Tuesday, June 05, 2007

e load and Children...

The following was an email exchange from our 'Ask the Heatdoc' section at www.medioncorp.com that I thought would be interesting to publish here:

Question:

Our son is 11years old, weighs approximately 85lbs and plays rep soccer. He has a tendency to overheat and then after the game has a headache and throws up. (It makes for very long days at his soccer tournaments) Is e load appropriate for children? Thank you!

Answer:

Dr. Douglas Stoddard:

Hi,

Yes, e load is 100% safe, and effective, in children. As long as your son's symptoms are confined to situations where he 'overheats' related to sport, a trial of e load would be a good idea as a way to help prevent this probable manifestation of heat intolerance. However, if he also gets these symptoms at other times, then a consultation with your doctor is the first step.

A sport/heat specific issue is not only related to dehydration and electrolyte losses through sweating, but also to energy defiency i.e. he may need to eat more during the day between games, preferably easily digestable carbohydrate sources like breads, pastas, rice, cereals, granola/sport bars and also gels. Nutritional recovery between games, including food and fluids, is of utmost importance to help prevent these post game reactions. Your son needs to start this process early in the day, soon after his first game, and continuing throughout. Along this line of thinking, a consultation with a good sport dietician or sport minded naturopath is usually helpful to facilitate this process.

Finally, one other thing that may help him stay cooler in the heat is applying small bags of frozen peas on his head, underneath his armpits, in his groin and on his breastbone just underneath his chest. These are the most common heat losing sites in the body, and cooling these areas can aid in the dissipation of excess body heat. We use these sites often at sporting events where athletes are suffering from heat illness.

For more information, please see Heat Related Illnesses.