Doctor: Prepare early, avoid heat sickness


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LAYTON — At the Ellison Park splash pad, Rebecca Barrus comes prepared with several gallons of water for a group of children.

"I love the summer," Barrus said. "But it's hard, because you have to keep your kids wrangled as well."

Part of that wrangling may include constant reminders to drink water, according to Kaysville family physician Landon Preece.

"As soon as you start getting dry mouth, as soon as you feel like you're just sweating profusely, then you're falling behind," Preece explained, pointing out that children playing in the water often forget to drink it. "Making the kids take a break every 20 minutes to come grab a drink is really important, because they're having so much fun, they don't think about it."

Preece says patients often come to him with the lingering effects of heat exhaustion: headaches, or even kidney stones.

"They went out. They weren't smart with their water, and now they're coming in with all the other side effects," Preece said.

Preece also points out that you should drink water up to 24 hours before you plan to spend a day in the sun.

"What that's doing is basically repleting all of your stores beforehand," Preece explained. "So when you start sweating, you actually pull from those stores to start sweating and cool yourself."

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