Help for a bad tummy?

[Fierce Critter]

I don't know if it's the new addition of a slight cold or what, but I feel worse today than I did yesterday in recovering from my bout of food poisoning over the weekend.

I had some potato soup yesterday, a little ham, some bread, and some noodles. Drank gatorade & ginger ale, and that's about it.

Today, I feel like if I put anything but clear broth or ginger ale in my stomache, I'm gonna retch all over again.

Anyone have any suggestions for ultra-light foods I can eat? I need to get solids into my body, but the thought of anything I'm coming up with (plain, lean turkey meat, etc) is making me ill.

Also, any over-the-counter tummy-aids you think might help the slight stomache upset? It's not quite nausea, and damned far from what I suffered Sunday. But I'm "not right" and I'd like to do what I can to help it besides lie around and feel miserable.

[gothicmom]

When my tummy hurts, I eat crackers or toast and sometimes popcorn. I tend to eat dry foods.

Peppermint will help, so if you have any mints lying around that might help.

Also, make sure your ginger-ale has real ginger in it. Ginger also settles the stomach.

I don't think I have ever used over the counter drugs for an upset stomach.

[Fierce Critter]

Thanks for the suggestions, GM. Toast is always a good idea...

No Vernors down here, I wonder if the Seagrams stuff has real ginger? That's what I've been drinking...

By over-the-counter, I was thinking of stuff like Pepcid. Pepto-Bismol does work, but the taste makes me retch even when I'm NOT nauseous.

[gothicmom]

I usually just stick with the above. Mints seem to help me alot. A guy at an herb shop told me that a drop of peppermint oil at the back of the neck helps all sorts of things.

[Dubh Aingeal]

Here is what my not feeling well medicine closet contains:

Traditional Medicinals

Breathe Easy

Cold Care PM

Cold Season Sampler

Gypsy Cold Care

Throat Coat

Nighty Night

Celestial Seasonings

Echinacea Complete Care Wellness

Ginseng Energy Wellness

Herbal Tea Sampler

SleepyTime

Sleepytime Extra

Tension Tamer

Throat Soothers Wellness

Tummy Mint Wellness

Mints are very good at soothing tummies.. The Tummy Mint and the Ginseng Energy are very good for the upset stomach... I also have some other teas I have picked up for various diffrent ailments as well that do help, but those are ones I have gotten at farmers markets, etc...

[Brenda Starrr]

The general consensus is mint, and I have to agree. It works miracles for me.

[Ginevra]

I personally do not care for mint, myself. GM's recommendation of crackers or bread is a good one, however. Saltines work especially well for me.

Warm, non-sweetened (other than perhaps a teensy dribble of honey), decaffinated tea is usually beneficial to me as well as just simply trying to sleep it off although I know there are really only so many hours you can sleep in a day, even if you don't feel well.

[Fierce Critter]

Thanks, all, for the tips. Unfortunately, most of them came after I had to leave to do my shopping.

However, I did have a piece of toast and some ginger ale and it did wonders. Maybe the peppermint disk I ate did, too.

This all reminded me that I have a stash of peppermint & eucalyptus in my much-neglected store of herbs. My cold got worse tonight - I'm going through a family-sized box of Puffs Plus in record time. For a bit of temporary relief, I mixed some eucalyptus & peppermint in a muslin bag, tied it over the shower head and let it go full-heat to steam up the bathroom. Vick's Vapo-Rub would be a lot stronger & admittedly much more effective, but I'm out at the moment so this did nicely in the meantime.

[gothicmom]

Dubh, I bought some Echinacea Complete Care Wellness. Oh my it works wonders!!!! I had one cup and my nasal passages cleared up enough to allow me to breath with my mouth closed!

I'm going to keep a box in the pantry all the time. That way when I start to get that tickle in my nose I can fight it off with the tea.

I even convinced my husband to have some! I didn't think he's go for the flowery taste.

[Ginevra]

Echinacea is not just good for when you're sick. It can be used as a preventative as well if you have simple echinacea tea without all the "helpers" (IE decongestant and such).

[Hermine]

Don't discount the value of chammomile for an upset tummy either. There's a tea called evening delight (I think it's Safeway brand) that has peppermint and chammomile; it's quite nice.

Dairy can be pretty rough on the stomach and it creates more phleghm, so avoid it if you're not doing so already.

Miso soup makes a nice break from chicken soup* and meat does involve a lot of complicated stuff that can be rough on the stomach. I know the higher fat stuff is, the harder it generally is on my stomach (but then again, chicken soup would make me sick anyway, since I'm a vegetarian, so YMMV)

And large doses of vitamin C can upset the stomach, so don't go for too much of a megadose on that. You shouldn't short yourself on it, but don't OD. While your diet is limited, don't forget to take a multivitamin, btw.

And get protein somehow, umm...peanut butter/peanuts if you can handle it, or you could munch some roasted soybeans--those won't be too rough on the stomach, I don't think--they're pretty dry. I guess miso or chicken soup would help some, but I don't know how much protein you get in that form.

Trust me on this one, I learned from experience not to neglect my protein intake for too long.

*random fact: chicken (and miso) soup is so popular for when you have a cold because much of taste is smell, but the basic tastes, including salty, aren't dependent on smell. Chicken or miso soup is salty, so you can still taste it when you're sick.

[torn asunder]

Dairy can be pretty rough on the stomach and it creates more phleghm, so avoid it if you're not doing so already.

when i'm really sick, usually the only thing i can stand is skim milk - wonder why it affects some people and not others!?