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How Do I Know If I Have It?

Your doctor's most important tool for diagnosing the cause of your diarrhea is the information you provide. You will need to inform the doctor about recent travel and whether other people in your family are ill. Providing details about the stool may be embarrassing to you, but they are very important, such as presence of blood or mucus; how watery it is; how long you've had diarrhea; whether you are also experiencing severe urgency, abdominal pain, or pain in your rectum; and whether it occurs more often after eating certain foods.

Your doctor may want to examine a sample of your stool and may send it to a laboratory for testing. If your doctor suspects food intolerance, the doctor may ask you to avoid a particular type of food for a while, in order to see if this helps stop your diarrhea. If your doctor needs more information to make a diagnosis, you may need to undergo sigmoidoscopy, which is an examination of the rectum and lower part of the colon with a lighted tube-like instrument, or colonoscopy, which is an examination of the entire colon with a similar instrument. If your symptoms suggest food intolerance or a hormonal disturbance, other tests may be ordered.

What Are the Treatments?

The most important aspect of treating diarrhea involves avoiding dehydration. Because plain water does not contain sugar, sodium, or potassium, which also is lost from diarrhea, it is important to consume plenty of fluids that contain these substances. Examples of such drinks include sports drinks, prepared rehydration solutions, chicken or beef broth, colas, or bottled and flavored mineral water.

If you also are vomiting, try taking tiny amounts of liquid every 15 minutes. After you are able to hold down liquids, you can advance to a bland, soft diet.

Children are often put on the BRAT diet — that is no comment on children! It actually is a helpful reminder for this type of treatment, which actually stands for bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast.
You may be asked to avoid fats, sweets, coffee and milk products until you are completely over the diarrhea.

Antibiotics will sometimes resolve the symptoms of diarrhea. However, antibiotics won't help with viral diarrhea, which is the most common type of infectious diarrhea.

Medications that slow diarrhea are controversial. Some doctors don't like their patients to take these medications because it slows the passage of the virus, bacteria, or parasite causing the problem out of the body. If you wonder whether you should use any of the over-the-counter preparations available for diarrhea, ask your doctor.

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