Most cases of diarrhea resolve on their own within a few days, but what you eat, drink, and avoid during that time makes a real difference in how quickly you recover and how miserable you feel. The priority is replacing lost fluids, choosing foods that are gentle on your gut, and steering clear of things that pull more water into your intestines.
Replace Fluids Before Anything Else
Dehydration is the main danger with diarrhea, not the diarrhea itself. Every loose stool drains water and electrolytes from your body, and plain water alone doesn’t replace the salts you’re losing. The most effective rehydration drink you can make at home uses a simple ratio: 4 cups of water, half a teaspoon of table salt, and 2 tablespoons of sugar. The sugar isn’t just for taste. It helps your intestines absorb the sodium and water more efficiently.
Sip this steadily rather than gulping it down. If you’re vomiting too, take small sips every few minutes. Coconut water and diluted broth also work well. Avoid fruit juice, soda, and sports drinks with high sugar content, since concentrated sugar can actually pull more water into the gut and make things worse.
What to Eat (and What to Skip)
The old advice to eat only bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast (the BRAT diet) is fine for the first day or two, but there’s no clinical evidence that restricting yourself to just those four foods speeds recovery. A broader range of bland, easy-to-digest foods works just as well and gives your body more of the protein and nutrients it needs to heal. Good options include brothy soups, oatmeal, boiled potatoes, crackers, and unsweetened dry cereal.
Once your stomach starts settling, you can add cooked carrots, sweet potatoes without skin, cooked squash like butternut or pumpkin, avocado, skinless chicken or turkey, fish, and eggs. These are all gentle on the digestive tract while providing real nutritional value. Eat smaller meals more frequently rather than three large ones.
What you avoid matters just as much as what you eat. Several common foods and ingredients actively worsen diarrhea:
- Fructose in large amounts. Sugars stimulate the gut to release water and electrolytes. Fructose is one of the biggest offenders, found naturally in peaches, pears, cherries, and apples, and added to soda, juice, and applesauce. Consuming more than 40 to 80 grams of fructose per day can trigger diarrhea even in healthy people.
- Artificial sweeteners. Sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol (found in sugar-free gum, candy, and some medications) are poorly absorbed and draw water into the intestines.
- Dairy products. Lactose is another poorly digested sugar that can worsen symptoms, especially during a gut infection when your intestinal lining is already irritated.
- Fried and fatty foods. When fats aren’t absorbed normally in the upper digestive tract, they reach the colon, where they’re broken down into fatty acids that trigger fluid secretion.
- Caffeine and alcohol. Both increase gut motility and promote fluid loss.
Over-the-Counter Options
Loperamide (the active ingredient in Imodium) slows intestinal contractions, giving your body more time to absorb water from stool. It works quickly and can be helpful when you need short-term relief, like during travel or at work. However, it’s best avoided if you have a high fever or bloody stools, since in those cases your body may be trying to flush out a bacterial infection, and slowing that process down can do more harm than good.
Bismuth subsalicylate (Pepto-Bismol) takes a different approach. It reduces inflammation in the intestinal lining and has mild antimicrobial effects. It can help with cramping and the urgency that comes with diarrhea. It will turn your tongue and stool black temporarily, which is harmless.
Probiotics That Actually Help
Not all probiotics are useful for diarrhea, but one strain has solid evidence behind it. Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG reduced the duration of acute diarrhea by roughly 19 hours compared to no probiotic treatment in a clinical trial. You can find it in certain yogurts and as a standalone supplement. Another commonly recommended strain, Saccharomyces boulardii (a beneficial yeast), showed less consistent results in the same trial, though it’s still widely used. If you want to try a probiotic, look for products that name the specific strain on the label rather than just listing a generic species.
Zinc for Children With Diarrhea
The World Health Organization recommends zinc supplementation for children with acute diarrhea: 20 mg per day for 10 to 14 days, or 10 mg per day for infants under six months. Zinc helps restore the intestinal lining and reduces both the severity and duration of the episode. This recommendation is particularly important in developing countries where zinc deficiency is common, but it applies broadly. For adults, evidence is less definitive, though maintaining adequate zinc intake through foods like meat, shellfish, and legumes supports gut health generally.
Prevent Spreading It
If your diarrhea is caused by a stomach bug, the most common culprit is norovirus, and it spreads incredibly easily. Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds after using the bathroom, before eating, and before preparing food. This is one of the few situations where hand sanitizer is not a good substitute. Alcohol-based sanitizers do not work well against norovirus. Soap and water physically remove the virus from your skin in a way that sanitizer simply can’t match.
Clean bathroom surfaces with a bleach-based cleaner, and wash any soiled clothing or linens on the hottest setting available. You remain contagious for at least 48 hours after symptoms stop, so continue these precautions even after you feel better.
Signs That Need Medical Attention
Most diarrhea clears up within two to three days. But certain warning signs mean something more serious is going on. For adults, contact a doctor if diarrhea lasts more than two days without any improvement, if you notice blood or black color in your stool, if you develop a fever above 102°F (39°C), or if you have severe abdominal or rectal pain. Signs of dehydration also warrant a call: excessive thirst, dry mouth, dark urine, dizziness, or producing very little urine.
Children need faster attention. A child whose diarrhea hasn’t improved within 24 hours, who hasn’t had a wet diaper in three or more hours, who has a dry mouth or cries without tears, or who seems unusually sleepy or irritable should be seen by a doctor promptly. Skin that stays pinched up instead of flattening back down, or a sunken appearance around the eyes, cheeks, or belly, are signs of significant dehydration that need immediate care.