Pedialyte Embraces Hungover-Adult Market

Your significant other's holiday party had an open bar. Your friends busted out a third bottle of prosecco. You actually drank the entire six-pack of Christmas beer. As the sun rises on a bleary December morning, you have a new hangover-relief option that seems to combine the best of Gatorade and La Croix: Pedialyte Sparkling Rush.

What was for most of its history a medicine-cabinet staple for combating kids' dehydration, Pedialyte is now actively courting hungover adults. I remember first hearing about Pedialyte as a hangover cure a few years ago; because it contains more electrolytes and less sugar than most sports drinks, Pedialyte became an underground favorite among hard-partying adults. The company has since seized the opportunity and run with it, marketing its products directly to adults, not just for their kids.

The latest product release taps America's obsession with sparkling water: Sparkling Rush are grape- or cherry-flavored powder packets that, when added to regular water, turn fizzy. Pedialyte says they "help prevent dehydration caused by vomiting, diarrhea, exercise, travel, and heat exhaustion." Right, exercise, like the kind I get walking to and from the bar. The packets contain potassium, sodium, chloride, and sugar.

Using Gatorade or other electrolyte-replenishing beverages to curb hangovers is nothing new, of course. I stash an Emergen-C in my purse when I know I'm going to spend a night out, hopefully to remind myself to chug that with a liter of water at some point during the night. But there's obviously demand for Pedialyte's specific electrolyte-charged products: Sparkling Rush is already backordered on Amazon.