How to Ease a Stomach Virus

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Dr. David Hill and today we are going to be talking about how to ease the symptoms of a stomach virus. Now stomach viruses is a term that really covers a lot of different infections. And in fact not only the stomach but often the entire intestinal tract. Usually you know you have a stomach virus because of fever, diarrhea, vomiting, some abdominal discomfort. You should not however, be having blood in your stool. That would not be a sign of a stomach virus. Vomiting up blood is not a sign of a viral infection. Severe abdominal pain. If you have fever over a hundred four degrees. Those are all things that would make you think you've got something more serious going on and need immediate care. However, if you have the usual stomach bug, sort of a short lived twenty four hour set of vomiting and diarrhea and some discomfort then you really want and try and get you or your child through this as easily as possible. The most important thing is to not become dehydrated. Obviously you are having a hard time drinking or having a hard time holding down fluid. You are loosing fluid through vomiting and certainly through diarrhea. But remember, it's important to keep putting that fluid back in. Even if you are vomiting frequently you don't vomit all of the fluid that's in your stomach. You do keep some. So taking small frequent sips of fluid is very helpful even if you are intermittently vomiting. For young children the best fluids to use are especially created fluids that include a balanced solution of salt and sugar. Some examples are Pedialyte, Kaolectrolyte anything pretty much that ends lyte you can count on being that sort of fluid. The sugar and the salt help bring fluid into the body from the intestines and that's why that is so helpful. If diarrhea is a major component to the illness you want to avoid fluids that could make it worse especially fruit juices. Sugared fluids things that have a lot of sugar like soda, even Gatorade can have too much sugar. Often when you are having a diarrheal illness the body's ability to digest milk will be temporarily reduced so milk may make the diarrheal symptoms worse for a few days. I think you'll probably want to avoid milk. On the other hand, breast feeding babies should absolutely continue to nurse through the diarrhea, this is precious fluid and it might even make things better. Now for people who are having a lot of diarrhea also Lactobacillus which is an over the counter supplement, the good bacteria that help your intestines function, this may shorten the course of your illness. However the key is if you are not getting better after a couple of days or if you have a young child who isn't getting better after one day seek care. If urine output has decreased there is no pee in an eight hour period, you may need more aggressive re-hydration done by IV fluids or even in the hospital. So be sure and seek care for that. But if you've got one of the usual bugs remember keep drinking and take it easy till you get better. Talking about easing the symptoms of a stomach virus, I'm Dr. David Hill."