Most stomach bugs clear up on their own within one to three days, and the single most important thing you can do is stay hydrated. Viral gastroenteritis, the medical name for what people call a stomach bug or stomach flu, causes vomiting and diarrhea that drain your body of water and electrolytes fast. There’s no antibiotic or antiviral that cures it. Recovery comes down to replacing what you lose, eating wisely, and keeping the virus from spreading to everyone else in your household.
Hydration Is the Priority
Dehydration is the most common complication of a stomach bug, and it can set in quickly, especially in young children and older adults. The goal isn’t just to drink water. You’re losing sodium, potassium, and other electrolytes every time you vomit or have diarrhea, so plain water alone won’t fully replace what’s going out.
Oral rehydration solutions (sold as Pedialyte, DripDrop, or store-brand equivalents) are the gold standard. They contain a balanced mix of sodium, sugar, and potassium designed to help your intestines absorb fluid efficiently. For children with mild dehydration, pediatric guidelines recommend about 50 mL per kilogram of body weight over two to four hours, with an additional 10 mL per kilogram for each watery stool. Adults can follow a similar principle: sip steadily rather than gulping large amounts, which can trigger more vomiting.
If you don’t have a rehydration solution on hand, clear broths, diluted juice, and sports drinks are reasonable stand-ins for adults, though sports drinks contain less sodium than ideal. Avoid anything with a lot of sugar, caffeine, or alcohol, all of which can make diarrhea worse. Ice chips or small, frequent sips work best when nausea is at its peak.
What to Eat (and What to Skip)
You may have heard of the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. It’s been a go-to recommendation for decades, but current CDC guidelines actually call it “unnecessarily restrictive,” noting it provides suboptimal nutrition for a recovering gut. The updated advice is to return to a normal, age-appropriate diet as soon as you can tolerate it. Gut rest, meaning deliberately avoiding food, is not recommended.
That said, you don’t need to force a full meal when you’re actively nauseous. Start with whatever bland, familiar foods sound tolerable: crackers, plain pasta, boiled potatoes, chicken, eggs, or yes, bananas and rice. The key shift in thinking is that you shouldn’t limit yourself to just those four BRAT foods for days. As your appetite returns, eat normally. Your intestines recover faster when they have real nutrition to work with.
Dairy is fine for most people once vomiting stops, though some people develop temporary lactose intolerance after a stomach bug. If milk seems to worsen diarrhea, switch to lactose-free options for a week or two. Greasy, very spicy, or heavily sweetened foods are worth avoiding until you feel more like yourself.
Managing Nausea and Diarrhea
Ginger has solid clinical evidence behind it for nausea relief. A systematic review of clinical trials found that a total daily dose of about 1,500 mg of ginger, split across the day, is effective. That’s roughly a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger steeped in hot water for tea, or ginger capsules from a pharmacy. Ginger ale is less reliable since most brands contain very little actual ginger.
Over-the-counter anti-diarrheal medications containing loperamide (Imodium) can slow things down for adults, but they come with important limits. They should not be used if you have bloody diarrhea, a high fever, or severe abdominal pain, as these can signal a bacterial infection where slowing your gut actually traps the pathogen inside. They should never be given to children under two. For most straightforward stomach bugs in adults, loperamide can make the experience more manageable, but it doesn’t speed up actual recovery.
Bismuth subsalicylate (Pepto-Bismol) can help with both nausea and diarrhea. It should not be given to children or teenagers because of the risk associated with salicylates during viral illness.
How Long You’re Contagious
This is where stomach bugs are sneaky. You feel better in a day or two, but you’re still shedding virus for much longer. With norovirus, the most common cause in adults, the virus can remain in your stool for two weeks or more after symptoms stop. Rotavirus, more common in young children, follows a similar pattern, with contagiousness lasting up to two weeks post-recovery. People with rotavirus are actually contagious before symptoms even begin.
Children should stay home from school or daycare for at least two days after the last episode of vomiting or diarrhea. Adults should follow the same rule for work, especially in food service, healthcare, or other jobs involving close contact with others.
Stopping the Spread at Home
Norovirus is notoriously hard to kill. Regular hand sanitizer doesn’t reliably destroy it. Soap and water, with thorough scrubbing for at least 20 seconds, is the best defense for your hands.
For surfaces, you need a bleach solution: 5 to 25 tablespoons of standard household bleach (5% to 8% concentration) per gallon of water. Spray or wipe contaminated surfaces, including toilets, doorknobs, faucet handles, and light switches, and leave the solution on for at least five minutes before wiping it off. Standard kitchen cleaners and many “antibacterial” wipes are not strong enough for norovirus.
Wash any contaminated clothing, towels, or bedding on the hottest water setting and dry on high heat. Handle soiled laundry carefully, wearing disposable gloves if possible, and wash your hands immediately after. If someone in the house is actively sick, give them their own towel and try to designate one bathroom for their use.
Signs That Need Medical Attention
Most stomach bugs are miserable but harmless. The situations that require a doctor or emergency room visit come down to dehydration that you can’t reverse at home. In adults, warning signs include urinating much less than usual, dark yellow or amber urine, dizziness when standing, a dry mouth that persists even after drinking, or vomiting so severe that you can’t keep any fluids down for more than 12 hours.
In infants and young children, watch for no wet diapers for three hours or more, crying without tears, a sunken soft spot on the head, or unusual drowsiness. Children dehydrate faster than adults because of their smaller fluid reserves, so don’t wait to see if things improve if these signs appear.
Bloody stool, a fever above 104°F (40°C), or symptoms lasting beyond three days also warrant a call to your doctor. These can point to a bacterial infection rather than a simple virus, and bacterial causes sometimes need targeted treatment.