Cures for Diarrhea From Antibiotics

Antibiotics frequently cause diarrhea -- three or more bowel movements in a day featuring loose, watery stools -- because they kill all of the bacteria in your body, including some of the helpful bacteria in your digestive tract. When thinking about treatments for antibiotic-associated diarrhea, consider treatments that will help restore the balance of good bacteria in your digestive system as well as ways to keep your body hydrated. Choosing certain foods is also a key consideration.

Restore the Balance of Electrolytes and Stay Hydrated

• One of the most important considerations when treating antibiotic-associated diarrhea is to keep your body hydrated. Diarrhea flushes your system of water and important minerals. To stay hydrated and restore the electrolytes and minerals your body may have lost, drink plenty of clear, room-temperature beverages. Sports drinks, clear broth and low-sugar beverages that also contain either sodium or potassium are good options. In a pinch, drink 1 qt. of apple juice with 1 tsp. of table salt added to help stay balanced and hydrated. Avoid beverages that contain caffeine, alcohol or a lot of sugar. These types of drinks will draw fluid out of your body and worsen your diarrhea.

Avoid Spicy or Greasy Foods

• Another consideration in curing diarrhea is your diet. Even though antibiotics may have caused the diarrhea, choosing spicy, greasy or hard-to-digest foods will worsen symptoms. Until you can restore the good bacteria in your system, choose bland foods like bananas, rice or plain baked potatoes. Avoid greasy or fatty foods as much as possible.

Restore good bacteria

• Another important consideration when thinking about ways to cure antibiotic-associated diarrhea is the restoration of good bacteria in the digestive tract. Since antibiotics kill all the bacteria in your system, your body will have difficulty digesting food, causing diarrhea. Restoring the good bacteria will help alleviate diarrhea.

  Repopulating your digestive tract with good bacteria is as simple as eating yogurt -- especially yogurt containing strains of the bacteria lactobacillus or bifidobacterium. Two or three servings a day of yogurt will help restore the good bacteria in your digestive system and stop the diarrhea. Probiotic drinks like kefir that contain these strains of bacteria are also good choices. Natural food markets or health food stores will also sell tablet forms of these bacteria, usually in the digestive health section, to help repopulate the good bacteria.