When you have the stomach flu, the best things to eat are bland, easy-to-digest foods like bananas, rice, broth-based soups, crackers, and boiled potatoes. But what matters most in the first several hours isn’t food at all. It’s fluids. Replacing the water and electrolytes you’re losing through vomiting and diarrhea is the single most important thing you can do to feel better and recover faster.
Start With Fluids, Not Food
If you’re actively vomiting, solid food should wait. Focus entirely on staying hydrated for about eight hours after vomiting begins. Start with very small amounts of liquid, as little as a teaspoon at a time, and gradually increase the volume as your stomach tolerates it. Sipping too much too fast can trigger another round of vomiting.
The best options are oral rehydration solutions (sold as Pedialyte or store-brand equivalents), which contain the right balance of water, salt, and sugar to replace what you’re losing. Clear broth, diluted juice, and water also work. Avoid drinks that are high in sugar, like full-strength fruit juice, sports drinks, or soda. The sugar can actually pull more water into your intestines and make diarrhea worse. Skip coffee, tea, and anything caffeinated, which can irritate your stomach and increase fluid loss.
What to Eat Once Vomiting Stops
Once you’ve kept fluids down for several hours and the vomiting has passed, you can start introducing bland solid foods. The classic BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) is a fine starting point, but there’s no research showing it works better than other bland options. It’s simply a short list of foods that are unlikely to upset your stomach.
A broader range of gentle foods is perfectly safe and gives your body more of the nutrients it needs to recover:
- Starches: plain white rice, boiled potatoes, oatmeal, saltine crackers, unsweetened dry cereal, plain toast
- Soups: chicken broth, vegetable broth, simple broth-based soups
- Fruits: bananas, applesauce, cooked squash like butternut or pumpkin
- Vegetables: cooked carrots, sweet potatoes without skin
Eat small amounts. Your stomach has been through a lot, and large portions can overwhelm it. A few bites of toast or a quarter cup of rice is enough for your first attempt. If that stays down comfortably, eat a little more an hour or two later.
Adding Protein and More Nutrition
Restricting yourself to crackers and bananas for more than a day or two isn’t helpful. Your body needs protein and a wider range of nutrients to heal. As your appetite returns, typically within 24 to 48 hours, start working in foods like skinless chicken or turkey, fish, eggs, and avocado. These are all bland enough to be gentle on your digestive system while providing the protein your body needs for recovery.
The key is progression. Think of it as a spectrum from clear liquids to bland starches to lean proteins to your normal diet. Move through it at whatever pace your stomach allows. Some people bounce back to regular meals within a day. Others need three or four days of careful eating.
Foods and Drinks to Avoid
Certain foods are likely to make your symptoms worse or linger longer. The main categories to steer clear of while you’re recovering:
- Dairy products: Milk, cheese, ice cream, and yogurt contain lactose, a sugar that requires a specific enzyme to digest. Viral gastroenteritis can temporarily damage the intestinal lining where that enzyme is produced. Some people have trouble digesting lactose for a month or more after a bout of stomach flu, even after other symptoms resolve.
- Caffeine: Coffee, tea, energy drinks, and colas can stimulate your gut and worsen diarrhea.
- Sugary drinks: Soda, sweetened juices, and sports drinks with high sugar content can draw water into your intestines, making diarrhea worse rather than rehydrating you.
- Fatty or fried foods: These are harder to digest and can trigger nausea when your stomach is already irritated.
- Spicy foods: Anything with significant heat or strong seasoning can irritate an already inflamed digestive tract.
- Alcohol: It’s dehydrating and irritating to your gut lining.
Probiotics May Shorten Recovery
There’s solid evidence that probiotics can reduce how long diarrhea lasts. A large Cochrane review of clinical trials found that probiotics shortened the average duration of diarrhea by about 30 hours compared to no treatment. For rotavirus infections specifically, the reduction was even greater, roughly 38 hours. The two strains with the most research behind them are Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and Saccharomyces boulardii, a beneficial yeast. Both are widely available in supplement form and in some fermented foods, though during active illness a supplement is more practical than trying to eat kimchi or kefir.
How to Tell If You’re Getting Dehydrated
Dehydration is the main risk with stomach flu, especially for young children and older adults. In adults, early signs include dark yellow urine, urinating less often than usual, a dry mouth, and feeling unusually tired or dizzy. If you notice these, increase your fluid intake with small, frequent sips of an oral rehydration solution.
In infants and young children, watch for a dry mouth and tongue, crying without tears, no wet diapers for three hours or more, sunken-looking eyes, and unusual sleepiness or irritability. These signs in a child need prompt medical attention.
For anyone, confusion, fainting, rapid heartbeat, rapid breathing, or a complete lack of urination signals severe dehydration that requires immediate medical care.
Feeding Children With Stomach Flu
The approach for kids is the same as adults, with a few important differences. Infants who are breastfeeding should continue to nurse more frequently than usual. Breast milk is easy to digest and provides both hydration and nutrition. For formula-fed babies, continue offering formula in smaller, more frequent amounts alongside an oral rehydration solution.
Withholding food from a child for more than 24 hours is no longer recommended. Once vomiting subsides, offer small portions of the same bland foods listed above. Children tend to recover faster when they return to eating sooner rather than later, and their bodies need the calories and nutrients more urgently than an adult’s. Keep oral rehydration solution on hand at home so you can start it as soon as diarrhea begins, rather than waiting until dehydration sets in.