How to Stay Hydrated with Diarrhea?

Diarrhea might earn its street cred for its uncomfortable, socially hushed excretory effects; but diarrhea causes more than awkward departures from tables and sick notes to your office. Diarrhea flushes unwanted organisms out of the body, and with it, most of your fluids.

Diarrhea severely dehydrates the body, so it is essential you replace the fluids lost to stay healthy! Learn how to stay hydrated during these uncomfortable times below.

How to Stay Hydrated with Diarrhea

Increase clear fluid intake

When you are quickly losing large quantities of fluids, you need to rehydrate and pre-hydrate by drinking more water than you are used to consuming. Water makes up most of your body, so water and clear, water-based liquids are the most essential liquid to drink during dehydration.

What if I’m feeling nauseous?

If your vomiting or diarrhea is accompanied by nausea, drinking any fluids can be difficult as your body likely wants to spit them right back out. Try sipping water on ice slowly to ease the fluid into your system. You might try adding drops of lemon or carbonation to your water to make it easier to get down, too.

What if I have a medical condition?

If you have a pre-existing health condition, including heart abnormalities, and you are losing a lot of liquid through diarrhea and vomiting, consult your physician on the safe amount of water to drink. While replenishing fluids and electrolytes is essential, some heart conditions limit how much water your body can handle drinking and processing each day.

Recharge with salty drinks and foods

As your body loses fluids, it also loses key electrolytes, including iodine and potassium. Iodine can be found in supplement form, or it can be found naturally in table salt (not sea salt). Sports drinks have sugar and salt which help water get absorbed into the body.

What if I am a sports drink skeptic?

If you are less than convinced by pre-packaged, brightly colored sports drinks at your local store, make your own at home. Add a teaspoon of salt to your fresh squeezed juice.

How do I know if I am dehydrated?

Your body will let if you know if you are dehydrated. Unfortunately, most of us are chronically dehydrated and fail to notice the dehydration symptoms as abnormal.

Look for the following signs of dehydration to cue you into an uptake in your fluids:

Infrequent urination

If you are peeing less often than usual or hardly at all, your body does not have enough liquid! It has so little water, that it is retaining what little liquid you put in it. Drink up!

Dark urine

Yellow or brownish colored urine is the easiest sign of dehydration to detect. Whether or not you are experiencing diarrhea, making a habit of checking the color of your urine is a good way to keep tabs on your daily hydration. Healthy hydration is reflected by clear to light-yellow urine; anything bright or pale is your body’s way of telling you it needs water.

Infrequent sweating

If you are not sweating as much as usual, it is probably because your body does not have the excess water to excrete.

Muscle cramps

Muscles cramping is a result of decreased water in the body and missing electrolytes, including potassium. Potassium and iodine are heavily prevalent in water, so as you lose water, you lose these electrolytes, too.

Fatigue or lightheaded

Water provides the transit for all processes and operations in the body. If you are feeling sluggish, foggy or lightheaded, you are likely dehydrated! Help your body out by increasing fluid intake.

Dehydration can be incredibly detrimental to your overall health. It’s so important to pay attention to the signs and symptoms that your body is giving you as it signals its need for more water.