4 gallons of water

[VigilEagle04]

In 2005 we supplied our kids with hydration packs for the event. We're a little more used to the temps at Jambo (as we are Virginians ourselves)but when a lot of your walking is done on asphalt it ups the ante.

 

Our troop had the added bonus though of a pediatrician as 1st ASM, and myself, a medic, as 3rd ASM. We were constantly checking up on the kids, every evening asking them how they were feeling, asking about how much water they had, etc. The doctor is the camp doctor, and I had been the camp medic several times, so we are accustomed to this stuff. The best you can do is remind them, check on them, and when they're in camp, make sure they drink.

 

[GKlose]

I don't know if this was the case for all attendees, but when I saw my son's badge and neck cord, I also noticed a couple of extra cards attached to it, including one that listed suggested water consumption for different heat indexes.

 

Another interesting note -- when I saw his picture taken at the arena show, as other units were filing in, I noticed there were cases of water dropped all over the place. I have no idea if it was enough water for the density of guests at the show, but at least someone was making a correction versus 5 years ago.

 

Guy

[Gunny2862]

In my office environment I try for 64 ounces a day.

 

Anytime I'm out with Scouts I try to kill off 1) 100 ounce Camelback as a baseline and increase that depending on what we were doing - at Philmont on the most demanding day this year I cranked through 164 ounces and thought I'd overdone it. 32 of those ounces were Gatorade.

 

Had many, many days at the MCAGCC in 29 Palms CA, and quite a few up on OP Round where it was a struggle to drink enough under those conditions to stay hydrated - I'd bet we were still short of ACTUALLY drinking approx three gallons, about 384 ounces or three full 100 ounce Camelbacks plus two Gatorades (if only that listed we were still short of three gallons). On most of those days I'd bet I was closer to 264oz than 384oz. Although uz2bnowl is right, the ice run did make the day better - on OP Round it came by CH-46 every other or every third day.

 

I can't conceptualize drinking four gallons (512) ounces without it being debilitating in itself or doing it four ounces at at time during a a Triathlon.

 

I would think it would be nearly impossible to be trying to pump that through a 150 lb or less kid. And might be rather close to the boundaries of water poisoning( don't laugh - it happens)One reason for this is that it's not just the water intake but the depletion of sodium and other electrolytes in the system (which is actually made worse by the increased water input )- which is why the Sports drinks are an important part of the proper diet under those conditions - yes, feel free to cut the sports drinks so they aren't so sweet but DO drink them, but simply drinking water without having the extra electrolytes in your diet from some source is another way to put yourself and the kids in a potentially dangerous situation.

[sailingpj]

"I don't know if this was the case for all attendees, but when I saw my son's badge and neck cord, I also noticed a couple of extra cards attached to it, including one that listed suggested water consumption for different heat indexes.

 

Another interesting note -- when I saw his picture taken at the arena show, as other units were filing in, I noticed there were cases of water dropped all over the place. I have no idea if it was enough water for the density of guests at the show, but at least someone was making a correction versus 5 years ago.

 

Guy "

 

All the participants and staff got those tags with minimum water consumption guidelines.

 

The OA Service Corps put out all the waters for the arena shows. For the first one they said that between what they put out on the field, and what they had stockpiled to hand out on the way in and out, there was 15 bottles of water per person. So a little more than half a case per person.

 

I don't know if they used the same amount for the second show, but I do know that for both shows only a fraction of the water that they brought in was used.

[theysawyoucomin']

There was easily that much water for the big show that happened Saturday night.

Thank you OA staff.

[Stosh]

To a certain extent, knowing how to read one's hydration level is important. There were a lot of people who commented to me during the Jambo how difficult it must have been to wear the wool 1910 uniform all day long, the one with leg wraps, etc. I carried a 2 quart canteen and monitored myself and drank no where near the 4 gallons recommended.

 

However I have been doing Civil War reenacting for over 10 years and wear far heavier uniforms in far hotter conditions doing a lot more exerted activity for that. The next guy doing what I'm doing would be in the hospital tent.

 

However, with scouts they do not do this monitoring until they begin to react severely to the symptoms of dehydration and then it's too late.

 

At Jambo there were a few heat related problems, but at Civil War reenactments in Virginia in August I have seen hundreds of participants being carted off to the hospital. Most of them were the younger people who don't pay attention.

 

Taking rest breaks, finding shade, drinking water, etc. all work together to keep a person safe. To just take drinking water and overdoing it doesn't really make up for the other parts of the formula.

 

Oh, yes, I do wear long underwear when I wear the wool uniform.

 

Teach the boys the whole package! For example, how many boys when they filled their canteens/water bottles also soaked their t-shirts in water? If the t-shirt is cooling off the body core, then the body doesn't have to and will conserve fluids. Heck, I've even gone so far as to wear a bandanna and put ice in my hat. Works great and as it melts it keep the shirt wet. Yes, wearing a hat on a hot day can be a good thing.

 

For winter survival we teach a lot about fabrics and layering, drink fluids, wear wind protection, avoid moisture, eat high protein/fatty foods, etc. etc. etc. For summer survival we simply say drink 4 gallons of water and pee a lot. Yeah, right. If one is taking care of themselves properly, they probably don't need all that water. Don't play with matches isn't enough to protect anyone from fire, wear your mittens isn't enough to protect anyone from the cold and drink water isn't enough to protect anyone from the heat.

 

Stosh

[sailingpj]

I know that even on the days I drank the most water I only drank 1 gallon. I didn't have any heat related problems either.

 

The one day that I tried to drink the quart an hour that they were recommending I got a little queasy, so I slowed down a lot to like 1 cup per hour (1 cup per hour*16 hours/4= 4 quarts per 16 hours= 1 gallon per day), and was just fine.