When you can’t keep anything down, the best thing to drink is small sips of water, clear broth, or an oral rehydration solution, starting with just one teaspoon every five minutes. The goal isn’t to gulp a full glass. It’s to get tiny amounts of fluid past your stomach without triggering another round of vomiting. Once you can tolerate those small sips for 30 to 60 minutes, you can slowly increase the volume.
Start With Tiny Sips, Not Full Drinks
The single most important thing to get right is the pace. Begin with about 5 milliliters (one teaspoon) every five minutes. That’s barely a mouthful, and that’s the point. Your stomach is irritated, and flooding it with liquid will almost certainly bring everything back up. If you keep those small sips down for about an hour, double the amount. Then gradually work up to normal sips over the next few hours.
A syringe or medicine cup can help you measure, especially for children. If you’re caring for a young child, this measured approach matters even more: children under two need an extra 50 to 100 milliliters of fluid replaced for each episode of vomiting or diarrhea on top of their normal intake.
The Best Fluids to Reach For
Stick to clear liquids. That means anything you can see through and that leaves no residue. Good options include:
- Water: Plain, simple, and unlikely to irritate your stomach further.
- Clear broth or bouillon: Fat-free versions provide sodium, which you’re losing when you vomit. Chicken or vegetable broth both work.
- Oral rehydration solutions: Products like Pedialyte or store-brand equivalents are specifically formulated to replace both water and electrolytes. They’re designed with a lower sugar concentration than sports drinks, which matters (more on that below).
- Plain gelatin: The kind without fruit pieces. It counts as a clear liquid and gives you a small amount of sugar for energy.
- Herbal tea: Peppermint or ginger tea, served without milk or cream.
- Diluted white grape or apple juice: Mix half juice, half water. Full-strength juice has too much sugar and can worsen diarrhea.
Avoid milk, smoothies, orange juice, alcohol, and anything with fat or heavy sugar content. Coffee and caffeinated tea are technically clear liquids, but caffeine can increase stomach acid and make nausea worse when your gut is already inflamed.
Why Cold Fluids May Help
If room-temperature water makes you gag, try it cold. Research on post-chemotherapy patients found that cold water (around 5°C to 15°C, or roughly refrigerator temperature) significantly reduced nausea and vomiting compared to room-temperature water. Cold fluids also tend to be more palatable when you’re nauseated, and people naturally drink more of them. Ice chips are another good option because they force you to take in fluid slowly, which aligns with the tiny-sips approach.
Skip the Sports Drinks
Reaching for Gatorade when you’re sick feels instinctive, but sports drinks aren’t ideal for rehydration during vomiting. The problem is sugar concentration. Gatorade has an osmolality of about 334 mmol/kg, which is actually higher than the original WHO oral rehydration formula (311 mmol/kg) and well above the revised, optimal target of 245 mmol/kg. That excess sugar can pull water into your intestines rather than letting it absorb into your bloodstream, potentially making diarrhea worse.
Oral rehydration solutions are formulated to hit that sweet spot of 200 to 260 mmol/kg, where your body absorbs fluid fastest. If a rehydration solution isn’t available, you can dilute a sports drink with an equal amount of water to bring the sugar concentration down. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than drinking it straight.
Ginger for Nausea Relief
Ginger has genuine anti-nausea properties backed by clinical evidence. A review of seven studies found ginger was more effective than placebo at reducing the intensity of nausea, with three of the seven also showing fewer vomiting episodes. Most research points to about 1,000 milligrams per day as a safe and effective dose, which translates to roughly a half-inch piece of fresh ginger steeped in hot water.
You can sip ginger tea between your rehydration efforts, or try flat ginger ale (let the carbonation go completely flat first, since bubbles can irritate your stomach). Ginger chews or candies are another option if drinking feels impossible. Even the scent of fresh ginger can ease mild nausea for some people.
When to Move Beyond Liquids
Once you’ve kept clear liquids down for several hours, you can start introducing bland, easy-to-digest foods. The old BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) is still commonly mentioned, but current medical consensus no longer recommends sticking to it exclusively. It’s too nutritionally limited. Instead, use those foods as a starting point while adding other gentle options like plain crackers, boiled potatoes, or simple pasta. The progression should look like clear liquids, then fuller liquids like thin soups, then bland solids, then your normal diet as your stomach settles.
Most viral stomach bugs resolve within 24 to 72 hours. If you’re steadily tolerating more fluid and food over that window, you’re on track.
Signs You’re Getting Dehydrated
The real danger when you can’t keep anything down isn’t the vomiting itself. It’s dehydration. Your body loses water and electrolytes with every episode, and if you can’t replace them, things can escalate. Watch for these warning signs:
- Urinating much less than normal or producing dark yellow urine
- Dry mouth and lips that don’t improve with sips of water
- Skin that stays pinched when you pull it up on the back of your hand (it should snap back immediately)
- Dizziness or lightheadedness when standing up
- Confusion, unusual sleepiness, or irritability, especially in children or older adults
For infants, no wet diaper for three hours is a red flag. For adults, not urinating for eight or more hours signals significant dehydration. A fever above 102°F, bloody or black stool, or an inability to keep any fluids down for 24 hours are all reasons to seek medical care. At that point, IV fluids may be needed to catch up on what you’ve lost.
A Simple Timeline to Follow
Here’s a practical schedule for the first few hours after vomiting stops or slows down. Wait at least 15 to 30 minutes after your last episode before trying anything.
- First hour: One teaspoon of water or oral rehydration solution every five minutes. Nothing more.
- Hours two and three: If you’re keeping the small sips down, increase to one tablespoon every five minutes, or take small sips freely.
- Hours four through six: Try drinking a quarter cup at a time. Add clear broth or ginger tea if water alone feels monotonous.
- After six hours: If fluids are staying down, try a few bites of bland food alongside continued sipping.
If vomiting returns at any stage, go back to the previous step and wait another 30 minutes before trying again. Patience with this process is what separates a recovery that sticks from a cycle of drinking too much too fast and throwing it right back up.