Gastroenteritis

What you need to know:

Severe gastroenteritis - particularly in children and the elderly, who are at higher risk of dehydration - needs medical advice. For less severe cases, however, there are many natural remedies and complementary therapies that can help.

Replacing lost fluids is particularly important. You can buy commercially produced rehydration drinks, but it’s easy to make your own by adding 8 tspns of sugar or honey and 1 tspn of salt to a litre of boiled water and drinking a small glassful every half an hour. Children should be given a dessertspoonful every 10 minutes.

At first you probably won’t feel like eating - which won’t do any harm for a day or two. When you do feel hungry, avoid all dairy products for at least 48 hours and give your system a slow introduction to food by sticking to foods like ripe Bananas, boiled Rice, Apples and dry wholemeal Toast.

The most useful Herbs:

Bistort, fenugreek, agrimony and Gotu kola
Slippery elm
Marshmallow
Bilberry juice
Cranberry juice
Echinacea

Homoeopathy

The homoeopathic remedies: Arsenicum album and Veratrum album could also be beneficial.

Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy oils can help, too. Having a massage will probably be the last thing on your mind, but adding roman chamomile, lavender or melissa to the bath can be very soothing.

Other useful advice:

Once you’ve had one bout of gastroenteritis, you certainly won’t want another and there are several things you can do to reduce that risk:

Make sure all kitchen surfaces are kept clean
ALWAYS wash your hands after going to the loo
Defrost meat and poultry thoroughly before cooking - and make sure they’re cooked until the juices run clear. There’s one exception: rare beef is fine as long as it isn’t a hamburger - recent outbreaks of potentially lethal poisoning with the E coli bacteria has been directly linked to under-cooked hamburgers. Most meat is contaminated with this bug, which is on the surface. When you cook your steak or joint of beef, the outside gets very hot, killing off the E coli; when the meat is minced, the infection is spread and will be present in the middle of the burger
Never use the same chopping board for raw and cooked meat
Keep fresh meat and poultry separately in the bottom of the fridge so that blood can’t drip onto other food

When you’re travelling or on holiday - particularly in Africa and Asia:

Don’t eat undercooked meat or raw shellfish
Peel all fruit
Use bottled water only - and don’t have ice cubes in drinks if they’re made with tap water
Don’t eat salads
Beware the hotel buffet, which could have been sitting in the sunshine for hours providing an easy lunch for germ-laden flies
Before you eat in a restaurant, look in the loo. If it’s full of flies where you can see them, imagine what it’s like in the kitchen, where you can’t

Finally, a useful tip when the vomiting and diarrhoea subside is to make sure you regularly eat bio yoghurt. It contains useful bacteria called probiotics, which keep the digestion working efficiently and boost the immune system.

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The information provided by WIS is for guidance only. Whilst it is based upon the expert advice of leading professionals, and extensive research, it is not a substitute for diagnosis by a qualified professional. Always consult your doctor, pharmacist or qualified practitioner before making any changes or additions to prescribed medication.