Hi Edem,

You are right in so much that too much salt would be harmful, however the purpose of adding salt is to replace salt lost through diarrhoea, for example. Commercial ORS also contains other electrolytes but this would not be easily made at home. In short, salt (in the recommended amounts) is necessary to make home made ORS.

From WHO:  "In case ORS packets are not available, homemade solutions consisting of either half a small spoon of salt and six level small spoons of sugar dissolved in one litre of safe water, or lightly salted rice water or even plain water may be given to PREVENT or DELAY the onset of dehydration on the way to the health facility. However, these solutions are inadequate for TREATING dehydration caused by acute diarrhoea, particularly cholera, in which the stool loss and risk of shock are often high."

I havent read the BMA publication so cannot comment. The current advice from the national health service in the UK is to use standard ORS for diarrhoea.  Commercial ORS formulations are readily available on the high street. 

The rehydration of children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) however, would not use standard ORS but would use a specialised formulation under careful medical supervision (ReSoMal or Low Osmolarity ORS depending on the underlying cause of the dehydration). If the child with SAM is dehydrated (but concious) then using sugar water, without the salt would be OK to use during transport to a medical facility for proper treatment. 

I hope this helps

Dear Edem

This is an amazing questions for ORS that made from only sugar  it is a great sensitive to definite this condition for you but to my idea so that you have to use D5   decostros mixed solution that has been made of balanced amonts from two ( salt and sugar instead of using sugar because it may increase the amount in your bloods

Thanks 

Best reagards

Thank you Paul for your response. I am grateful.