Viral gastroenteritis is an intestinal infection marked by watery diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, nausea or vomiting, headache, muscle aches, and sometimes fever.
It’s often called a stomach bug or the stomach flu, but it’s not actually the flu or influenza, which is a respiratory illness.
This infection often develops though contact with an infected person, or by ingesting contaminated food or water.
An upset stomach is a common symptom of a stomach bug, which can make eating sound unappealing, even though you may be hungry.
Knowing what to eat is difficult because you don’t know what will agree with your stomach.
Follow these tips for fuelling your body when you have viral gastroenteritis:
Avoid eating solid foods for a few hours.
Instead, drink liquids like broths, teas, soft drinks or non-caffeinated sports drinks.
Focus on drinking small amounts of liquid frequently to stay hydrated.
After you can tolerate drinking clear fluids, start eating smaller meals of bland, low-residual foods, such as mashed potatoes, plain noodles, crackers, toast, gelatin, bananas, rice and chicken.
It’s best to use over-the-counter (OTC) medications like ibuprofen sparingly as they can cause an upset stomach.
Discuss your medications with your healthcare team to avoid any potential side effects.
If your symptoms are severe, you may need to use an OTC medication to help decrease diarrhoea symptoms, or an anti-nausea medicine to help you keep food and fluids down without vomiting.
The main complication of a stomach bug is dehydration, which is a severe loss of water, and essential salts and minerals.
You can lower the risk of dehydration by drinking enough fluids to replace those lost from vomiting or diarrhoea.
Depending on the cause, viral gastroenteritis symptoms generally appear about one to three days after exposure.
Symptoms can be mild, or at times, severe, and last for a few days to a week.
Although viral gastroenteritis is extremely common, it can usually be managed at home.
Red flags or worrisome symptoms that would prompt a visit to your healthcare team are:
- Severe dehydration
- Not being able to keep fluids down
- Bloody stools
- Severe abdominal pain, or
- When symptoms last longer than one week.
Young children, older adults and people with compromised immune systems are more likely to have complications related to viral gastroenteritis.
Good hand hygiene and proper food handling are essential to prevent you from getting sick and to limit the spread of viral gastroenteritis within a household, school, workplace and the community.
Ensure that you wash your hands with soap and water, especially after using the bathroom, before preparing food and before eating. – By Shelly Frischmann/Mayo Clinic News Network/Tribune News Service
Shelly Frischmann is a nurse practitioner in Family Medicine in Wisconsin, United States.
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