When you have the stomach flu, the best things to eat are bland, soft foods like brothy soups, plain rice, bananas, boiled potatoes, and scrambled eggs. But timing matters just as much as food choice. If you’re still actively vomiting, stick to small sips of liquid first and wait for your appetite to return before eating solid food.
Start With Liquids While You’re Still Vomiting
If you’re throwing up, your stomach isn’t ready for food yet. Focus entirely on staying hydrated with small, frequent sips. Good options include water, ice chips, broth, diluted fruit juice, electrolyte drinks, popsicles, and weak decaffeinated tea. Start with about a teaspoon at a time and gradually increase the amount as your stomach tolerates it. Trying to gulp down a full glass at once will likely send it right back up.
Dehydration is the biggest risk with stomach flu, especially for young children and older adults. You lose both water and electrolytes (sodium and potassium) through vomiting and diarrhea, and plain water alone won’t replace everything. Oral rehydration solutions, which you can buy at any pharmacy, are specifically designed to match what your body loses. If you can’t get to the store, you can make a basic version at home using the World Health Organization’s recipe: 4¼ cups of water, ½ teaspoon of salt, and 2 tablespoons of sugar. It won’t taste great, but it works.
What to Eat When Your Appetite Returns
Once the vomiting eases and you feel a flicker of hunger, you can start eating. Your stomach handles smaller meals better than large ones, so eat lightly and often rather than sitting down to a full plate. Good first foods include:
- Bananas, which are easy to digest and contain potassium
- Plain rice or oatmeal
- Brothy soups
- Saltine crackers
- Boiled potatoes
- Dry cereal
- Toast
You may have heard of the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) as the standard recommendation for stomach bugs. It’s no longer advised as a strict plan. The American Academy of Pediatrics found it too restrictive and lacking in the nutrients your gut actually needs to recover. Following it for more than 24 hours may slow healing. Think of those foods as a starting point, not a complete diet.
As your stomach settles further, add foods that are still soft and bland but more nutritious: scrambled eggs, skinless chicken or turkey, and cooked vegetables. The general guideline from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases is straightforward: once your appetite returns, you can go back to eating your normal diet, even if you still have diarrhea.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
While your gut is inflamed, certain foods and drinks will make things worse. Avoid these until you’re feeling consistently better:
- Dairy products (milk, cheese, ice cream)
- Fried or greasy foods
- Spicy foods
- Sugary foods and drinks (including full-strength fruit juice and soda)
- Caffeine (coffee, energy drinks, some teas)
- Alcohol
- Acidic foods (tomatoes, citrus)
High-sugar drinks deserve special attention because they’re a common mistake. Sports drinks and fruit juice seem like they’d help, but the sugar content can actually pull more water into the intestines and worsen diarrhea. If you want to drink juice, dilute it with water.
Why Dairy Can Be a Problem for Weeks
Stomach flu viruses damage the lining of your small intestine, and that lining is where your body produces the enzyme that breaks down lactose, the sugar in milk. This means many people develop a temporary lactose intolerance after a stomach bug. You might tolerate dairy fine normally but find that milk, cheese, or ice cream causes bloating, gas, or more diarrhea while you’re sick and for some time after.
According to the American College of Gastroenterology, this is the most common cause of temporary lactose intolerance, and symptoms typically resolve within three to four weeks as the intestinal lining heals. You don’t need to avoid dairy forever. Just ease back into it gradually once you’re feeling better.
Feeding Kids With Stomach Flu
The same general principles apply to children, with a few important differences. Children dehydrate faster than adults, so staying on top of fluids is critical. For kids under about 22 pounds (10 kg), offer 2 to 4 ounces of an oral rehydration solution after each episode of vomiting or watery stool. For larger children, offer 4 to 8 ounces. Use a teaspoon, syringe, or medicine dropper to give small amounts at first if your child is having trouble keeping liquids down.
Don’t restrict what your child eats once their appetite comes back. Parents sometimes worry about reintroducing “real food” too soon, but the current guidance is clear: give children what they normally eat as soon as they’re hungry. A child recovering from stomach flu needs calories and nutrients, and an overly bland diet can actually slow recovery. Breast milk or formula should continue throughout the illness for infants.
Signs of Dehydration to Watch For
Most stomach flu cases resolve on their own within one to three days, but dehydration can turn a miserable illness into a dangerous one. Watch for these warning signs: diarrhea lasting more than 24 hours, unusual sleepiness or confusion, inability to keep any fluids down, bloody or black stool, or a fever of 102°F or higher. In young children, look for fewer wet diapers, no tears when crying, or a sunken soft spot on the head. Any of these warrant a call to your doctor or a trip to urgent care.