Should children drink more water?
Open accessAbstract
While dehydration has well-documented negative effects on adult cognition, there is little research on hydration and cognitive performance in children. We investigated whether having a drink of water improved children's performance on cognitive tasks. Fifty-eight children aged 7-9 years old were randomly allocated to a group that received additional water or a group that did not. Results showed that children who drank additional water rated themselves as significantly less thirsty than the comparison group (p=0.002), and they performed better on visual attention tasks (letter cancellation, p=0.02; spot the difference memory tasks, ps=0.019 and 0.014).
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“access to drinking water helps students increase water consumption and maintain adequate hydration”
From Critical connections: health and academics (2015) · cites this paper as [50]
Adequate hydration is associated with improved cognitive functioning.
“which is associated with improved cognitive functioning.49–51”
From Critical connections: health and academics (2015) · cites this paper as [50]
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Young Children’s Understanding of Fluid Intake.
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Teachers’ Perceptions and Understanding of Children’s Fluid Intake
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“Edmonds and Burford [27] also found children experienced a 10% improvement in cognition when they maintained good fluid intake.”
BackgroundWalkinshaw, L. P., Hecht, C., Patel, A. I., & Podrabsky, M. (2019) · Journal of School Health · doi:10.1111/josh.12790 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Prevalence of hypohydration in adolescents during the school day in Cyprus: seasonal variations
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“Children with hypohydration living in a warm climate have been shown to perform more poorly in cognitive tests (9), while children’s performance in cognitive tasks appears to improve after drinking water (10).”
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Fluid Intake and Cognitive Performance: Should Schoolchildren Drink During Lessons?
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Water consumption as a source of error in the measurement of heart rate variabilityPreprint
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Water, Hydration and Sports Drink
Meyer, F., Timmons, B. W., & Wilk, B. (2013) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-396454-0.00038-2 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Validation of a survey to examine drinking-water access, practices and policies in schools
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Maintaining Euhydration Preserves Cognitive Performance, But Is Not Superior to Hypohydration
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Cognitive Assessments in Hydration Research Involving Children: Methods and Considerations
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Coughing Can Be Modulated by the Hydration Status in Adolescents with Asthma
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“However, although it is unlikely to gross 393 changes in tissue dehydration, there must be a mechanism by which a minor loss of body fluid 394 adversely influences mood and cognitive functioning [4-9,18] (Figures 1,2).”
BackgroundRamadan Fasting and the Propensity for Learning: Is There a Cause for Concern?
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Prevalência e intensidade da sede de crianças no pós-operatório imediato
Riviera, A. A., Pierotti, I., de Mello, C. R. L., Birolim, M. M., & Fonseca, L. F. (2022) · Acta Paulista de Enfermagem · doi:10.37689/acta-ape/2022ao02931 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
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Self-citationMeyer, F., Timmons, B. W., Wilk, B., & Leites, G. T. (2018) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-813922-6.00046-1 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
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Self-citationGriebler, U., Titscher, V., Weber, M., & Affengruber, L. (2021) · Public Health Nutrition · doi:10.1017/s1368980021003438 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“water consumption has been shown to benefit cognitive performance(24), short-term memory(21) and both visual attention and fine motor skills in schoolchildren(25,26).”
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Venkatesan, K., Chidambaram, K., Paulsamy, P., Ramaiah, R., Alqahtani, A., Venkatesan, K., Pappiya, E. M., Devidi, S., & Krishnaraju, K. (2021) · Healthcare · doi:10.3390/healthcare9040406 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Hydration and Cognitive Task Performance in Children: A Systematic Review
Almalki, J. A., Knight, S. N., Poulos, S. P., Stanfield, L., Killen, L. G., Waldman, H. S., & O'Neal, E. K. (2022) · Journal of Cognitive Enhancement · doi:10.1007/s41465-022-00249-4 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
“In 2011, Benton provided a narrative recap of three published articles (Benton & Burgess, 2009; Edmonds & Burford, 2009; Edmonds & Jeffes, 2009) positing a strong case that acute fluid intake more consistently results in cognitive enhancement in children than adult populations.”
BackgroundTHERMOREGULATION IN CHILDREN: EXERCISE, HEAT STRESS & FLUID BALANCE
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Water: The Cinderella Nutrient
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“Background The preservation of an adequate hydration status (HS) in adolescents has been recognized as important and related to the ability to regulate body temperature and cognitive performance [1].”
Water, Hydration Status and Cognitive Performance
Edmonds, C. J. (2012) · doi:10.1007/978-1-137-00689-9_11 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Self-citationHydration, mood, and cognition in primary school aged children in the United Kingdom
Roberts, C., Boak, K., McCullogh, N., Brownlee, I. A., Haskell‐Ramsay, C. F., James, L. J., Green, B., Tempest, G. D., Bruce‐Martin, C., & Rumbold, P. L. S. (2025) · Physiology & Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2025.115073 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Nejati, V., Estaji, R., Balanzá‐Martínez, V., Balota, D. A., Barker-Collo, S. L., Bell, M. D., Berry, J. H., Borhani, K., Cullum, C. M., Feinstein, A., et al. (2025) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-025-87380-2 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
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“Studies conducted across European countries have shown that over 80% of children consume less water than the recommended daily intake [67,68].”
Parker, M. K., Davy, B. M., & Hedrick, V. E. (2021) · Current Nutrition Reports · doi:10.1007/s13668-021-00376-y · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Booth, P., Hunyadvari, N., Dawkins, L., Moore, D., Gentile-Rapinett, G., & Edmonds, C. (2021) · Journal of Cognitive Enhancement · doi:10.1007/s41465-021-00232-5 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“Conversely no effects of drinking water have been found on simpler tasks such as manual line tracing task which requires hand–eye coordination (Edmonds & Burford, 2009; Edmonds & Jeffes, 2009; Chard et al., 2019).”
BackgroundSelf-citation
- Authors
- Edmonds, C. J., & Burford, D.
- Affiliations
- University of East London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Edmonds, Caroline J.
- Venue
- Appetite
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2009-06
- Volume
- 52
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 776-779
- ISSN
- 0195-6663 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W195970758
- Cited by
- 135
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 4.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- repository.uel.ac.uk
- Licence
- Locations
- Appetite (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UEL Research Repository (University of East London) (acceptedVersion)
- UEL Research Repository (University of East London) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nd)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Thermoregulation and physiological responses
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Electrolyte and hormonal disorders
- Keywords
- hydration, water intake, children, cognitive performance, visual attention, thirst perception, memory
- MeSH terms
- Attention, Body Water, Child, Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena, Cognition, Dehydration, Drinking, Female, Humans, Male, Memory, Psychometrics, Task Performance and Analysis, Thirst, Vision, Ocular, Water-Electrolyte Balance
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