ridiculously tired even though he just woke up and he was VERY shallow breathing.  I am not proud to admit, but I do use Dr. Google more than I would like to say to determine how serious the internet feels like mine or my children's symptoms are.  Now, of course, I know to weed out all of the 'you might have brain cancer' rulings that several websites tend to come up with.  I was reading a few things and it sounded like if we went to the doctor for a diagnosis that there wouldn't be anything that they could do for him that I couldn't do myself at home, i.e. hot shower, vaporub on the feet with socks, etc.  I am more than capable so I decided to forgo the hour long drive to the doctor, the long wait in the waiting room with other sick kids and the more than one hour long drive back home from the doctor in rush hour traffic and just handle it myself. 

After a small dehydration scare that we had this last year with Silas I am super nervous that we would run into that again, so I knew that I wanted to make sure that even though they weren't interested in eating that they kept drinking.  Normally they drink milk and watered down juice.  Separately, of course.  Of course, since they are super congested and coughing, I don't like them to drink milk.  I know that some parents aren't from that same school of thought but I don't believe that people should drink milk in that situation.  It just makes it worse.  So, because of that thought I wanted to give them something special to drink to make sure that they drink enough liquids. 

My kids love sports drinks.  Normally if we are out and about and stop for a drink we will get them a sports drink and water it down for the two of them since I don't give them sodas or anything like that.  However, I want to get away from that because I have been reading a lot of articles about ingredients that you shouldn't drink that are in sports drinks.  A few weeks ago, I saw a bunch of posts about a Homemade Electrolyte Drink and wanted to pin it because I knew that it might come in handy in a time like this in the future.  Little did I know this would happen sooner than I thought...

Now, I cut down this recipe a lot since this blogger used 12 oranges and I only had four, but I used the same proportions except I added probably double, if not triple the water.  I water down any of their drinks, except milk, so it was only natural for me to put extra water.  The kids seem to like it.  I think that it has too much salt for me but I am not the least bit dehydrated, so maybe it's fine for that time.  This is really convenient if you have a large volume of fruit laying around, but it's not often that I have at least 4 oranges laying around.  Maybe you could do this with pineapple juice, apple juice or orange juice from the bottle perhaps that you could buy a larger volume of just the juice from the store. 


Homemade Electrolyte Drink
Prep time: 10 mins

Juice of 4 oranges
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp. sugar
6 cups water

Add all ingredients into a jug and mix together until sugar and salt are dissolved.  Refrigerate and serve. 

I will definitely be making this again anytime that my kids are sick and I want them to stay hydrated. 

Enjoy!