What are the signs of dehydration to watch for in young children during hot weather?
Dehydration in young children shows up in four clear ways: going to the toilet less often than usual, fewer wet nappies than expected, being visibly upset but unable to produce tears when crying, and being very hot and sweaty. Clapson stresses that dehydration in kids is serious and far more common than most parents realise — especially during heatwaves.
What makes these signs tricky is that they can be easy to miss or misread in the heat of a busy day. A baby who seems grumpy might simply be hot — but the absence of tears during crying is a reliable indicator that something more urgent is happening. The same goes for nappies: parents who aren't actively counting changes may not notice the drop until dehydration has already set in.
On The Toddle About Show, Bill Clapson and Emily Clapson discuss this in the context of a particularly brutal summer, noting that by early July they had already lived through four separate heatwaves. That kind of sustained heat — not just a single hot weekend — is precisely when vigilance around hydration matters most, because children's bodies are far less efficient at regulating temperature than adults'.
"Put something cold on your wrists because the blood vessels are much closer to the skin and then you're almost cooling yourself on the inside."
— Bill Clapson, The Toddle About ShowSee also
The most reliable way to check if a child is too hot is to touch their chest or their back, as this reflects their core body temperature. Checking hands or feet can be misleading.
Parents can use cold showers, paddling pools, wet towels placed in the bed, and frozen flannels to help children regulate their temperature. Keeping fans in the right position also makes a real difference.
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