How To-69: "How to Treat Diarrhoea Without Medicines"

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There are certain times when it is not recommended that you treat diarrhea with OTC medicines (ex. when you're taking antibiotics). Here are a few tips that may help!

Steps

1. Drink clear fluids - broth and juices - for the first twelve hours of your diarrhea.
   
2. Follow the BRAT diet - bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. Green bananas are best for diarrhea.
   
3. Try to eat bland foods, such as chicken and Jell-O.
   
4. Limit insoluble fibers. Insoluble fibers are called "insoluble" because they do not dissolve in water. Insoluble fibers accelerate the movement of food through the GI tract. Soluble fibers, such as pectin (found in applesauce), slow the movement of food through the GI tract by forming a gel when combined with water. Soluble fibers have a property called viscosity, and fibers with a higher viscosity are more beneficial for diarrhea.
   
5. Try some yogurt. If the diarrhea is caused by antibiotics, yogurt with live cultures is often helpful to restore the balance in your digestive tract. Often the cause of antibiotic-related diarrhea is an overgrowth of the clostridium bacteria, and "good" bacteria often help keep that in check.
   
6. Eliminate foods that might be contributing to your diarrhea, such as high-fructose foods, sugar-free foods sweetened with sugar alcohols, and dairy products. Dairy products may worsen diarrhea in people who are not lactose-intolerant because food usually travels through the intestines more quickly during diarrhea, which may reduce the absorption of lactose. The unabsorbed lactose may then draw water into the bowels.
   

Tips

• Having diarrhea for more than 1 week means you need to change your diet. If it still persists, call your doctor ASAP.
  
• If you have the urge to go. Just go. We know it's disgusting but better out than in right? Do not hold it in as it the symptoms will get worse.
  

Warnings

• The foods you want to avoid is anything that makes you go to the bathroom. Do NOT eat beans or chocolate. This makes you go.
  
• When you are in the theaters, avoid the food.
  

Things You'll Need

• A will power of the foods you like that causes you to go the bathroom
  
• A bland diet
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Remember to Take Medication
  
• How to Determine if Expired Medication Is Good
  
• How to Swallow Bitter Medicine
  
• How to Administer Medicine to a Resistant Child
  

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