Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe, MD, FAAP

When you are watching your favorite sports team on TV, have you ever noticed that the first thing the athletes do when they get to the sideline or dugout is get a drink? Whether on their own or from the hand of a trainer, they drink constantly every chance they get throughout the game. That is how important hydration is to athletic performance.
So it is a true mystery to me that proper hydration isn't weaved in the fabric of our youth sports culture.
In fact, proper hydration is just as important to safety as any protective equipment. If our young athletes had better access to the right fluids in the right way, their sports performance would not only dramatically improve but the risk of one of the most dangerous sports injuries, dehydration and heat illness, would be dramatically reduced.