No single drink will kill a stomach virus, but the right fluids can keep you hydrated, ease nausea, and help your body recover faster. A stomach bug (viral gastroenteritis) has to run its course, typically lasting one to three days. What you drink during that time makes a real difference in how miserable you feel and how quickly you bounce back.
Oral Rehydration Solutions Work Best
The biggest risk from a stomach bug isn’t the virus itself. It’s dehydration from vomiting and diarrhea. Oral rehydration solutions (ORS), sold at pharmacies under brands like Pedialyte and DripDrop, are specifically designed to replace the water, sodium, and potassium you’re losing. They contain about three times more sodium than a typical sports drink (roughly 60 millimoles per liter versus 18), paired with a lower sugar concentration that helps your intestines absorb the fluid efficiently.
Sports drinks like Gatorade are better than nothing, but they contain nearly twice the sugar of an ORS with far less sodium. That extra sugar can actually pull water into your intestines and make diarrhea worse (more on that below). If a sports drink is all you have, diluting it with equal parts water brings it closer to what your gut can handle.
If you can’t get to a store, you can make a basic rehydration drink at home: mix six teaspoons of sugar and half a teaspoon of salt into one liter of clean water. It won’t taste great, but it works.
Sip Small Amounts Frequently
Timing matters as much as what you drink. Gulping a full glass of anything when your stomach is inflamed will likely come right back up. Start with small sips, a tablespoon or two every few minutes, and gradually increase as your stomach settles. Ice chips are another good starting point if even sips trigger vomiting. Once you’ve kept small amounts down for an hour or two, you can move to larger sips and eventually full glasses.
Ginger Tea for Nausea
Ginger has genuine anti-nausea properties. Its active compounds, gingerols and shogaols, block serotonin receptors in the gut that trigger vomiting. Clinical trials have found that roughly 1 gram of ginger per day (about half a teaspoon of ground ginger, or a thumb-sized piece of fresh root) significantly reduces acute vomiting when taken for several days.
The easiest way to get it during a stomach bug is ginger tea. Slice fresh ginger root into hot water and let it steep for five to ten minutes. You can also use ginger tea bags or stir a quarter teaspoon of ground ginger into warm water. Drink it lukewarm rather than hot, since extreme temperatures can irritate an already sensitive stomach. Avoid ginger ale from the store, which typically contains very little actual ginger and a lot of sugar.
Peppermint Tea for Cramping
If stomach cramps are your main complaint, peppermint tea can help. Peppermint relaxes the smooth muscle lining your digestive tract, reducing the spasms that cause cramping and bloating. Brew it weak at first and sip slowly. One caution: if you’re also dealing with acid reflux or heartburn alongside the stomach bug, peppermint can make that worse by relaxing the muscle at the top of the stomach that keeps acid from rising into your esophagus.
Clear Broth Adds Sodium and Calories
Chicken broth or vegetable broth is one of the best things to drink when you’re a day or two into a stomach bug. It provides sodium, a small amount of calories, and warm liquid that’s gentle on the stomach. It’s especially useful once you’ve moved past the worst of the vomiting and are starting to feel hungry but aren’t ready for solid food. Store-bought broth works fine. Low-sodium versions are actually not ideal here, since you need the salt.
What Not to Drink
Some drinks actively make a stomach bug worse. The main offenders share a common problem: too much sugar.
- Fruit juice: Apple juice, orange juice, and other fruit juices are high in fructose. Your intestines lack the enzymes to efficiently process fructose, and even small amounts can overwhelm the transporters that absorb it. Unabsorbed fructose draws water into the intestines through osmotic pressure, directly worsening diarrhea and causing additional gas and bloating.
- Regular soda: Contains high fructose corn syrup in large quantities, triggering the same osmotic diarrhea problem. The carbonation also introduces gas into an already irritated gut.
- Coffee and caffeinated drinks: Caffeine speeds up gut motility, which is the last thing you want when you already have diarrhea. It’s also a mild diuretic, working against your hydration efforts.
- Alcohol: Irritates the stomach lining, causes dehydration, and suppresses immune function. Avoid it entirely until you’ve fully recovered.
- Milk and dairy drinks: Many people temporarily lose the ability to digest lactose during a stomach bug because the virus damages the cells in the small intestine that produce the enzyme needed to break it down. This can last for a week or two after the infection clears.
For Children: Diluted Apple Juice Works
Getting kids to drink oral rehydration solutions can be a battle because of the salty taste. A study published in The BMJ found that half-strength apple juice (diluted 50/50 with water) worked well as an alternative for children with mild dehydration from gastroenteritis. The dilution cuts the fructose concentration enough to avoid the osmotic diarrhea problem while giving kids something they’ll actually drink. For infants, breast milk or formula remains the best option, and you should continue feeding as tolerated.
Probiotic Drinks: Wait Until You’re Better
Yogurt drinks, kefir, and kombucha contain beneficial bacteria that can help restore your gut’s microbial balance after a stomach bug. But they’re better saved for the recovery phase, once the active vomiting and diarrhea have stopped. During the acute illness, fermented drinks can be too acidic and too complex for an inflamed stomach to handle. Once you’re keeping food down reliably, adding kefir or yogurt-based drinks can support the rebuilding process.
Signs That Drinking Isn’t Enough
Sometimes fluids by mouth can’t keep up with what you’re losing. Watch for dark-colored urine, urinating much less than normal, or skin that stays tented when you pinch it instead of flattening back immediately. Feeling unusually confused, dizzy, or having a rapid heartbeat are also red flags. If you’ve had diarrhea for more than 24 hours, can’t keep any fluids down, or develop a fever above 102°F, you likely need medical attention and possibly IV fluids to catch up on what you’ve lost.