After vomiting and diarrhea, your first priority is fluids, not food. Give your stomach a break for a few hours, then start with small sips of water every 15 minutes. Once you can keep water down, gradually move to bland, easy-to-digest foods over the next 24 to 48 hours.
Start With Fluids, Not Food
Right after vomiting, resist the urge to eat or even drink large amounts of water. Your stomach needs a grace period of a couple hours to settle. Begin by sucking on ice chips or taking tiny sips of water every 15 minutes. If the water stays down, you can expand to other clear fluids: clear broth, diluted electrolyte drinks, ice pops, or gelatin.
Water alone replaces volume but not the salts your body lost. Electrolyte drinks, broths, and fruit juices help replenish sodium and potassium. Some fruit juices (especially apple juice) can worsen diarrhea, so dilute them or stick to sports drinks and soup broth instead. Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and carbonated beverages, all of which can irritate your stomach or pull more water into your intestines.
If you want precise control over what you’re drinking, you can make an oral rehydration solution at home using the World Health Organization’s recipe: 3/8 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of salt substitute (potassium chloride), 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, and about 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons of sugar, all mixed into one liter of water. This is especially useful if diarrhea has been heavy or lasted more than a day.
Your First Solid Foods
Once clear fluids are staying down comfortably, you can try small amounts of bland, soft food. Good starting options include:
- Saltine crackers or plain white toast
- Plain white rice or boiled potatoes
- Bananas
- Oatmeal or cream of wheat
- Brothy soups
- Applesauce
You may recognize some of these as the old “BRAT diet” (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast). That approach is no longer recommended as a strict plan because it lacks protein, calcium, vitamin B12, and fiber. Following it for more than a day or two can actually slow your recovery by starving your body of the nutrients it needs to heal. Think of those foods as a starting point, not a complete diet.
Adding Nutrition Back Quickly
As soon as your stomach tolerates those initial bland foods, start working in more nutritious options. Scrambled eggs, skinless baked chicken or turkey, steamed whitefish, and tofu are all gentle sources of protein. Cooked vegetables, canned fruit, and melons add vitamins without much fiber. Refined pasta and dry cereal are easy on digestion too.
The key principle is to eat small, frequent portions rather than full meals. Your digestive system is still recovering, and a large plate of food is more likely to trigger nausea than a few bites eaten every couple of hours. Most people can return to their normal diet within two to three days.
Foods That Will Make Things Worse
While your gut is recovering, certain foods are likely to trigger more nausea or send you back to the bathroom:
- Fried and greasy foods. Fat slows digestion and can ramp up nausea.
- Dairy products. Milk, cheese, and ice cream may worsen diarrhea or cause gas and bloating. This is temporary. Your gut lining produces less of the enzyme that breaks down lactose when it’s inflamed, so even people who normally tolerate dairy fine can struggle with it during a stomach illness.
- Caffeine and alcohol. Both can dehydrate you further and irritate your intestinal lining.
- Spicy or heavily seasoned foods. These stimulate your digestive tract when it needs calm.
- High-fiber raw vegetables, whole grains, and beans. Fiber is great when you’re healthy, but it speeds up digestion and can worsen diarrhea during recovery.
Probiotics May Shorten Recovery
Certain probiotics have solid evidence for reducing the duration of infectious diarrhea by roughly one day. The two with the strongest clinical support are Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (sold as Culturelle and found in some yogurt brands) and Saccharomyces boulardii (sold as Florastor). The American Academy of Pediatrics supports using LGG early in the course of acute infectious diarrhea to shorten symptoms. Starting a probiotic sooner rather than later appears to be more effective than waiting until you’re already improving.
What About Children?
For babies who are breastfeeding, continue breastfeeding throughout the illness. Breast milk provides both fluids and immune factors that help recovery. For formula-fed infants and toddlers, research shows that cow’s milk and milk products can be safely reintroduced as part of a mixed diet for children over six months of age. There’s no need for prolonged dairy restriction. In fact, getting back to full, age-appropriate feedings quickly is beneficial for recovery.
The strict BRAT diet is specifically not recommended for children. The American Academy of Pediatrics considers it too restrictive, and following it for more than 24 hours may slow a child’s recovery. Offer a variety of soft, bland, nutritious foods as soon as your child shows interest in eating.
Signs of Dehydration to Watch For
The real danger with vomiting and diarrhea isn’t the illness itself but the fluid loss. Mild dehydration causes thirst, dry mouth, and darker urine. Severe dehydration, which represents 7% or more of body weight lost as fluid, looks different: confusion, lethargy, very little urine output, rapid heart rate, cool or clammy skin, and in extreme cases, dangerously low blood pressure. In young children, watch for no tears when crying, a sunken soft spot on the head, and unusual sleepiness. These signs call for immediate medical attention, as severe dehydration sometimes requires IV fluids that you can’t replace by mouth alone.