Dehydration First Aid

The signs of, and treament for, dehydration

Dehydration is when you lose more water in your body (to sweat) than you are taking in.

Excessive deyhdration can quickly lead to much more serious conditions like heat exhaustion or hypothermia.

How to avoid dehydration

• Drink plenty of water, frequently sipping it throughout the day. If you just guzzle half a bottle every few hours, your body can't absorb it all at once and you will soon just pee half of it out.
• Every time you pause on a hike, take a drink—even is its just a brief pause to catch breath on a stiff uphill or to let the stragglers catch up. (Then be sure to give the stragglers a minute to grab their drink once they do catch up. After all, they need that minute's rest more than you do.)
• You ideally want to drink 1 liter of water per hour when you are exterting yourself (i.e.: on every scout trip). This is why we have you carry two liters all the time, and refill them at every long stop. If you aren't emptying a water bottle at least every two hours, you are not drinking enough. If it has been more than three hours since you had to pee, you are not drinking enough. (We rarely find ourselves in a water-rationing situation, but if so the adults or older scouts will advise you on how much to drink.)
• Be sure to treat the water. Always at least filter water from any source that is not a tap hooked up to a municipal water treatment system. The fastest way to get dehydrated is to drink water tainted with a water-bourne illness and then start having uncontrollable diarrhea and vomiting.
• Keep an eye on each other. Remind everyone to drink when you stop. Water bottles are sometimes a pain to reach, so help each other out by grabbing your neighbor's bottle for him or her—it makes things faster anyway.
• Consider a Camelbak-style pouch instead of water bottles. Water bottles are cheaper (especially if you use the big Gatorade ones), but these pouches are far easier to use while hiking, making it more likely you will sip frequently all day long. You don't even have to stop, and can take a sip every few minutes hiking (they're also great for wetting your dry whistle on a long uphill slog). The vast majority of modern packs have a pouch for one of these small, personal dromedaries—essentially a heavy duty plastic bag holding from 1 to 3 liters with a long, flexible hose that you thread through that weird button-hole slot with the drop of water stitched next to it (or just out from under your pack lid). The other end of the hose has a bite-and-suck valve you can usually secure under the little stretchy horizontal bands on your pack's shoulder straps. Just be sure you dry it (and the hose) thoroughly after every hike before putting it away or it will grow mold and/or mildew. (Also, they aren't ideal on truly cold winter trips, as the water freezes pretty quickly; you especially have to make sure you blow all water from the tube back into the pouch every time you are done drinking or it will freeze in the hose.)

Signs of dehydration

• When you become thirsty, you are already dehydrated. Try to avoid getting to the point of thirst.
• If your urine is dark yellow or gold and rather smelly, you are dehydrated. Your urine should be pale yellow.
• Severe dehydration can lead to headaches, dry mouth, and muscle cramps. Eventually, death.
• Dehydration can occur just as easily in February as in July; you just don't have the sweaty skin to remind you in the dead of winter.
  
  It doesn't matter if it is hot out or cold—in fact, in the cold you often will not notice how fast you are becoming deydrated because the sweat sublimates off your skin into the dry winter air.

How to treat dehydration

• Remember: Drink frequently when hiking or doing any other physical activity.
• Small sips frequently are better than gulping down half a water bottle every few hours.
• Drink when you are thirsty (and even when you are not).
• Always cary two liters of water, and always refill both whenever you have the chance. (At treated water pumps or faucet, or by pumping water from a stream, lake, or pond through a filter).

Related pages

• Wilderness first aid
• Skills
• The 10 essentials
• The 7 survival priorities
• Leave No Trace principals
• Packing lists
• Useful links (including where to get gear)
• Troop calendar (upcoming trips)
• The trips program