by Fern Shaw | Apr 22, 2016 | water cooler, Water Coolers
Schools are back and summer is on the way. It’s always a concern that your child is getting enough water to drink during their busy school day. Fortunately, school water coolers are pretty much de rigeur in schools across the length and breadth of the U.K.
But what can you do, as parents, to help reinforce your children’s healthy hydration habits when they’re not with you during the day?
The amount of fluid a child needs depends on many factors including age, gender, weather and how much physical activity they get but generally children should aim to have six to eight drinks per day which should ideally be water (on top of the water provided by food in the diet).
Younger children need relatively small servings (e.g. 150ml per drink) and older children need larger servings (e.g. 250-300ml per drink).
Children should be encouraged to sip fluids at regular intervals throughout the day – a lot of children drink fluids at the end of the day when feelings of dehydration have already started to set in.
A few suggestions:
- Start good hydration habits at home by setting an example for your children. Make sure you drink enough water and you’ll soon get them into the habit – young children love to emulate what mom or dad is doing! Plus, of course, you’ll be doing not just your kids but yourself a favour too!
- Do a tour of the school yourself whenever your children start at a new school and make sure that there are sufficient water cooler stations with easy access for the children.
- Simple measures, like the addition of a bottle of water to the school lunchbox or backpack can always help to reinforce your children to keep hydrated. If straws are approved by the school and are appropriate for your child’s age, include a bendy straw, it will, without doubt, add interest to drinking the bottle’s contents, even if it is water!
- You don’t have to stick with just water, but be aware of the calorie count in other drinks such as fruit juices and soft drinks (in fact, perhaps try to stay away from soft drinks, or in fact, anything with fizz in it). Perhaps look at weak squash or diluted fruit juices.
by Fern Shaw | Apr 8, 2016 | water cooler
Here’s a true tale for you to relate at your next water cooler gathering. Please feel free to relate your own ‘you’ll never believe what happened to me as a sprog’ story too! I recently wrote a blog about loves of my mine that started in childhood – the first one being a fascination with Lego which led to a love of architecture.
This love started when I was around four years old. Never having been much of a girlie girl while growing up and, having an older brother, I was more interested in playing with cars – two favourites that I remember were a Renault 16 and some type of Jensen. The Dinky Renault in particular as all of its doors opened and the car name was stamped across the back. It was a beige-ee cream colour; which now that I think about it, is not dissimilar to the beige colour of a few of the Fords and Fiats I’ve seen around (which I really like!).
My love of miniature cars almost cost me an eye though, and not in a typical sibling hurling projectiles manner either – this was of a far more unusual circumstance!
I grew up on a plot in the countryside. We had a raised patio made of slasto (slate) connected by concrete strips – these were the ‘roads’ for our cars. At the edge of this raised patio, there were low brick window box type planters, usually planted with a selection of daisies, their stems and leaves hanging over to the level of the paving.
One bright Sunday morning, my brother and I were playing cars. At some stage during play, my brother went inside. I continued to drive my car along the concrete road towards the window box. The next thing I knew, a dark grey snake had risen up and spat at me. The venom landed in my eye. My parents, who were in the breeze way, came rushing out, picked me up and took me into the kitchen. My quick thinking mom, as calm as could be, rinsed my eye out with milk (not water, as one would think). My dad was outside busy disposing of the snake. Of course it helped that I was wailing (in fright, I wasn’t bitten) like a banshee and had most probably washed out most of the venom by the time I got to the kitchen. A quick visit to the local hospital (that specialised in dealing with snake venom), a check from the doctor (who commended my mom on her milk rinsing idea) and back home I went, a little shaken and with an increased wariness about low, overhanging shrubbery.
I can’t say that this visibly reduced my interest in playing cars, but I did come away with a healthy new interest in playing indoors vs. playing outdoors. I suppose it’s a little strange to think that whenever I see toy cars I always think about that incident.
What’s your childhood ‘I can’t believe I’m still here’ start of the week story for around the water cooler? Please feel free to share, we’d love to hear from you.
Vroom, vroom, have a good week!
by Fern Shaw | Apr 8, 2016 | water cooler, Water Coolers
Many moons ago I blogged about water cooler etiquette – this year as we segue into spring (actually, spring was officially on 22 March) I was wondering if, four years on, there’s been any change about the ‘do discuss’ versus the ‘do not discuss’ topics especially with the rampant advancement of the enormous animal that social media has become.
Let’s see what changes have taken place since then:
MySpace faded away into obscurity. One of the reasons behind this is believed to be because Facebook ‘perfected’ the social networking concept, whereas MySpace just introduced people to it.
Instagram went bananas and gained popularity hand over photo. All of a sardine, people globally were taking and uploading artfully enhanced photos of everything from their breakfasts to every single view they saw that day.
Twitter also grew exponentially, but as of this year, is behind Instagram and other platforms such as WeChat, FB Messenger and Tumblr.
Bearing these types of platforms in mind, what with the sharing of information that most wouldn’t have dreamt of twelve or so years ago, are the more ‘old school’ workplace rules still in place?
At your water cooler:
Then: Telling your colleagues about your most recent holiday was a do. Just not too much graphic detail, please.
Now: Showing your colleagues every jaw breakingly boring second of your holiday captured on camera is a definite no.
Then: Sharing the news of your new baby is wonderful and most definitely a do.
Now: Again, showing photos of your newborn’s every gasp, yawn, micro facial expression for every minute from dawn ‘til dusk is a do not.
Then: Do talk about the fantastic meal that you had at the new Italian restaurant in town.
Now: Same as then don’t talk about the four bottles of wine that you drank with your lasagne or show photos of every aspect of the meal, up to and including the aforementioned four bottles of wine.
Then: Sharing positive news about your family and friends is a do as it gives your colleagues insight into who you are.
Now: The same as then. A don’t is still to not share your personal problems at work. There are plenty of problems to contend with in the workplace. Sharing your personal problems with your colleagues indicates a familiarity level that a majority of colleagues may be uncomfortable with.
However you choose to spend your time at the water cooler, remember the main reason that you’re there – to stretch your legs; disengage your brain (five minute ‘brain rests’ have proven to be very beneficial to one’s creativity) and to refill your water bottle or glass and then drink the water, because as we all know by now, maintaining a steady water intake is the surest way to keep yourself in tip-top form during the working day.
by Fern Shaw | Mar 17, 2016 | Water Boilers, water cooler
I’ll admit I’m the world’s biggest wuss when it comes to bathing or showering in cold water. Even when there are scorching hot temperatures, I’ll still opt for a mildly warm shower instead of ice cold. I may slowly turn the hot water tap down during shower but even then, I’d rather not switch off the hot tap entirely.
To be fair, if you live in a region with longer winters and icy cold weather for more months of the year than warm weather, it makes sense to keep that hot tap open, so you’d need to take that into consideration, but when all is said and done, are hot or cold showers better for you and why?
I splish-splashed across the web to find out.
In favour of heat:
- Hot showers can relieve tension and soothe stiff muscles. If you have a powerful showerhead, even better! You can let the hot water work like a mini massage on your shoulders, neck, and back.
- Studies have shown that taking a hot shower can amp up your oxytocin levels and ease anxiety. Anyone working with stress can use more of the love hormone in their life.
- A hot shower also acts as a natural decongestant to relieve cold symptoms, since the hot steam moisturises nasal passages.
- Under the weather and running a slight fever? A hot shower might be what you need to help break your fever and bring your temperature back to normal.
In favour of the cooler option:
- Cold showers – as unbearable as they are – are actually really good for our bodies. Turning your shower cold for the last five minutes can help ‘shock’ your body awake. This instant change in temperature relieves your body of fatigue and increases your mental alertness.
- A ’cooler’ shower (around 20 °C) for two to three minutes once or twice daily is recommended by researchers as a treatment for depression. Just make sure you check in with your doctor before testing this out.
- On the more vain side of the spectrum, cold showers are better for our hair and skin. Where a hot shower can dry things out, cold showers hydrate and help with split ends and dry skin. I also have it on good authority that rinsing your shampoo out with cooler water places less stress on your hair, leaving your hair in a more sleek condition. All of those beautiful sleek looking seals can’t be wrong.
Whichever works for you, a cautionary note – no, I wouldn’t suggest that you filch the company water cooler or boiler to test out the hot or cold shower theory. That water’s for drinking, dear, not bathing.
by Fern Shaw | Mar 17, 2016 | water cooler
This word has been popping up often across the web and I’ve oft wondered what it meant. Because I’m an inquisitive so-and-so I read further and found out a little more.
Essentially the concept of mindfulness is rooted in Buddhist philosophy and according to our dear old omniscient chum, Google, this is their description:
mind·ful·ness
ˈmīn(d)f(ə)lnəs/
Noun
- the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something.
“their mindfulness of the wider cinematic tradition”
- a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.
Before you hop on the bandwagon about the religious aspect of where mindfulness originates from, perhaps pause for thought, keeping in mind (aha) if you will the second description of the word.
The Oxford English Dictionary’s defines mindfulness as ‘quality or state of being conscious or aware of something’.
*Mindfulness has become popular in the West in recent years as a way of combating stress, anxiety and depression – the NHS lists it as one of the five steps to mental wellbeing
In 2015 the Wellcome Trust launched a major research programme in UK schools to see if mindfulness can help improve teenagers’ mental health.
Essentially, the idea of mindfulness when applied to school children, is to reduce stress and worry in children during their very busy school days. What mindfulness involves, strictly speaking, is a time-out from the busy day where the children are taught breathing techniques that allow them to be at rest and be in the moment without thinking or worrying about what they might need to know or study or focus on.
What’s your take on it? I can’t speak for the schools or the children, but in my personal capacity I can say that on my mindful strolls to the water cooler and back (yep, the water cooler lurking is not all about catching up on office skinny or making the water in the cooler gloomph) practising deep breathing techniques most definitely aid me in remaining calm and focused for the duration of the working day. Ohm mm!
*excerpts from a BBC Magazine article
by Fern Shaw | Mar 4, 2016 | Water, water cooler
Does Drinking Water make you Smarter?
Quite simply, yes, it does. How so, you ask (with a healthy lean towards scepticism)? Well, it’s like this:
Every single organ in our bodies relies on being hydrated (i.e. water) to function; this includes the brain.
While you may not realize it, dehydration causes more than just thirst. Water plays an important role in the function of our cells, tissues and organs. Water transports oxygen to the brain, which allows it to communicate important messages to the rest of the body. Even the slightest lack of hydration can reduce your concentration and impair your ability to think clearly and perform well.
Water plumps up our cells, every single last little man jack of them. Think of the benefit of water in terms of when you have dry skin. It becomes shrivelled and crêpe-like the more dehydrated you are. Look at what happens when you rehydrate – your skin becomes noticeably more plumped up, smoothed out and more elastic.
Now picture this example in terms of at a microscopic level – imagine your brain cells lying all flat and sad looking, like a person in a desert, dragging themselves along, trying to function with their body’s resources depleted. They then see an oasis and manage to drink from it. Skip forward in time and that same sad looking, flattened out individual has been transformed into a fully functioning, walking, talking and much happier person all round. The same goes for your cells.
Ergo, our brains depend on proper hydration to function optimally. Brain cells require a delicate balance between water and various elements to operate, and when you lose too much water, that balance is disrupted. Your brain cells lose efficiency.
Years of research have found that when we’re parched, we have more difficulty keeping our attention focused. Dehydration can impair short-term memory function and the recall of long-term memory. The ability to perform mental arithmetic, like calculating whether or not you’ll be late for work if you hit snooze for another 15 minutes, is compromised when your fluids are low.
Over the course of a typical twenty-four hour period, the longest spell most of us go without fluid intake is the six to eight hours we spend sleeping. Sleeping is hardly the kind of activity that you sweat over, but that doesn’t mean you’re not losing water during the night. With every somnolent breath, you expel moisture, and the cumulative effect of a night’s sleep is to dry out.
This may sound like a tome of doom and gloom, but really, if you think about it, it really isn’t. In general, our nearest water source is a small reach or just a few steps away and that’s such good news.
If you want to test the theory, dearie, (I’m not suggesting that you purposefully dehydrate yourself), as you may already know that you probably aren’t drinking enough water daily, or you’re feeling sluggish or don’t have much get-up-and-go; why not try up your water intake? Take your own water bottle to work, replenish from your water cooler often, drink water when you arrive home. You’ll be amazed by the differences and it won’t take too long either if you stick with the ‘hydrate me, myself, I’ campaign.
Before long the only thing that’ll be flattened is that pile of work at your desk and all your paperwork at home. Cheers.
