Treating travellers' diarrhoea
Treating travellers’ diarrhoea
If you are unlucky enough to experience a bout of travellers’ diarrhoea, health experts recommend the following:
- Replace lost fluids by drinking plenty of bottled or boiled water. For the frail, elderly or children, who are at greater risk from dehydration, oral rehydration sachets are also advisable.
- Limit drinking and eating to tea and flat, fizzy drinks such as cola, and bland crackers and dry toast. As your appetite increases, add simple, baked foods.
- Contact a doctor if symptoms last longer than 24 hours; you develop a fever over 38°C; or you have blood or mucus in your stools.
Take an over-the-counter diarrhoea medicine such as IMODIUM® Instants, which melt on the tongue and don’t need water, or IMODIUM® Plus Caplets for relief from diarrhoea and associated cramps, wind and bloating.
Travel health kit
To help you enjoy your holiday, make sure you pack a holiday health kit – especially if you are travelling to a developing country. Here’s what you could include in your kit:
- Antiseptic cream
- Thermometer
- Oral rehydration tablets
- Diarrhoea treatment
- Antifungal creams
- Water purifying tablets
- Scissors and tweezers
- Insect repellent
- Travel sickness tablets
- Indigestion remedy (if you are a regular sufferer)
- Sunscreen and aftersun
- Contraception
- Plasters and dressing
Which treatment is right for you
Use our Product Selector to help you choose which IMODIUM® best suits your symptoms and lifestyle.
Poor hygiene, contaminated food or water and general change in climate, all combine to make holiday diarrhoea an extremely common complaint. It can even be triggered simply by a change in diet. Diarrhoea can really spoil a well-earned holiday, so make sure you pack some diarrhoea treatment in your suitcase.
IMODIUM® Instants 6 and IMODIUM® Instant Melts 12 are specifically formulated for fast, effective relief with a convenient, instant melt tablet. It melts on the tongue with no need for water and has a fresh minty flavour.
To find out more, visit our Travellers’ diarrhoea section.
Oral rehydration solutions are designed to replace lost fluids and electrolytes (‘salts’) from the body to prevent dehydration. Most do not control the symptoms of diarrhoea. Therefore you can use a diarrhoea treatment such as IMODIUM® products to control symptoms when needed.
For more information, visit our Causes of diarrhoea and Diarrhoea treatment sections.
| Bloating |
Bloating is often associated with the abdomen, when intestinal gasses can make it feel full and tight. |
| Laxatives |
Medicines that loosen the bowels to combat constipation; can cause diarrhoea if overused. |