Diarrhoea

• Miss the next meal or two
  
• Drink small frequent sips of clear fluid for 12 hours, for example;
  
• Flat, cold cola (not diet forms of these drinks however)
  
• Boiled water that has been allowed to cool (this can be flavoured with fruit juice)
  
• Boiled water mixed with special rehydration packs that you can buy from the pharmacy such as Dioralyte or Rehidrat
  
• Home made fluid if you cannot get to the pharmacy. Take a pint of boiled water. Add 1 level dessertspoon of sugar or glucose and a pinch of salt between your thumb and little finger. Mix until dissolved. Allow to cool before drinking
  

• If symptoms persist for more than three days
  
• If there is continuous pain rather than separate bouts of stomach cramp
  
• If diarrhoea occurs in a baby less than 1 year old
  
• If an attack comes shortly after visiting a foreign country, especially if you have recently visited a country where typhoid or cholera are known to occur or with a water supply that is suspect
  
• If you suffer repeated attacks
  
• If there is blood in the stools
  
• If the patient is frail or elderly
  
• If symptoms are exceptionally severe
• If others have been simultaneously affected