24-18
What is dehydration?
It is the loss of
too much water!
To look at the problem of dehydration, start by
talking about something familiar to the children.
The children
may want to
make drawings
or posters like
this one so that
other persons
can learn, too.
For example, in Latin America and parts of
Africa, people associate diarrhea with sinking in
of the soft spot (fontanel) on the top of a baby’s
head. People believe the brains have slipped down
and this has caused the baby’s diarrhea. Help the
children see for themselves that the sinking of the
soft spot results from the loss of water in the baby’s
body (dehydration).
To learn about dehydration, the children can
conduct their own experiment by making a ‘gourd
baby’ like this one:
1. Cut off the top,
like this.
2. Fill the gourd to the
brim with
water.
Learning the different signs of dehydration
The children have already discovered that a
sunken soft spot is a sign of dehydration. By putting
additional holes in the ‘gourd baby’, they can
experiment to learn other signs of dehydration.
When a baby has
enough water, he
pees well.
urine
water
level
gourd
3. And cover it with a
thin wet cloth.
Make a
small
hole with
a plug.
4. Then have the
children pull the plug
and watch the cloth
(soft spot) sink in!
When he has lost a
lot of liquid, he
no longer
passes
urine
(although
no
urine
the diarrhea
continues).
diarrhea
diarrhea
water
level
In this way, the children discover that a child who
passes little or no urine is probably dehydrated.
If you do not have gourds, a plastic bottle or tin
can will do.
plastic
tin bottle
can
By putting a small hole at the corner of each eye,
the children can notice that tears no longer form when
a baby is dehydrated.
When the gourd is full of water,
it forms tears.
water
level
Tears form when
the baby cries.
Ask the children: “Why did the cloth sink in?
What does the baby need to make the soft spot
rise again?” In this way the children find out for
themselves that a sunken soft spot in a baby is a
sign of dehydration.
When water is lost, tears no longer form.
water
level
No tears now
when the
baby cries.
So the children learn that if a baby does not form
tears when he cries, he is probably dehydrated.