Third day of the camporee. The food was good, the hike was long, and suddenly three Pathfinders from your Unit are in line for the bathroom, pale, with stomach pain and the urge to vomit. If you've ever been at a large camp, this scene is no surprise: gastroenteritis, which is inflammation of the stomach and intestine, is the most common health problem at camps and camporees the world over.
The good news is that, in the vast majority of cases, diarrhea and vomiting go away on their own within a day or two. The real danger isn't the discomfort. It's dehydration: the body loses water and salts faster than it can replace them. And this is where the cheapest and most effective weapon medicine has ever invented comes in: oral rehydration solution.
This guide is about awareness, not about becoming a doctor. You'll learn to recognize what's normal, what's a warning sign, and how to prepare homemade rehydration solution the right way, following the World Health Organization formula. Keep one thing in mind from the start: when in serious doubt, call your local emergency number (in Brazil, SAMU 192).
Why does this always happen at camp?
Put together a lot of people, food prepared in large quantities, heat, hands dirty with soil, and a single shared bathroom. It's the perfect setting for a germ to spread. Gastroenteritis almost always comes from a virus, a bacterium, or a parasite that enters through the mouth: in poorly stored food, untreated water, or a hand that wasn't washed after using the bathroom.
What's striking is the speed. One Pathfinder gets sick at night, uses the bathroom, doesn't wash their hands well, and at breakfast grabs the same jug of juice as everyone else. In the morning, one case. By the afternoon, six. That's why gastroenteritis has a reputation for "taking down the whole Unit": it doesn't attack one person, it attacks the group.
Understanding this changes your approach. You're not just dealing with one sick stomach: you're dealing with a chain of transmission that needs to be broken. Treating whoever is already sick is half the job. The other half is preventing the problem from jumping to their tent-mates.
How to tell whether it's just an upset stomach or real dehydration
Diarrhea and vomiting are frightening in themselves, but what you need to watch is the water level in the body. Dehydration has signs you can observe without any device, and they're worth memorizing. They appear in order: the more signs together, the more serious.
Look at the mouth and tongue: they become dry and sticky. Ask the person to drink and notice their thirst: intense thirst is a warning. Look at the urine, which is the body's most honest thermometer: little urine that's dark in color, like strong tea, means the kidneys are conserving water. Notice the eyes, which may look sunken, and the energy level, because the person becomes limp, drowsy, with no desire to play. A simple test: gently pinch the skin on the back of the hand. If it's slow to spring back, instead of returning immediately, the body is asking for water.
| Sign | Well-hydrated body | Sign of dehydration |
|---|---|---|
| Mouth and tongue | Moist | Dry, sticky |
| Urine | Clear and frequent | Dark and scant |
| Eyes | Normal | Sunken, hollow |
| Skin (pinch) | Springs back immediately | Slow to spring back |
| Energy | Active, alert | Limp, drowsy, apathetic |
In a young child, add to this crying without tears and a dry diaper for many hours. If you check off several of these signs in the right-hand column, stop observing and start acting: it's time for the rehydration solution now, and a responsible adult and the event's first-aid responder need to know.
Oral rehydration solution: the formula that saves lives
Oral rehydration solution is one of the most important health discoveries of the last century. The idea is brilliant in its simplicity: the right mixture of water, salt, and sugar makes the intestine absorb water much faster than plain water alone. The sugar isn't there to sweeten; it's what "opens the door" for the salt and water to enter the body. Getting the proportion wrong ruins the effect, so the recipe isn't a guessing game.
The safest option of all is the ORS sachet, ready-made oral rehydration salts, sold at any pharmacy for a few cents. It comes in the exact dosage. Every Club should bring a few sachets in the camp first-aid kit. You just dissolve the contents in the amount of clean water indicated on the package and it's ready. That simple.
If there's no sachet on hand, you prepare the homemade rehydration solution following the formula recommended by the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health. In 1 liter of treated water (boiled, filtered, or chlorinated), dissolve 1 level teaspoon of salt (about 3.5 g) and 1 level tablespoon of sugar (about 20 g). Mix well until everything dissolves. A golden rule to check whether you got the salt right: taste it before giving it. The solution should be less salty than a tear. If it's too salty, throw it out and start over, because excess salt worsens dehydration.
Two important cautions. First: the homemade solution is the alternative for when there's no ready-made sachet, which remains the preferred choice. Second: prepare it in a clean container, use genuinely treated water, and discard whatever's left after 24 hours, keeping it in the coolest part of the cooler while you use it.
Read alsoBurns: first aid every Pathfinder should knowHow to offer the solution without it all coming back up
Here lies the most common and most frustrating mistake. The person is thirsty, you hand them a full cup, they drink it all at once, and within two minutes they vomit the whole cup. When the stomach is irritated, it rejects volume. The secret, then, is the opposite of what thirst demands: small sips, frequently.
Offer a spoonful or a small sip every few minutes, patiently. A teenager can drink one to two cups of solution after each watery stool; a young child, less. If the person vomits, don't give up: wait about ten minutes and start again, even more slowly. Little by little, the body holds it down. This steady drip replaces more fluid than any cup swallowed all at once.
Keep offering it for as long as the diarrhea lasts, even when the person already seems better. And continue with the other usual fluids too: treated water, coconut water. Don't swap the solution for soda or overly sweet processed juice, because the excess sugar pulls water into the intestine and can worsen the diarrhea.
Food, rest, and caring for the group
Once the acute phase has passed and with the rehydration solution on track, the person can start eating again as soon as they feel hungry. That old recommendation to go without food for many hours no longer exists. Food helps recovery. Prefer light, easily digestible things: rice, boiled potato, bread, banana, toast, soup. Hold off for now on fried foods, very greasy foods, heavy sweets, and large amounts of milk, which can irritate the intestine more.
The sick person needs rest and shade, away from the strong sun that speeds up water loss. No joining the twelve-kilometer hike or the soccer tournament while recovering. This isn't being fussy: it's the body saying it's working to replace what it lost.
Now the care that protects the whole Unit: whenever possible, keep whoever is sick a little apart from the others, with their own mug, plate, and towel. Reinforce handwashing with soap and water for everyone, especially before eating and after using the bathroom. Where there's no sink, hand sanitizer does the job. Cutting the chain of transmission here is what keeps one case from becoming ten.
Prevention is better than rehydration
Almost every case of camp gastroenteritis could have been avoided with two things: safe water and well-handled food. The water the Club drinks, cooks with, and uses for the solution needs to be treated, whether boiled, filtered, or chlorinated. Drinking from a stream "because it looks clean" is one of the fastest ways to take down the Unit. It's worth studying the subject carefully in our guide to water safety.
In the kitchen, the basics save the day: clean hands on whoever cooks, well-cooked food, no undercooked meat, no food sitting for hours in the heat waiting to be served, and clean cloths and cutting boards. Hot food served hot, cold food kept cold. The dangerous window is room temperature for too long, when germs multiply.
And before any stove activity or meal distribution, agree on the hygiene rules with the whole Unit as part of the routine, the same way you plan a good meeting agenda. Prevention isn't luck: it's a habit agreed upon and repeated until it becomes automatic.
Caring for the body is also an act of faith
It may seem strange to talk about homemade rehydration solution and the Bible in the same conversation, but for the Pathfinder it makes perfect sense. The Bible treats the body with care and tenderness, not as something disposable. In 3 John 1:2 the apostle writes: "Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well" (NIV). Health of body and soul walk together.
For Adventists, caring for one's health is part of life with God, not a minor detail. The body is treated as a gift to be respected. This doesn't replace faith with medicine, nor the other way around: it means wisely using the knowledge that exists, like oral rehydration solution, while at the same time trusting in God. If you want to understand where this care comes from, it's worth learning about the origin of the Adventist health message.
You don't have to be an Adventist to value this. Learning to care for a sick friend at camp, offering rehydration solution patiently, giving up your shade, seeking help at the right time: that's service, it's love for your neighbor in practical form. And it's exactly this kind of person the world needs when someone is unwell far from home.