Small things that make fluids easier
Taste changes, mouths go dry, and drinking becomes oddly hard work at exactly the point everyone is telling you to keep your fluids up. Getting a drink in comfortably is usually the first battle.
There’s a guide for this
Drinking & dry mouth: small things that make it easier
Drinking is one of those things that sounds completely straightforward until you are ill.
Help with dry mouth in hospital7 recommendations
Prices are a guide. Check the retailer for the current price and delivery options.
A straw lid for sipping one-handed, without tipping a bottle up.
See our recommendation
Polar Gear Flip-Straw Insulated Bottle, 800 ml, Wine
£10–£25Guide price
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Jug water goes warm in an hour and needs both hands and a sitting position. A straw lid makes drinking possible with one arm cannulated and the bed barely tilted, which is the difference between sipping all afternoon and giving up.
For when sipping water isn't enough and the mouth still feels like paper.
Plenty of medications, oxygen and long nil-by-mouth stretches leave a mouth uncomfortably dry, and there are hours when you cannot simply keep drinking. A gel or spray in the locker is something a person can reach for themselves at 3am.
A splash of flavour for the days when plain water is hard to face.
See our example
Robinsons Summer Fruits Mini Squash, 66 ml, 6-pack
Under £10Guide price
Available from Amazon · Ad
When taste changes, water can taste metallic or simply unbearable. A splash of cordial is the cheapest way to make a jug of ward water appealing again, and staff are usually glad of it.
For the taste that arrives with the drugs and won't shift.
See our pick
Barkleys Peppermints 50 g, 6-pack
£10–£25Guide price
Available from Amazon · Ad
Medication, anaesthetic and long nil-by-mouth waits leave a mouth that tastes of nothing good, usually at the point when brushing your teeth means a trek to the bathroom. Something strong in the locker drawer is a very small thing that helps a lot.
For the evening when the hot trolley has been and gone and nothing on it was edible.
Meals are served early, missed for scans, and occasionally impossible to face. Credit on a delivery app hands the choice back. Worth knowing first: orders generally have to be collected from the hospital entrance, so the person needs to be well enough to walk down — or a visitor or friend can meet the driver. Delivery to the bed space is never guaranteed.
A cup of something that isn't ward tea, and a reason to walk down the corridor.
Getting out of the bay for twenty minutes is worth more than it sounds, and it gives visitors somewhere to sit that isn't a plastic chair. Many NHS hospitals have a familiar branded coffee shop on site — often Costa — but it is worth checking which one is at the recipient's hospital before you buy.
Something warm for the evening the trolley has been and gone.
Patient recommendation
Meritene Energis Chicken, 50 g Sachets
£10–£25Guide price
Available from Amazon · Ad
Meals arrive early and get missed for scans, and there are days when a hot drink is about all anyone fancies. A sachet of soup in the locker needs only the water from the drinks round, and is a comfort at the point when the ward has gone quiet.
Why we chose it
We’ve tried the menu soups and the emergency ward ones. This one tastes genuinely lovely made with water, is smooth with no lumps, and feels properly comforting.
