How To Stop The Stomach Flu In Its Tracks!
Trying to stop the stomach flu in its tracks? I can help you!
The past few weeks have been rather difficult here….to say the least!
The stomach flu has hit us hard!
My oldest daughter that has some health issues came home from school looking rather pale. I gave her the usual vitamins and a few extras because I had a feeling something was brewing.
Usually these vitamins work like magic, but this time was different…….
The next morning my daughter woke up so sick, was vomiting, and looked even more pale! She can get sick often so at the time it didn’t dawn on me that it was something my whole family would catch.
Little did I know, this was the stomach bug in full force and it would hit the rest of my crew within a few days!
My oldest daughter spread her wonderful germs to the baby (because I can never separate those two) which was terrible since she couldn’t make it to the toilet each time.
When it hit my husband and middle daughter, I knew I had to take action. Enough was enough and I had to stop this thing because if it hit me…..they were all screwed!!
I tried everything from cleaning the house like crazy, sanitizing, using my essential oils which always did the trick!
But no…not this time! This time nothing worked!
Then I remembered reading somewhere about activated charcoal and how taking it for food poisoning and the stomach flu helped stop the symptoms!
I thought….well what do I have to lose at this point? Theres only me left but if I could help my middle daughter and husband get better fast then I’ll try it!
I read as much as I could about activated charcoal and ran down to the drugstore and picked up the only bottle they had. I said some prayers and came back home to test it out!
Hope the information below helps you stop the stomach flu in its tracks at your house too!
What the heck is Activated Charcoal??
Activated Charcoal is a black powder made from coal, bone char, coconut shells, peat, petroleum coke, sawdust or olive pits.
Weird, right?
It is actually a universal antidote and was used by Native Americans hundreds of years ago.
Activated charcoal works differently than other medicines you would take. Our bodies do not digest or break down the activated charcoal like we would with other medicines or foods.
Instead, activated charcoal binds to a variety of impurities like bad bacteria or poisons, and we then pass it through our bowel movements. It basically traps bad toxins in the gut to prevent absorption.
Activated charcoal is most commonly used in hospitals to help patients with food poisoning or drug overdoses. It successfully draws toxins out of our bodies in a way that is safe and much easier than stomach pumping.
There are many other uses for activated charcoal which include whitening teeth and helping reduce symptoms of a hangover.
How can activated charcoal stop the stomach flu?
If you or someone you love has a stomach flu or bug, taking some activated charcoal can easily stop their symptoms and get them back to recovery!
The activated charcoal seems to bind to whatever bad bacteria they have going on in their stomach that caused the sickness.
The biggest problem is getting the pill down! Especially for kids!
Normally, when you are sick and nauseous, the last thing you want to do is swallow a big nasty black pill!
Here are a few ways you can take this pill if you can’t swallow it:
(For children, I only used half of a capsule)
- Mix it with yogurt
- Mix it with juice
- Mix it with a dark-colored gatorade to blend in the black color.
- Our favorite way– my kids will only take it this way! Open up a capsule and split half of it into some crushed ice. I only gave my kids half of a capsule for the stomach bug and it was enough for them. They liked sucking on ice much more than drinking anything. Even if you can get them to suck on one of two pieces of ice mixed with the charcoal will help them!
In my experience-
I’m sure everyone has their own story about this but in our house, we gave our daughter a half of one pill and crushed it up with ice. She was able to slowly take a few bites and suck on the ice.
She didn’t mind that the ice was black at all, she just wanted any relief she could get.
Guess what happened? She stopped throwing up!!
My husband was also sick as well and he swallowed one whole pill and was fine later that day and completely symptom free the next day!
I am the only one in the house that has not gotten sick….knock on wood.
I have been drinking grape juice, using essential oils, upping my vitamin C intake, elderberry intake, and I took one activated charcoal the same day my husband did just in case.
Update** I remained symptom free and what I took worked!
The Verdict:
Activated charcoal definitely stopped the stomach flu in its tracks at my house.
I’m not saying this will work for everyone but I literally tried everything and this was the last straw and it should’ve been the first one!
I will now always have this on me to prevent any stomach bugs or god forbid some kind of food poisoning happens here.
It’s great to keep in your first aid kit!
This is the kind of activated charcoal I used and was actually the only brand my local pharmacy had so I was happy to get it at all! I’m sure any brand you buy will do the trick!
Best money I ever spent!
Other home remedies we used to help fight off the stomach flu:
Essential Oils:
I love my essential oils. While the oils I used did not cure the stomach flu, it definitely gave us some relief and probably helped my kids get better quicker!
I rubbed DiGize oil all over their little tummies and they loved how quickly it calmed and soothed their stomach pains. My husband also said he liked it as well!
I also rubbed a mixture of Thieves, Oregano, and lemon oils on their feet and spine for immunity support (diluted of course) and gave them plenty of detox baths that always help them feel better when they’re sick.
You can read more about my immunity boosting detox bath recipe here!
Grape juice:
Drinking grape juice at least 3 times a day when exposed to the stomach flu is supposed to help keep you healthy and not get it!
I learned about this theory a bit late but when I found out I started drinking it and kept it here on hand just in case!
Let me know in the comments if anyone has tried the grape juice theory and if it worked for their family!
Vitamin C, D, and Elderberry syrup:
I can’t express enough how important vitamins C and D3 are! I believe my kids stay healthy for most of the year due to the vitamins they take.
However, sometimes, the stomach flu takes over no matter what you do!
Even if it does hit you, be sure to keep up with your vitamins and take a teaspoon of elderberry every day in the winter/flu months!! To read more about immune boosting vitamins for kids, click here!
Below are some great brands that we use!
Probiotics:
One of the best ways you can prevent any kind of stomach issues is to take a good probiotic daily! I made sure to stay on top of my probiotics the entire time they were sick and I did not get the stomach bug!
Our family doctor swears by probiotics and I give them to my whole family.
Ironically, the week the stomach flu hit our home, I ran out of my children’s probiotics and they didn’t have any the week before!
This winter I will be sure never to run out of probiotics!
There are several kinds of probiotics on the market today. My kids are very picky when it comes to this type of vitamin. Some of our favorites are Florastor, Bio-Kult, Garden of Life, and Naturewise.
These probiotics vary in pill form or powders. The powders are awesome to mix into smoothies for your little ones and they won’t know the difference!
My older daughter likes to take the pils rather than the powders.
Animal Parade has a multivitamin with a probiotic included. This is huge for me because it’s hard to get my kids to take several vitamins every morning.
This brand is top quality compared to others and has so much of what they need included! One of my daughters is very picky, so I’ll have her take this!
A few cleaning supplies that I found incredibly important to have on hand when getting rid of the stomach flu germs in your home:
Cleaning tips:
I only had one pair of these and they went quick. I learned the hard way so do yourself a favor a buy a pack of 100 so you always have these on hand for emergencies because trust me, you’ll be cleaning that toilet area a lot!!!
This is the cleaner I use on a daily basis and it’s nontoxic, smells amazing, and does the job. You can only order this through the Young Living website but it’s worth the money because a little goes a long way!
This is what I clean my entire house with!
To learn more about Thieves household cleaner, click the photo below:
Bleach and Hydrogen Peroxide–
Oh yes, I said bleach.
Now hear me out, I’m old school with this.
When it comes to the stomach flu, you need to pull out the big guns sometimes and kill that bad bacteria in your house and bathrooms.
Even though I use nontoxic cleaner throughout my entire house, I keep bleach in the home on hand for emergency situations like this one.
Hydrogen Peroxide is another power cleaner but something about bleach makes you know you’re killing that bad germ once and for all and trust me, you want it out of your house so buy this and keep it on hand even if you only use it for stomach flu situations.
Nothing else will work as strong.
An excellent carpet cleaner-
Because most likely your kids won’t always make it to the bathroom, especially if they are little. You’re going to be cleaning that carpet up quite a bit and it won’t be fun.
For spot cleaning, I have used Folex for the last ten years and it works like magic, no joke! Gets anything out but be sure to spot check first so it doesn’t bleach out your carpet if you use too much. I can usually get this at Target but sometimes they are out of it and I have to order it on Amazon.
When I get a chance when everyone is a bit better, then I shampoo the carpet to make sure all the stains and germs are completely gone! I have this carpet shampooer and am in love!
I have a burber carpet in our family room and it works amazing on it and even better on the regular carpets in our upstairs bedrooms.
Clean the air-
First of all, open all the windows in your house if you can and air that place out!!
Even if it’s the dead of winter, open the windows for a little bit to air it out. After that, get yourself a great diffuser and add some Thieves, immunity boost, Purification oil, or lemon oil to clean out and sanitize those rooms!!
You can get some great diffusers here on Amazon or click the photos below!
Good luck to all of the families fighting the stomach bug! I hope this article helped out some of you stop the stomach flu in its tracks and help those parents that are healthy avoid the stomach bug when the rest of the family has it!
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Awesome article thank you. I am always looking for natural ways to solve my problems. One item I might add though, if you can’t get out to buy charcoal do what my grandma used to do is burn some toast. For years I’ve hated the taste of burned foods but the minute I’m sick, it’s the first thing I ask for…
Thank you! Yes, burned toast works great too! I will add it to the post! Thanks! 🙂
Our family swears by the grape juice method! Has to be the dark Concord grape juice! The antioxidants in the dark grapes created a layer of protection in the stomach that kills the stomach bug. As soon as you have been exposed drink the glasses a day for up to three days. Works like a charm! However if the virus is already active it will not stop the virus in its tracks.
Hi Melanie! Yes, I also heard it has to be the dark grape juice! I will update the post when I get a chance. So happy to hear this worked for someone else too! Thanks for letting us know! 🙂
What an amazing and thorough post! Seriously you covered everything!! Thank you so much for this!
Awesome! Thanks, Jenny! So happy I could help! 🙂
Is the charcoal taken with or without food? And how much is ok for a 5 and 7 year old?
When my children had the stomach flu, they took it without any food since they weren’t able to keep anything down. I split a charcoal pill in half for them and gave each one half a pill mixed with crushed ice since they could not swallow it whole at the time. They liked the idea of having it with crushed ice an taking spoons of it. If you can get your child to take a half without having to add it to ice, it’s much easier and not as messy! This is what worked for my kids but always ask your doctor or pharmacist for any questions or concerns, every brand is different! Hope this helps and I hope your kids feel better soon!
Hello everyone!
Great news – this TOTALLY works!!! Last Friday (7 days ago) we discovered my SIL had come down with the stomach bug, so she (and her family of 4) skipped out on a movie night we had planned. We hadn’t been with her since a couple days before she got sick.
Come Sunday morning, my SIL was fully recovered & no other family members had come down with the bug. Unfortunately, after our service at church, her husband started feeling that feeling and ended up getting sick with the same bug that night.
I immediately started looking for a preventative solution as I have severe emetophobia… I lose sleep over the fear of vomiting. I found this concoction & started it right away on Sunday afternoon.
A couple of days later (Tuesday) by BIL was fully recovered, and we watched their 2 year-old and 8 month-old for the evening at our house. We were cautious knowing they had been with their two sick parents & realizing the stomach bug can be contagious for weeks after, but we figured it wasn’t touching the kids for some reason. WELL – I was WRONG.
The next morning my SIL called me and asked, “how are you feeling?” Of course I immediately panicked as she started to tell me that her 2 year-old had now come down with the same stomach bug. We can’t help but love on those kids when we’re around them, and we had done just that when we watched them the night before.
It’s now Friday, and I’m happy to report that it has been around 60 hours since I was exposed to their family stomach bug, and I am NOT sick – nor is my husband who has followed the same preventative. We will continue for the next week or so.
This is the exact regimen I’ve been following 3 times a day, morning, afternoon & evening:
3 capsules of Activated Charcoal (520mg each = 1560mg total 3x daily = 4,680mg daily max)
1 Tbs of Apple Cider Vinegar w/ the Mother (Kirkland – Organic)
mixed w/
6-8oz of Welch’s 100% Grape Juice (no sugar added) 3x daily
I also take 1 probiotic capsule (NewRhythm brand – 50 billion CFU) 1x daily
I can’t tell you how happy I am to have come across this blog and many others who tell of the same successes using these combinations. Thank you for sharing – stay healthy!
Hi Clara,
So great to hear this worked for you too! Your regimen is perfect, happy you all stayed healthy with these tips! 🙂
We have been using activated charcoal for years instead of Pepto, or Immodium. I want to thank you for the disclaimer. People that are taking prescription medication especially need to discuss taking charcoal with their physician. Charcoal is So powerful at taking out toxins that it often sees the prescription medications as the enemy. Which lays to question a bit about RX but we won’t go there 😉 Also, be aware that if you take it for an anti-diarrheal, it can make your intestines go the other way, blocking you up for a couple of days. And if you take it don’t be alarmed if your stool is the same color as the charcoal for a few days.
Thank you for sharing this information with people!!