You may experience nausea and vomiting for a variety of reasons, including chemotherapy or just the common cold. Many people find it difficult not to completely empty their bowels when they vomit or are nauseous. There are simple ways to help keep your food and drink in your stomach when you are sick.
Step
Part 1 of 3: Eating a Simple Diet
Step 1. Follow the BRAT diet
Some doctors recommend the BRAT diet which stands for Banana (aka banana), Rice (aka rice), Applesauce (aka applesauce) and Toast aka (toast). These foods can help you recover from nausea and vomiting because they are low in fiber and easy to digest and help replace lost nutrients. The American Pediatrics Union (AAFP) no longer recommends the BRAT diet for children. Instead, the AAFP advises children to continue eating a normal, nutritionally balanced diet that is appropriate for the child's age during the first 24 hours of illness.
- Some other foods that are easy to eat:
- Cracker biscuits: saltine crackers, oyster crackers, rice crackers and other "white flour" crackers.
- Boiled potato
- Noodles/Pasta: plain egg noodles, pasta, or ramen noodles. Avoid whole grains.
- Gelatin: often referred to by its brand name "Jello", although any brand is acceptable. The choice of taste is up to you.
Step 2. Add more complex foods gradually
Once you've managed to stop throwing up very simple foods like broth, rice, bananas and toast, add more complex foods as your health improves. This step can reduce nausea and vomiting and will not burden your stomach.
Examples of more complex foods you can try when you feel better are cereals, fruit, cooked vegetables, chicken, peanut butter, and white pasta without sauce
Step 3. Avoid foods that can cause discomfort in the stomach
You should be very careful with the stomach when it hurts. Avoiding foods such as milk or spicy food can prevent more severe vomiting.
- Avoid fatty foods, including fried foods. For example, if you're throwing up a lot, a greasy cheeseburger will likely only make your nausea worse and make you throw up even more.
- Stay away from spicy foods such as curry, rendang, sweet spicy chicken or barbecue.
- Dairy products such as milk, yogurt, and cheese can make you feel nauseous and vomit even more.
- Sugary foods such as cookies and cakes can trigger nausea or increase vomiting.
- Stay away from whole grain breads, cereals, or pastas until your nausea is gone.
- Nuts and seeds can also cause stomach discomfort.
Step 4. Drink plenty of clear liquid
Keep meeting the needs of fluids in the body when you are often vomiting or sick. Drinking plenty of fluids can help keep your body hydrated as well as soothe your stomach and relieve nausea.
- Fluids are more important than solid foods. Your body suffers from dehydration more quickly than from starvation. Many foods contain large amounts of liquid, such as gelatin, bananas, or rice.
- You can drink any beverage/food that is liquid or turns liquid at room temperature, such as ice cubes, soup, ginger ale, or popsicle.
- Water, pulpless fruit juices, soup stock, colorless sodas such as ginger ale or Sprite, tea, and popsicles can help keep your body hydrated and prevent vomiting.
- Electrolyte or sports drinks can help replace some of the nutrients and also soothe the stomach. However, don't just drink it. Dissolve it with at least half of the water, or drink a sip of water for every sip of an energy drink. Sports drinks are usually too concentrated so that once dissolved it will be easier for the stomach to accept.
Step 5. Brew ginger tea or peppermint tea
There is some medical evidence that ginger and peppermint tea can help relieve nausea and vomiting. Brew and drink ginger tea or peppermint tea to help soothe your stomach and increase your fluid intake.
You can make these drinks either using commercially available ginger or peppermint tea, or using a few mint leaves or a handful of ginger soaked in boiling water
Step 6. Avoid fluids that can cause nausea or vomiting
Do not drink anything that is difficult for the stomach to digest. Consuming beverages such as alcohol, coffee, or milk can worsen nausea and make you vomit.
Don't add cream to the tea you drink
Part 2 of 3: Eating and Drinking when Vomiting
Step 1. Wait until you have finished vomiting before starting to eat something
This doesn't seem like a need to explain anymore, but unfortunately sometimes people will rush to eat before their stomachs are ready. If you're vomiting a lot, wait until you can eat without vomiting before starting to eat solid foods. Instead, drink fluids/liquid foods or electrolyte drinks to help prevent you from becoming dehydrated.
Eat solid foods only after you haven't vomited for about six hours
Step 2. If your stomach gets queasy when you see or imagine a food, don't eat it
Sometimes our bodies are wiser than our heads. Also, if you feel nauseous just imagining a certain food, you're more likely to actually throw it up. There's a mental element to the way your body processes nausea, and it's very difficult to overcome. If your stomach churns at the thought of eating a banana, but is fine when you think of a small bowl of rice, eat that rice.
Step 3. Eat foods that are easy to digest
Certain foods, including milk, can make nausea and vomiting worse. Eating easy-to-digest foods can help prevent vomiting and relieve vomiting itself.
Once you're able to eat, try solids from the BRAT diet and other simple options like boiled potatoes and clear soup. You can add more complex foods as your condition improves
Step 4. Eat small portions and chew your food thoroughly
While you eat simple, soft foods, eat small portions throughout the day and make sure you chew slowly and thoroughly. This step can help reduce nausea and prevent you from throwing up.
- Start with a slice of toast or a banana. Add other simple foods as you can. For example, if you can finish a piece of toast without throwing up and still feel hungry, eat a banana half or an hour later.
- Chewing properly will help reduce the extra work of the stomach in digesting food.
- Eating little by little will help you chew more perfectly. This method will also help you find out if you can accept a food in a way that is easier than burdening your stomach with filling it.
Step 5. Drink a little at a time
Just as it is important to eat little by little, drinking little by little will also help you. This step can reduce the burden on the stomach and does not make nausea worse.
- Sip 118-236 ml of clear liquid every hour and only 30-60 ml at a time. This step will help meet the fluid intake in your body without increasing the risk of vomiting more or experiencing hyponatremia, which is a condition when the body lacks sodium.
- If you are unable to sip liquids, try sucking on ice cubes until you can consume as much as 30-60 ml of liquid at a time.
Part 3 of 3: Using Alternative Options to Relieve Nausea and Vomiting
Step 1. Be aware of drugs that can make your stomach uncomfortable
Certain medications such as oxycodone can hurt the stomach and cause nausea. If you are taking any medications that can cause an upset stomach, talk to your doctor about stopping them until you feel better.
- Pain relievers such as codeine, hydrocodone, morphine, or oxycodone can cause nausea.
- Some over-the-counter medications, such as iron or potassium supplements, and even aspirin, can cause nausea.
Step 2. Get enough rest
In many cases, simply resting can help relieve nausea and vomiting. Lie down often, especially after eating, to help keep food from throwing up again.
Too much activity can make nausea and vomiting worse by making your stomach churned
Step 3. Try motion sickness medications and antihistamines
If you're constantly vomiting from motion sickness, consider taking a hangover medication or an antihistamine. These medications can help relieve nausea and vomiting and allow you to eat.
- You can try an over-the-counter antihistamine such as dimenhydrinate to help keep your food down. Follow the doctor's instructions or instructions on the packaging for its use.
- If you have severe nausea and vomiting, your doctor may prescribe scopolamine, which is a patch that is placed on the skin. Scopolamine can only be used by adults.
- Relieve nausea with acupressure. This therapy is really effective, requires no drugs and you don't have to be very proficient in Eastern-style medicine to be able to try it.
Step 4. See a doctor
If you experience nausea, vomiting or are unable to eat and drink without vomiting for a long time, see your doctor. Your doctor will help find out if there is a more serious health problem and can develop a course of treatment to help you avoid vomiting.
- If you have been vomiting for more than 24 hours, see a doctor immediately.
- If you are unable to hold the fluid in your stomach for 12 hours or more, seek medical attention.
- If there is blood or dark material in your vomit, go to the emergency department immediately.
- If you have severe vomiting, that is, vomiting more than three times a day, see a healthcare professional immediately.
