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Borrowed from somewhere else:

I was on another board and somebody casually mentioned keeping some of the paper packets of salt and sugar (the kind found in fast food places) handy in a first aid kit to use as oral rehydration solution.

I thought about it and wondered if the proportions could work out right.....turns out they can!

A single-serving bag of sugar (as seen in coffee shops) has 3.54 grams of sugar. http://www.amazon.com/DOMINO-SUGAR-P...1366174&sr=8-1. While sucrose is a combination of glucose and fructose, we can approximate it as being glucose, which is good enough for our purposes here.

A salt packet has 0.75 grams. http://www.amazon.com/Salt-Packets-G...1366248&sr=1-2

The ratio of salt to sugar in ORS is 2.6:13.5 / liter of water http://rehydrate.org/ors/low-osmolarity-ors.htm

So, 4 packets of salt (3 grams); 4 packets of sugar (14.16 grams) in a liter of water is surprisingly close to the ideal ratio. Make it 2 and 2 in a half-liter, and sip it down.

The actual formula calls for potassium chloride and trisodium citrate but those are kind of optional. If one happened to have (say) some salt substitute (potassium chloride) a dash (about equal to half a salt packet) would be good. The trisodium citrate is used for flavoring (lemon-lime/citrus, my wife said grimacing).

A pretty good idea! One could even pre-pack the packets in a small ziplock bag for convenience, or in a quart ziplock bag and have a more or less accurate measuring device...

Or, you can use 1 level teaspoon of salt, 6 of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt substitute...whichever works.

This is used for preventing dehydration, which is the major cause of death in cases of severe diarrhea...cholera, dysentery, etc. Easy to prevent (wash your hands, boil your water, dig good latrines), fairly easy to treat (lots of fluids, no antibiotics or antidiarrheal drugs because you want to flush the bad stuff out).