Guide: How to make your own oral rehydration solution

If you’re at home with gastroenteritis or the flu, you undoubtedly already know you should drink plenty of water. But at the same time you may not be able to take in much water in practice, or you’re losing more than just fluid and need to top up the salts in your body. It can also be useful to drink something other than just water on the hottest summer days, and oral hydration solution may be useful here too.

It can be a good idea to keep a tube of soluble oral rehydration salts in your medicine cabinet. But did you know that it’s actually really easy to make the solution yourself?

Why do I need oral rehydration solution?

If you've had a fever or diarrhoea, for example, you may have lost a lot of liquid. At the same time, it isn’t just fluid that you lose – the body’s salt levels also get thrown out of balance. To help your body recover quickly, oral rehydration solution can be a useful complement to plain water.

How do I know if I'm dehydrated and need oral rehydration solution?

If it’s really hot and you're sweating for long periods, if you’ve had a fever that’s made you sweaty, or if you've had diarrhoea or vomiting, you’ll have lost a lot of water. But that water also takes with it salts and minerals from your body.

If you or your child are sick with a high temperature, vomiting or diarrhoea, it can be a good idea to start taking oral rehydration solution at an early stage to maintain the body’s levels of salts and minerals.

Other than being thirsty, the following symptoms are signs of dehydration:

• Fatigue
• Weakness
• Confusion
• Headache
• Dizziness
• Nausea

In small children, it can be more difficult to tell, particularly if they're too young to say if they're experiencing any of the above symptoms. If your child doesn’t pee as often as normal, is unusually irritable or lethargic, or has a dry mouth, these can be signs of dehydration according to the NHS.

I don’t have any oral rehydration solution, what can I do?

In a moment, we’ll tell you how you can make your own oral rehydration solution. But of course there are other things that can help too. Fruit is a good way to take in liquid, and a load of other healthy things besides. Fruit juice is another option, although the NHS advises that you don’t give it to young children.

And of course water, water, water. It’s never a bad idea to drink more water, and that should be your first priority.

How to make your own oral rehydration solution

Making your own oral rehydration solution is simple. What you need:

• 1 litre of water
• 6 level teaspoons of sugar (level = up to the edges of the teaspoon, not over them)
• ½ teaspoon salt

Important things to remember

• If you're even slightly unsure about the water quality, boil the water first and allow it to cool.
• Use normal table salt, not herb salt or anything similar.
• Be accurate with your measurements

To prepare the oral hydration solution, you simply mix in the sugar and salt into the water and stir until they’ve completely dissolved.