Marked Water Bottle - Simple Sick Day Solution
Kid-Friendly Solutions March 11th, 2008
My 8 year-old has been home sick with a cold for the last two days. As all Moms out there know, life doesn’t slow down when you’re kids are home sick. No matter how much we wish we could tend to our kids hand and foot; work, laundry, dishes, and dozens of other daily to-dos demand our attention too. Sometimes it can be tough to keep track of the little things our kids need to get them back on their feet.
Last year, I read about a simple solution to this problem in Family Fun magazine. One smart Mom wrote in a suggestion about making marks on a water bottle to help keep track of your kid’s water consumption. I can’t remember exactly how she did it but the idea stuck with me. So, when my daughter came down with a fever yesterday, I decided it was a good time to test it out.
Yesterday morning I removed the label from a plastic water bottle and added several lines on the side with a sharpie marker (click on the photo above for a better view). Next to each line I added a time of day (11am, 2pm, 5pm, and 8pm). After setting up my daughter on the couch with blankets, pillows and tissues, I gave her the bottle and told her that her that her big job was to get the water level below the marked lines by the various times. Surprisingly, the goal marks really seemed to help her. She managed to down the entire water bottle before bed time without a single reminder from me.
As a side note, I also used the bottle to track her medication throughout the day. I often forget when the 4-6 hour window is up (that might have something to do with the big list of to-do’s I mentioned earlier). To help myself keep track, I added a little orange dot to the water bottle timeline each time I gave her a dose of Tylenol. Whenever I needed to know if it was time to give her another dose I just checked her bottle for a quick reference.
Granted, these aren’t groundbreaking ideas. They’re just simple solutions that can make your child’s next sick day just a little easier. Just thought I’d pass it on.
March 12th, 2008 at 7:51 am
I could have used this 2 days ago!!! My son has had a fever since Friday and yesterday we finally figured out he was dehyrated due to the fever. He had not peed for over 24 hours! He was having leg cramps and the day before he had a sore back. Great idea!
I use one of the dry erase marker boards to keep track of meds, sometimes we have to use tylenol and motrin to get his fever down. In the middle of the night it is hard to wrap your brain around the times and how many doses in 24 hours etc, so I write when the next dose is due, and keep the times I have dosed him in the margins so I can see how many he has had in 24 hours.
March 15th, 2008 at 5:50 am
The water bottle is a great idea to keep kids hydrated when they are sick! I have a tip on my website for keeping up with fevers: http://familybriefs.com/2007/06/27/wfmw-good-clutter/
March 16th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
I was thinking this weekend how I needed to drink more water. Then I thought of your water bottle idea. I’m going to try it this week to try and get my water intake up. (Drink this much by 10am, this much by 12 and so on.) You’re so smart! Thanks Ria
March 19th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
I also love this idea. We use to do this at work on a 1/2 gallon water bottle with medical tape to make sure we got our water in while we were at work. Why did I not think this would work for my kids. Great idea, especially the orange dot for medication!!! Thanks for reminding me. This would be a great idea just on a daily basis for those of us (me) who don’t care for water. Have I mentioned I LOVE your site. It’s like you get in my head and figuire out how I need to organize things.