When you have diarrhea, the best approach is to eat small amounts of bland, easy-to-digest foods as soon as you feel able. You don’t need to fast or follow a highly restrictive diet. The old standby BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) is no longer recommended by pediatric and medical organizations because it lacks the nutrients your gut needs to recover. Instead, focus on simple, mild foods and build from there.
Best Foods During Active Diarrhea
When symptoms are at their worst, stick to foods that are soft, low in fat, and unlikely to irritate your digestive tract. Good options include:
- White rice or plain oatmeal, which provide easy calories and soluble fiber that absorbs water in the gut
- Boiled or baked potatoes (without butter or sour cream), a good source of potassium
- Saltine crackers or dry toast
- Brothy soups, especially chicken broth, which replace both fluid and salt
- Ripe bananas, which are high in potassium and gentle on the stomach
- Applesauce, which contains pectin, a type of soluble fiber that helps firm up stool
Once your stomach starts settling, add slightly more substantial foods: scrambled eggs, skinless chicken or turkey, and well-cooked vegetables like carrots or green beans. There’s no benefit to waiting a long time before eating real food. A Cochrane review of refeeding after acute diarrhea found no increased risk of complications when people started eating within 12 hours of beginning rehydration, compared to waiting 20 to 48 hours. Eating sooner gives your body the nutrition it needs to repair the intestinal lining.
Why Soluble Fiber Helps
Not all fiber is the same during a bout of diarrhea. Soluble fiber, the kind found in oats, bananas, applesauce, and cooked carrots, dissolves in water and forms a gel-like material in your stomach. This slows digestion and absorbs excess water in the intestine, which helps stool become more solid. Insoluble fiber, on the other hand (raw vegetables, whole wheat bran, nuts), speeds things along and can make diarrhea worse. Stick with cooked, peeled, or soft plant foods until you’re feeling better.
Hydration Matters More Than Food
The biggest risk from diarrhea isn’t the diarrhea itself. It’s dehydration. Every loose stool pulls water and electrolytes out of your body, and replacing those losses is more urgent than eating solid food. Drink small, frequent sips rather than large amounts at once. Water is a start, but it doesn’t replace the sodium and potassium you’re losing.
The best fluids during diarrhea include water, clear broth, diluted fruit juice, weak decaffeinated tea, electrolyte drinks, and ice popsicles. If you want to make a simple rehydration drink at home, the World Health Organization formula calls for about 4 cups of water, half a teaspoon of salt, and 2 tablespoons of sugar. The sugar isn’t just for taste; it helps your intestine absorb sodium and water more efficiently.
Signs that dehydration is becoming serious include extreme thirst, dark-colored urine, dizziness or lightheadedness, and skin that stays “tented” when you pinch and release it rather than flattening back immediately. In infants, watch for no wet diapers for three or more hours, no tears when crying, or a sunken soft spot on the skull.
Replacing Lost Potassium
Potassium is one of the electrolytes your body loses most during diarrhea. Low potassium makes you feel weak and fatigued on top of already feeling sick. Fortunately, several stomach-friendly foods are rich in potassium: ripe bananas, boiled potatoes, apricot or peach nectar, and plain fish or chicken. Making these part of your first meals after the worst symptoms pass helps your body recover faster.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
Some foods actively pull water into your intestine or stimulate your gut, making diarrhea worse. Until symptoms resolve, avoid:
- Dairy products. An intestinal infection can temporarily damage the cells that produce lactase, the enzyme needed to digest milk sugar. Without enough lactase, undigested lactose moves into the colon where bacteria ferment it, causing gas, cramping, and more diarrhea. This temporary lactose intolerance can last days to weeks after the initial illness.
- Fried and high-fat foods. Fat is harder to digest and can speed up gut contractions.
- Spicy foods and acidic foods like tomato sauce or citrus juice, which can irritate an already inflamed digestive tract.
- Caffeine and alcohol. Both increase fluid loss and stimulate the intestine.
- Sugar-free candies and gum. These often contain sorbitol, a sugar alcohol that acts as an osmotic laxative. As little as 10 grams of sorbitol (three or four sugar-free candies) can cause bloating and gas in most people, and 20 grams reliably triggers cramping and diarrhea. Children are even more sensitive.
- Full-strength fruit juice. The high fructose content can loosen stools further. If you want juice, dilute it with water.
Probiotics Can Shorten Recovery
Adding probiotic-rich foods or supplements may help you recover faster. A large Cochrane review found that probiotics reduced the average duration of diarrhea by about 30 hours compared to no treatment. They also cut the risk of diarrhea lasting three or more days by roughly a third. The strains with the most evidence behind them are Lactobacillus (found in yogurt and fermented foods) and Saccharomyces boulardii (a beneficial yeast available as a supplement). If you can tolerate yogurt, it’s one of the few dairy products that may actually help, since the bacteria in it have already partially broken down the lactose.
Feeding Children With Diarrhea
Children get dehydrated faster than adults because of their smaller body size. For infants and toddlers, oral rehydration solutions like Pedialyte are more effective than juice or water alone, because they contain the right balance of sugar and salts. You can also offer watered-down fruit juice or broth, but avoid full-strength apple juice, which tends to loosen stools.
The old advice to restrict a child’s diet to bananas and rice for days is outdated. The American Academy of Pediatrics says a strict BRAT diet is too low in nutrients and may actually slow gut recovery if followed for more than 24 hours. Instead, let children eat as tolerated. Start with small portions of bland foods and return to their normal diet as symptoms improve. Breast-fed infants should continue nursing, as breast milk provides both hydration and immune factors that support recovery.
For adults, diarrhea lasting more than two days warrants a call to your doctor. For children, that threshold is one day.
Getting Back to Normal Eating
There’s no strict sequence you need to follow. The general principle is to let your appetite and comfort guide you. Start with the bland foods listed above, and as your stools start firming up, gradually reintroduce more variety: lean proteins, cooked vegetables, and eventually raw fruits and salads. Dairy is usually the last thing to bring back, since temporary lactose intolerance can linger after the infection clears. Try small amounts first and see how your body responds.
Most people can return to their normal diet within three to five days of symptoms starting. Eating smaller, more frequent meals rather than three large ones puts less strain on your digestive system during the transition.