Viral Gastroentetritis (Stomic Flu) |
Definition Viral gastroenteritis is an intestinal infection marked by watery diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea or vomiting, and sometimes fever. The most common way to develop viral gastroenteritis often called stomach flu is through contact with an infected person or by ingesting contaminated food or water. If you're otherwise healthy, you'll likely recover without complications. But for infants, older adults and people with compromised immune systems, viral gastroenteritis can be deadly. Prevention is key In addition to avoiding food and water that may be contaminated, thorough and frequent hand-washings are your best defense. Causes Causes has been expanded. Gastroenteritis can affect one person or a group of people who all ate the same food or drank the same water. The germs may get into your system in many ways: * Directly from food or water Symptoms Symptoms has been expanded. Symptoms most often appear within 4 to 48 hours after contact with the virus. Common symptoms include: Exams and Tests Collapse Section Exams and Tests has been expanded. The health care provider will look for signs of dehydration,including: Treatment Collapse Section Treatment has been expanded. The goal of treatment is to make sure the body has enough water and fluids. Fluids and electrolytes (salt and minerals) that are lost through diarrhea or vomiting must be replaced by drinking extra fluids. Even if you are able to eat, you should still drink extra fluids between meals. Prevention Prevention has been expanded. Most viruses and bacteria are passed from person to person by unwashed hands. The best way to prevent stomach flu is to handle food properly and wash your hands thoroughly after using the toilet. A vaccine to prevent rotavirus infection is recommended for infants starting at age 2 months. Alternative Names Alternative Names has been expanded. Rotavirus infection - gastroenteritis; Norwalk virus; Gastroenteritis - viral; Stomach flu; Diarrhea - viral; Loose stools - viral; Upset stomach - viral How to Treat Nausea and Vomiting Collapse Section How to Treat Nausea and Vomiting has been expanded. Sit quietly when you feel nauseated. Sometimes moving around can make nausea worse. To make sure your body has enough fluids try to drink 8 to 10 glasses of clear liquids every day. Water is best. You can also sip fruit juices and flat soda (leave the can or bottle open to get rid of the bubbles). Try sports drinks to replace minerals and other nutrients you may be losing when you throw up. Try to eat 6 to 8 small meals throughout the day, instead of 3 big meals:
Things You Should Avoid Things You Should Avoid has been expanded. You should avoid some specific kinds of foods when you have nausea and vomiting: To help keep yourself more comfortable and prevent dehydration while you recover, try the following. Let your stomach settle.
Stop eating solid foods for a few hours.
Try taking small sips of water.
You might also try drinking clear soda, clear broths or noncaffeinated sports drinks. Drink plenty of liquid every day, taking small, frequent sips.
Ease back into eating.
Gradually begin to eat bland, easy-to-digest foods, such as soda crackers, toast, gelatin, bananas, rice and chicken. Stop eating if your nausea returns.
Avoid certain foods and substances until you feel better.
These include dairy products, caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, and fatty or highly seasoned foods.
Get plenty of rest.
The illness and dehydration may have made you weak and tired.
Be cautious with medications.
Use many medications, such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others), sparingly if at all. They can make your stomach more upset. Use acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) cautiously; it sometimes can cause liver toxicity, especially in children. Don't give aspirin to children or teens because of the risk of Reye's syndrome, a rare, but potentially fatal disease. Before choosing a pain reliever or fever reducer discuss with your child's pediatrician.
How to Get Rid of a Stomach Virus
A stomach virus is rarely anything serious, but it can knock you off your feet for a few days. Your body will get rid of the virus on its own, but there are a few things you can do to give your body what it needs to fight the bug and make yourself feel better in the meantime. Hydrate yourself with ice chips and clear fluids. The biggest risk associated with any stomach virus is dehydration. As a result, the most important thing you can do to help your body get rid of the virus is to keep yourself hydrated as much as possible.
You should try to get 8 oz (250 ml) of fluid every hour as an adult. Children need 1 oz (30 ml) of fluid every 30 to 60 minutes.
Drink slowly, taking small sips instead of large gulps. Fluids will sit in your stomach more effectively if you introduce them to your system gradually instead of all at once.
Drinking too much plain water as you recover can dilute the few electrolytes still in your system, so try to include an oral electrolyte solution in your drinking routine as you fight the bug. In addition to a loss of water, you are also losing sodium, potassium, and other electrolytes. An electrolyte solution can help replace some of those lost minerals, as well.
Other good drinks to consider include diluted juices, diluted sports drinks, clear broth, and decaffeinated tea.
Avoid sugary drinks. Adding sugar to your system without also adding salt can make diarrhea worse. Carbonated, caffeinated, and alcoholic drinks should all be avoided, too. Ease into a bland diet.
As soon as your stomach feels ready to take on solid foods again, you should begin eating to restore any lost nutrients. While there is little scientific evidence to show that bland foods are inherently easier to digest than less bland foods, most people do seem to take to them better when nausea is still moderately strong.
A traditionally bland diet would be the BRAT diet, which includes bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. Other decent options include baked potatoes without butter, bagels, pretzels, and crackers.
You should only do this for a day or so. Bland foods are certainly better than nothing, but relying on them completely during your recovery will deprive your body of the nutrients it needs to fight off the bug. Return to your normal diet as early as possible.
After surviving on a bland diet for a day or so, you should start returning normal foods back into your eating routine. Bland foods may sit in your stomach well, but when eaten alone, they do not provide all the nutrients you need to get rid of the bug.
Introduce normal foods back into your diet gradually to avoid further stomach upset.
Low-sugar carbohydrates are an excellent choice at this point, including plain cereals and grains. Other good options include peeled fruits, lean proteins like eggs, chicken, and fish, and simple cooked vegetables like green beans and carrots.
Try eating a little low-sugar yogurt. Fermented dairy products are believed to reduce the amount of time you suffer from intestinal upset. Moreover, the bacteria in yogurt is considered "good" bacteria that can help regulate the environment inside your stomach, thereby assisting your body as it fights off virus. Keep clean.
Stomach viruses are strong and can survive outside of the human body for quite some time. Even worse, you can catch the same virus from someone else after you have already recovered once from it. To avoid endlessly catching the same stomach bug over and over again, make sure that you and the spaces you live in are as clean as possible.
Even though a stomach virus is different from food poisoning, you can still spread it through food. Try not to handle anyone else's food when you are ill and always wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water before eating. Stay rested.
As with any illness, rest is a valuable remedy. Resting allows your body to devote more of its resources to getting rid of the stomach virus.
Essentially, you should remove yourself from your daily routine completely while fighting a stomach virus. Your body needs 6 to 8 hours of sleep to function well under normal circumstances, and when you get sick, you should try to at least double the amount of rest you get.
As hard as it may sound, you should also avoid worrying about the things you are not getting done. Worry causes your body to experience stress, which only makes it more difficult for your body to spend resources fighting the bug.
Let the virus run its course.
Ultimately, the only thing you can really do to get rid of a stomach bug is to let it run its course. As long as you do not have a condition that compromises your immune system, your body should be able to fight the virus naturally.
That being said, essential care is still a vital part in getting rid of a stomach virus. The tips outlined here are all aimed at giving your body what it needs to fight the virus on its own. If you do not take care of your body, your body will struggle to recover.
If your immune system does have some form of deficiency, you should call your doctor at the first. Take ginger.
Ginger is traditionally used as a treatment against nausea and stomach cramping. Ginger ale and ginger tea are the most often used treatments when battling a stomach virus.
You can make fresh ginger tea by boiling two to four 1/2-inch (1.25-cm) slices of fresh ginger in 8 oz (250 ml) of water for five to seven minutes. Let cool to a drinkable temperature and sip away.
Ginger ale and bags of herbal ginger tea can be found readily in the store, as well.
In addition to ginger beverages, you can also use ginger capsules and oils, usually available in health food stores or the supplement section of a drugstore. Soothe your symptoms with peppermint.
Peppermint has numbing properties that are commonly thought to calm nausea and stomach spasms. You can use peppermint both internally and externally.
You can take peppermint internally by sipping on peppermint tea, chewing on a clean peppermint leaf, or taking a peppermint capsule supplement. Herbal peppermint teas can be found in the store, or you can make your own fresh tea by boiling a few leaves in 8 oz (250 ml) of water for five to seven minutes.
To benefit externally from peppermint, soak the a washcloth in cold peppermint tea or put two to three drops of peppermint oil on a washcloth soaked in cool water. Try activated charcoal capsules.
Some health food stores will actually sell activated charcoal tablets in the supplement section. Activated charcoal is believed to draw out toxins and may help cripple the toxins in your stomach.
Follow the instructions on the label of activated charcoal to avoid an accidental overdose. Usually, however, you can take several capsules at once and several doses within a single day. Draw yourself a mustard bath.
As odd as it may sound, a lukewarm bath with a little mustard powder mixed in might bring you a little relief. According to folk medicine, mustard has the ability to draw impurities out of your body while improving blood circulation.
You can use warm water if you do not have a fever, but if you do have a fever, keep the water lukewarm to prevent it from rising any further.
Add 2 Tbsp (30 ml) of mustard powder and 1/4 cup (60 ml) of baking soda to a full tub of water. Stir it gently with your hands until the mustard and baking soda fully dissolve before soaking yourself in the bathwater for 10 to 20 minutes. Place a warm towel on your stomach.
If your stomach muscles have worked so much that they have begun cramping up, a warm towel or warm heating pad on your stomach might be able to soothe the pain.
If you have a high fever, however, this treatment can cause your temperature to climb further and should be avoided.
Relaxing cramping stomach muscles can ease the symptoms of your stomach virus, but by putting yourself in less pain, your body can relax more overall. This allows your immune system to spend more of its resources on fighting the virus and may help you get better faster. Don't bother asking for an antibiotic.
Antibiotics are effective against strains of bacteria, but unfortunately, they are not effective against viruses. A stomach bug caused by a viral infection cannot be effectively treated with an antibiotic. Consider requesting an anti-nausea medication.
If severe nausea lasts past 12 to 24 hours, your doctor might recommend the use of an anti-nausea medication to settle your stomach enough for you to retain fluids and a small amount of food.
Note, however, that anti-nausea medications only ease your symptoms. They do not get rid of the virus. Since an anti-nausea drug will help you keep down more fluids and foods, though, you can at least provide your body with the nutrients it needs to do the fighting itself. Avoid taking over-the-counter anti-diarrheal medicines.
Unless, of course, you have your doctor's approval. These over-the-counter anti-diarrheal medicines can be very effective, but that is part of the problem. For the first 24 hours or so, you need to let your body do what it can to expel the virus from your system. Unfortunately, diarrhea and vomiting are natural parts of the process.
After the virus has been expelled from your system, your doctor may permit you to take an anti-diarrheal drug to treat residual symptoms.
For infants and children
When your child has an intestinal infection, the most important goal is to replace lost fluids and salts. These suggestions may help:
Help your child rehydrate.
Give your child an oral rehydration solution, available at pharmacies without a prescription. Talk to your doctor if you have questions about how to use it. Don't give your child plain water in children with gastroenteritis, water isn't absorbed well and won't adequately replace lost electrolytes. Avoid giving your child apple juice for rehydration it can make diarrhea worse.
Get your child back to a normal diet slowly.
Gradually introduce bland, easy-to-digest foods, such as toast, rice, bananas and potatoes.
Avoid certain foods.
Don't give your child dairy products or sugary foods, such as ice cream, sodas and candy. These can make diarrhea worse.
Make sure your child gets plenty of rest.
The illness and dehydration may have made your child weak and tired.
Avoid giving your child over-the-counter anti-diarrheal medications,
unless advised by your doctor. They can make it harder for your child's body to eliminate the virus.
If you have a sick infant, let your baby's stomach rest for 15 to 20 minutes after vomiting or a bout of diarrhea, then offer small amounts of liquid. If you're breast-feeding, let your baby nurse. If your baby is bottle-fed, offer a small amount of an oral rehydration solution or regular formula. Don't dilute your baby's already-prepared formula.
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