If you have diarrhea from antibiotics, focus on bland, soft foods that are easy to digest: white rice, bananas, oatmeal, brothy soups, boiled potatoes, scrambled eggs, and plain crackers. About 1 in 5 people who take antibiotics develop diarrhea, so this is common and usually manageable with the right food choices. The goal is to eat foods that won’t further irritate your gut while giving your body enough nutrition and fluids to recover.
Why Antibiotics Cause Diarrhea
Antibiotics kill the bacteria making you sick, but they also wipe out beneficial bacteria in your colon. Those bacteria normally do important work: they break down the roughly 70 grams of undigested carbohydrates that reach your colon each day, converting them into short-chain fatty acids your body can absorb. When antibiotics destroy these bacteria, those carbohydrates sit in your colon unprocessed, pulling water into the intestine and causing watery, loose stools.
The disruption goes deeper than just digestion. One of the fatty acids produced by your gut bacteria, called butyrate, is a key energy source for the lining of your lower colon. When butyrate production drops, the colon lining itself doesn’t function properly, which can make diarrhea worse and slow recovery.
Best Foods to Eat Right Now
You don’t need to follow the old BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) strictly. Cleveland Clinic notes that this diet lacks essential nutrients like calcium, vitamin B12, protein, and fiber, and is no longer the recommended approach. Instead, think of it as a starting point: eat soft, bland foods, and expand your choices as your stomach allows.
When symptoms are at their worst, stick to:
- White rice or plain noodles
- Ripe bananas
- Applesauce or canned fruit
- Oatmeal, cream of wheat, or dry cereal
- Brothy soups
- Boiled or mashed potatoes
- Saltine crackers or white bread
As things start to settle, add more substantial but still gentle options: scrambled eggs, skinless chicken or turkey, well-cooked vegetables, smooth peanut butter, and cottage cheese. The idea is to rebuild your nutrition without overwhelming your gut.
Why Soluble Fiber Helps
Soluble fiber absorbs fluid in the intestine, which helps firm up loose stools. Ripe bananas, oatmeal, and applesauce are all high in soluble fiber, which is why they show up on nearly every list of diarrhea-friendly foods. Insoluble fiber (raw vegetables, whole grains, bran) does the opposite, adding bulk and sometimes speeding things through your system, so save those for after you’ve recovered.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
Certain foods make antibiotic diarrhea worse by drawing more water into the intestine or stimulating your gut when it’s already irritated. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases recommends avoiding:
- Caffeine: coffee, tea, and caffeinated soft drinks stimulate the gut
- Alcohol: irritates the digestive lining and promotes dehydration
- High-fat foods: fried foods, pizza, and fast food are harder to digest
- High-sugar foods and drinks: fructose in fruit juices, candy, and sweetened beverages can pull water into the colon
- Sugar alcohols: found in sugar-free gum and candies, these are notorious for causing loose stools even in healthy guts
- Dairy with lactose: milk and ice cream can be harder to digest during and after diarrhea. Some people have trouble with lactose for a month or more after an episode.
Fermented Foods and Probiotics
Fermented foods introduce beneficial bacteria back into your gut. Plain yogurt with active cultures, kefir, and refrigerated sauerkraut are good options. Interestingly, even if you’re avoiding regular dairy, fermented dairy products like kefir and yogurt are often tolerable for people with lactose sensitivity because the fermentation process breaks down much of the lactose.
If you want a more targeted approach, two probiotic strains have the strongest clinical evidence for antibiotic-associated diarrhea: a yeast called Saccharomyces boulardii and a bacterium called Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG. Meta-analyses show each one cuts the risk of antibiotic diarrhea by roughly half compared to a placebo. Look for these specific strain names on the label, not just the general species. For adults, the typical recommended dose of S. boulardii is 250 mg twice daily.
Timing matters. Most bacterial probiotics are sensitive to the same antibiotics you’re taking, so the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics recommends spacing your probiotic at least 2 hours away from your antibiotic dose. The exception is S. boulardii: because it’s a yeast rather than a bacterium, antibiotics don’t affect it, so you can take it at any time. Starting probiotics early, ideally within 48 hours of beginning antibiotics, appears to be more effective than waiting until diarrhea has already developed.
Staying Hydrated
Diarrhea pulls water and electrolytes out of your body quickly. Water alone helps, but it doesn’t replace the sodium and potassium you’re losing. You can make a simple oral rehydration solution at home: mix 4 cups of water with half a teaspoon of table salt and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Sip it throughout the day. Brothy soups and diluted coconut water also provide electrolytes naturally.
Take small, frequent sips rather than drinking large amounts at once, which can trigger more cramping. If your urine is dark yellow or you feel lightheaded when standing, you’re falling behind on fluids.
Signs of Something More Serious
Most antibiotic diarrhea is mild and resolves on its own within a few days of finishing your course. But in rare cases, antibiotics allow a bacterium called Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) to take over the gut, which requires its own treatment. Watch for these warning signs: fever, severe abdominal pain or cramping that goes beyond typical discomfort, blood or mucus in your stool, or diarrhea that’s getting worse rather than better after several days. C. diff infections can escalate, so these symptoms warrant a call to your doctor rather than a wait-and-see approach.