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Comment by amluto | Hacker News Reader

You can buy approved oral rehydration powder pretty cheaply [1]. I keep it around for backpacking trips and such.

Also, I've heard, but have not verified, that coconut water is a decent approximation. I'm not sure if this is true, but it's certainly delicious.

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I second this. Because it keeps forever and is relatively small, I keep it around in the medicine cabinet. If you've ever had a guest lose a fight with a Norovirus, you appreciate having some of it right at hand.

By the way, the Amazon product searches for this return a cesspool of magic woo. I recommend going to your local drug store, looking for the powdered Pedialyte, then looking in the meter-or-so surrounding that area for the cheaper store-brand version.

> I second this. Because it keeps forever and is relatively small, I keep it around in the medicine cabinet. If you've ever had a guest lose a fight with a Norovirus, you appreciate having some of it right at hand.

Then again sugar and salt also keep forever. I guess the sealed unidoses help though.

The trick is to search for "WHO" oral rehydration salts.

Coconut water is marketed for hydration because it does have a relatively high electrolyte content, but it's mostly potassium with minimal sodium, so not as effective as an oral rehydration powder which has those specific ratios of electrolytes / sugar that maximize the speed of uptake/hydration.

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