Pedialyte and Gatorade are two of my pet peeves. The purpose of both of these drinks is to replenish electrolytes in the body. First off, does everyone know what electrolytes are and why we need them? The word electrolyte has become a term thrown around a lot in marketing but most people are unclear on what they actually are. In the human body, electrolytes include sodium, potassium, calcium, bicarbonate, magnesium, chloride, hydrogen phosphate, and hydrogen carbonate, or in other words they are minerals.
Minerals are very important for good health. Yes pedialyte and gatorade both contain (synthetic) “electrolytes” but they come along with a handful of unnecessary artificial ingredients, sweeteners, and colors – none of which are going to help you or your child recover from an illness, and could even cause other problems.
Unfortunately, pedialyte is the go-to product recommended by pediatricians for children who have a stomach virus or an illness that causes repeated vomiting to replenish lost minerals. The real truth is that it's possibly the worst option and there are far better choices that can be made easily with ingredients you likely already have at home.
Let's take a look at what is actually in this product. Here are the ingredients in Pedialyte Strawberry: Water, dextrose, citric acid, potassium citrate, sodium chloride, sodium citrate, natural flavor, sucralose, acesulfame potassium, zinc gluconate, RED 40, BLUE 1
After water you'll see dextrose, a sweetener that is likely GMO, then you'll see the minerals, followed by natural flavor…
I have to stop and talk about natural flavor for a moment. Natural flavor seems pretty harmless when you read it but don't be fooled, it's not. Natural flavor can be a derivative of anything that was once part of a “natural” ingredient. It's the food companies way of throwing things in there without having to put them on the label. If you have ANY type of food allergy or sensitivity, avoid natural flavors, because you'll never know exactly what it contains.
After natural flavors you'll see sucralose which is Splenda, a toxic artificial sweetener, and lastly you'll see red 40 and blue 1, artificial colors that have been linked to behavioral problems in children. Yikes. Now you can see why this product bothers me.
All of the minerals in pedialyte and gatorade can be found in foods and there are plenty of ways to get them in without using these artificial products.
I've pulled together a list of healthy, natural, drinks that can be made easily at home to use as an electrolyte replacement drink. These are all great for illness recovery and also as a sports drink. They will help to re-hydrate the body in a pure and healthy way without any added artificial ingredients. Side note, if you are interested in learning more about helping your child feel better naturally, don't forget about my online course on natural remedies.
Here are some delicious and healthy recipes you can make at home:
Homemade Electrolyte Drink by Modern Alternative Mama
I love this recipe, I've made this on several occasions when my children were sick. I love that it also has lemon and honey which are super healing for any illness. Also, this one is another spin on this recipe that doesn't have the ginger, my kids are sensitive to the taste of ginger so I usually have to use it very sparingly.
Natural Pedialyte Alternative for Babies & Adults by Mama Natural
This recipe is only 2 ingredients which makes it really nice and simple. Coconut water has lots of natural minerals in it which makes it the perfect natural base for an electrolyte replacement drink.
Homemade Pedialyte and Freezer Pops by The Easy Homestead
This recipe has ingredients in it that most everyone will have in the house so there is no excuse not to make it.
Electrolyte Vanilla Cream Soda by Nourishing Simplicity
This one sounds delicious, we love the flavor of vanilla. Also, since this one uses stevia there is really no sugar in this at all. This is a great choice for anyone on a sugar-free or low-sugar diet.
All Natural Sports Drink by Lindsey Bentley
I love the idea of this one (have not tried it yet myself) because I love the product CALM and I use it daily myself. It's a great idea to incorporate some of this into a drink made to replenish minerals – whether for illness or for sports.
Tumeric-Lime Electrolyte Drink by Modern Alternative Mama
Turmeric has so many health benefits its great to get it in any way that you can. In this case, it also colors the drink to make it look a bit more like actual yellow gatorade too.
What do you use to hydrate your children after an illness or a sporting event? Which one of these will you try? Share in the comments below.
Coconut water.
YES! Exactly. The only thing that coconut water doesn’t have that you might want is sodium in this particular case. To fix this, just add a little high quality sea salt!
Sea salt is the incorrect option and provides no benefit to your body. You need iodized salt, another words, table salt.
The benefit is in the minerals provided by sea salt
Table salt ingredients: Salt, calcium silicate, dextrose, potassium iodide. It has been stripped of the good minerals and had chemicals and dextrose- ie; corn (& yes, iodide) added. I’m allergic to corn as are many other people nowadays because they’ve added GMO glyphosate corn to everything. Sea salt is still real. Our body needs real.
How much sea salt is appropriate to add in an 8 oz coconut water? Thanks!!
Second coconut water…. best thing ever, just.make sure its.coconut water NOT juice, read labels. 🙂 I have found drinking a 12 Oz one when migrant is happening helps a lot.
that makes sense about a migraine, good to know!
You refer to Coconut water vs Coconut juice. I have a problem trying to do this. I can eat shredded coconut. Dad used to bring Hawaii coconut’s home drill them and we drank the water and ate the insides. As a grown up, I tried Coconut water and got extremely sick, then realize it was Thai coconuts. Plus my asthma will not let me near anything with a coconut scent. Is it a genetic difference between the two continents? Or just processing differences?
I currently use pedilyte because I need foods/drinks with high sodium. I need to take two packetst while in the gym to maintain proper hydration. Each pack cost apprx $1.50 — $3.00 for 2. This is $90 or 5x my gym membership ($18 a month).
What are the best options? I’m am very frustrated with the cost.
Thanks, Bill.
what about sea salt?
Thanks
I am looking for something that I can use at the gym in liquid form.
Dissolve sea salt and a sugar (sucrose or dextrose) of your choice in water. I think WHO recommendation is 1/2 tsp salt and 6 tsp table sugar (sucrose) for home made oral re hydration solution. I use to use drip-drop rehydration in the gym myself, but it got quite expensive.
Edit: in 1 liter of water.
Hemalian Pink Salt is the best. And that are the minerals a nd trace elements that make it pink.
The duration of a one or two hour gym workout would not deplete electrolyte levels enough to warrant drinking sports drinks or electrolyte solutions. Even if it involved intense cardio and sweating. A better idea is to reevaluate and increase carbohydrate intake. For example a banana or sweet potato will help with electrolyte balance and are a good carb source.
Would love to access the link: Homemade Electrolyte Solution Recipe, but it leads to nowhere. Help!
What do you think about the product from Arbonne called Hydration? Here’s a link:
https://www.arbonne.com/pws/KimberlyWaldrop/store/AMUS/product/Complete-Hydration-6264,7710,272.aspx
These are some awesome alternatives. I personally have never liked Gatorade and products like it, but I need something with electrolytes after a workout. These look tasty and are probably a lot more natural and better for you!
I hope you give them a try! thanks for the comment!
Check out wubba water as an organic-certified electrolyte drink for kids when they are sick.
What about for a 7 month old who needs something because of diarrhea?
Hello…I am seeing your post well past the point to answer your question of March 9,2017, and therefore you might not even see my post. For future reference, with children, ALWAYS seek out advice from your child’s pediatrician as opposed to seeking advice on a blog, especially with babies as young as 7 months old. Babies and children can get dehydrated very quickly if they are having diarrhea for an extended period of time. Pedialyte is most often recommended for children, but again, call your pediatrician to be safe.
Concerned reader….
The ingredients in Pedialyte are formulated to be identical to normal saline, the same you’d get in the hospital to treat dehydration.
There is a lot of fear mongering in this article. The bit about “GMO dextrose” is balogna because dextrose is a single molecule, not a food possessing altered proteins or genetic material.
Dextrose aids in the uptake of electrolytes, and is used to create an isotonic solution (a solution with the same concentration of electrolytes as normal bodily fluids).
I’m all for alternatives to rehydration, and a lot of what this article says is excellent. Demonizing Pedialyte is not appropriate because of all readily available electrolyte drinks, Pedialyte is the best compared to Powerade/Gatorade.
And your take on the “benefits” of Sucralose?
There are none!
Exactly. Pedialyte also has the correct balance of electrolytes. Coconut water is too high in potassium for children. Pedialyte also contains zinc which needs replacing and now contains probiotics. Needed after a bout with diarrhea . Dextrose is the sugar that is needed. Fructose in coconut water and plain cane sugar cause diarrehea.
These homemade replenish drinks don’t contain a lot of potassium. You need sodium AND potassium, and if you are vomitting or having a diarrhea, these homemade drink would not readily replenish potassium. Pedialyte would, like David stated above. Source: I am a nurse.
I am hypoglycemic. I always have a battle with dehydration. I am confused with all the reports on what I should do or not do. Since I get migraines from sugar, what would be my best option to rehydrate?
Great article. I personally use Amped Hydrate. Nothing artificial. 1/3 of the sugars of Gatorade. No artificial anything. I am a marathoner, have 2 boys in travel baseball, one gymnast and live in Florida. I am very sensitive to my hydration. Quality products make a big difference. Real ingredients our body can absorb and metabolize matters.
Pedialyte is available in the “Unflavored for Infants” form without the chlorinated hydrocarbon artificial sweetener sucralose or Splenda. Using the name sucralose on the label of any product is deceptive and misleading because most people associate it with sucrose or dextrose which are natural sugars. An any one who knows anything about organic chemistry knows chlorinated hydrocarbons and their metabolites are not something you want in your body.
The pedialyte works great as I just discovered while recovering from severe food poisoning. I make my own sports drink by mixing 1/3 spring water with 1/3 natural juice and adding a little salt and sugar and sometimes throw in a potasium citrate capsule and then top off the thermos with ice. It’s cheap and works great.
I am absolutely horrified that you suggest an alternative that contains honey. Babies under 1 cannot have honey due to the possibility of infant botulism. If you read WHO guidelines on Oral Rehydration Solutions/Salts, the ingredients and their concentrations are extremely specific. This is quite important due to the nature of how our bodies take up nutrients. The correct ratio of potassium to sodium is very important! I have a degree in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from an Ivy League University and have taken college level courses in Nutrition. I have a huge passion for the environment and make all our food from scratch (including cheese and yogurt). I continually strive to keep our home as green as possible. All this to say that I am not just someone advocating for industry. You aren’t consuming enough Pedialyte to be anywhere near a harmful concentration of food dyes or sucralose (and I would be happy to prove this to you through scientific analysis if you wish). Homemade recipes, if your kids are seriously sick, will not provide the proper ratio of nutrients and will be ineffective. Your “cons” of this product are trivial compared to its benefits. I love homemade stuff but this is borderline dangerous.
My child gets very sick if he consumes anything with food coloring, so I’d say Pedialyte is dangerous, regardless of the amount consumed.
I use drip drop hydration powder. Not really sure how natural it is but it does have less sugar than sports drink and better than pedialyte.
Pink salt has many minerals and it’s all natural
I’ve gotten some monster headaches and have health issues that leave me feeling hit by a bus, and a balance electrolyte solution make a huge difference. Hell, even some fresh juiced celery has a similar effect on me.
Strangely, I’ve never once felt relief from the multiple coconut water sources that I’ve tried. I’ve never felt refreshed from it either, which I don’t get. On paper, it seems like it should do the trick.
Anyhow, just thought I’d pass the celery juice option in case anyone else has benefit from that like I did. Or maybe you could spike one of the above options with it. A small amount goes a long way… I’ve felt heavy legs experience some relief almost instantly from slurping the juice from a single stalk. Organic though, celery is one of those things that matters more than the average produce since you can’t just rinse out the pesticide.
Will how do you make your celery water?
Many of your links do not work 🙁 you are awesome for opening my eyes to pedialyte. The nurse told me to get some for my 9 month old son who has diarrhea while teething and the cost made me turn to alternate methods. Cheaper and better! Coconut water has been a game-changer too! Thanks again for saving another baby from all that junk!
Here *Are 7 Healthy Alternatives. There, I fixed it.
My baby is a year and a half and I was wondering if it’s ok to give him pedialyte as a drink if there is nothing wrong with him?
I would not use pedialyte for any child of any age
Brazilian Coconut Water has a mild taste and tons of electrolytes. Trader Joe’s has the best one, in a light blue container. Search for origin from Brazil.
Thank you so much! This was such an interesting and helpful read!
10 glasses of water per day for severe dehydration…if making home made electro
lyte drinks use stevia for sweetness
Oh my goodness. I was googling off-brands for pedialyte when I came across this website…and I feel the need to educate the author and readers. I’m not going to include citations as that is time consuming and I have more important things to do. I sincerely hope the author takes the time to read this post, do her own research, and make the appropriate changes to her article(s). But seriously, stop posting incorrect health information like this. This is how people become afraid of vaccinating their kids and causing widespread plagues.
TLDR: Gatorade is meh and Pedialyte serves its purpose well (and is not “bad” for you).
It is apparent that the author does not know simple biochemistry. It is also completely unjust to put Gatorade and Pedialyte in the same category. I do recommend avoiding Gatorade when possible since it is so highly concentrated and contains copious amounts of low-quality carbohydrates. If I am in a crunch and have to use Gatorade I water it down significantly. I chose to use dry Pedialyte packets and add them to about 1 QT of water. You can do the math to figure out the exact concentration level but it allows me to drink the large amount of fluid per day I need (I am a highly competitive athlete training twice per day) without feeling full or sickly. The following paragraphs break down points of the author’s argument. Furthermore, my responses either disprove the implied skepticism and/or negative connotations associated with Pedialyte’s ingredients or provide rational, logical reasons as to why her implications are inappropriate.
First up, the author implies anything with a sweetener is bad for you, and since Pedialyte has Dextrose, and Dextrose can be used as a sweetener, Pedialyte is bad for you. Yikes. Dextrose is a simple sugar (i.e. simple carbohydrate) that is chemically identical to glucose. Glucose is what is in our blood and keeps us alive. If our blood glucose levels drop below a certain concentration, we die. Human bodies do not need to eat carbohydrates to survive since we can convert our fat and protein into Glucose. However, if we happen to have access to carbohydrates already in the correct form (e.g., Dextrose) our body simply has less work to do. At this point, I remind you that Glucose is chemically identical to Dextrose and can be injected directly into the blood stream. For example, when treating dehydration, hospitals often use an IV to deliver “Dextrose 5%” to the patient. As the name suggest, “Dextrose 5%” is literally water with a 5% concentration of Dextrose. So, I ask you, how is putting Dextrose into a drink harmful? It is not. As is true with all things, too much of anything is harmful. Heck, even water, the holy grail of “health” fads, is dangerous if you drink too much of it. If you see anything with Dextrose as the main sweetener, it is probably a high-end product since Dextrose is much, much more expensive than other sweeteners (e.g., corn syrup, sucrose (table sugar), etc.).
As for the ‘….Dextrose…. which is likely GMO’ comment the author makes, I am not going to personally explain why this is irrelevant. Instead, I will leave the most non-biased article I could find for you to read. Each side of the argument is represented by experts in the scientific community and they provide specific reasoning for their positions. After you read it… think about what you are using Pedialyte for, and how having a GMOed Dextrose would affect literally any part of its purpose.
The author’s ‘natural flavor’ argument is somewhat valid, as the specific composition of the ‘natural flavor’ per product is not specified. I could not find any cases of individuals with allergies having a reaction to foods with “natural flavors” as the only unaccounted for variable…which leads me to believe it is highly, highly unlikely that would occur. But, I cannot prove my position with dependable research… just my own logic and reasoning.
For the author’s “…sucralose which is Splenda, a toxic artificial sweetener” line, research has shown Splenda has a negative effect on the bacteria in rats guts, but has not been studied in humans. Other than that, I could find no valid research to support negative or positive claims. So… if rats guts are the same as human guts…I guess its not good. However, lets think about how often Splenda is used in products the general public consumes. It seems like nobody has health problems as a direct result of having some Splenda… and since there is an extremely small amount of Splenda in Pedialyte – there are larger, much more common health concerns to worry about (like vaccinating your kids to prevent other kids from dying).
As for her last point “lastly you’ll see red 40 and blue 1, artificial colors that have been linked to behavioral problems in children”. The FDA has done many studies on this and found it to be untrue. I am a speech and language pathologist and work in an elementary school. My profession includes working with children, their behavior, and figuring out what causes it. In my professional opinion, the only way these artificial coloring substances could be harmful to a child’s behavior is if the child’s body was allergic to them. This would cause the child to feel physically uncomfortable and not know why. Often times, children simply do not have the language or understanding to communicate how they feel, just that they feel “bad”. They communicate feeling “bad” with behavior as they do not know how to use their words. Even with adults, if your body feels “bad” it is often difficult to maintain positive or expected behavior. And, lets be honest… we all have had eating habits that make our bodies feel unwell or “bad” that we don’t always understand at first.
So, to conclude, I do not 100% trust the FDA’s research as I am aware pure science can be second to corruption and greed. However, I trust my expertise with behavior and believe people’s bodies react differently to substances. If you or your child reacts poorly to a food, then you know your/their behavior will be altered because the body’s wellbeing is temporarily altered. For most of us, these artificial coloring substances do not affect our wellbeing and therefore do not affect our behavior. Research in this area does NOT show valid correlations between ingesting ONLY THE FOOD COLORING (and not the food it comes with) and behavior.
I only give my child Pedialyte when she is having diarrhea to avoid dehydration.