Symptom Guides
How Do Nausea and Vomiting Go Away? What Helps at Home?
The most important step with vomiting is taking fluids in small sips and, if needed, ORS. With a stomach virus, vomiting usually passes within 1–2 days; bloody or green vomit is an emergency.
Translated from the Turkish original by DoktorClub. The Turkish version is the reference text; this English translation has not been separately reviewed by a physician. Read the Turkish original.
Key takeaway
The most important thing with nausea and vomiting is to prevent fluid loss by taking frequent small sips of fluid. According to the NHS, vomiting from a stomach virus usually goes away on its own within 1–2 days. If there are signs of fluid loss, an oral rehydration salts mixture (ORS) sold in pharmacies replaces the loss. For vomiting that is bloody, looks like coffee grounds or is green, and for severe abdominal pain, call 112 (the emergency number in Türkiye).
Short Answer
The most important thing with nausea and vomiting is to prevent fluid loss by taking frequent small sips of fluid. According to the NHS, vomiting from a stomach virus usually goes away on its own within 1–2 days. If there are signs of fluid loss, an oral rehydration salts mixture (ORS) sold in pharmacies replaces the loss. For vomiting that is bloody, looks like coffee grounds or is green, and for severe abdominal pain, call 112 (the emergency number in Türkiye).
Why does it happen?
Nausea and vomiting have many causes. The common causes listed by the NHS are:
- Stomach virus (gastroenteritis) and food poisoning: Usually accompanied by diarrhea.
- Migraine: Comes with headache and sensitivity to light and sound.
- Pregnancy: Mostly seen in the first months.
- Reflux, inner ear problems and motion sickness: May occur together with heartburn or dizziness.
- Medications, alcohol, anxiety and recent surgery.
According to the poisoning guideline of the Turkish Ministry of Health, symptoms start quickly in some types of food poisoning. For example, with staphylococcal toxin, vomiting starts 1–6 hours after eating and lasts 12–24 hours. With norovirus, the incubation period is 12–48 hours and the illness lasts 1–2 days.
Rarely, nausea is the first sign of a serious illness. Nausea together with chest pain may be a heart attack. In a person with diabetes whose blood sugar is high, vomiting may be a sign of ketoacidosis.
What helps at home?
Follow these steps in order:
- Drink in small sips. If you feel nauseated, take frequent small sips instead of large glasses.
- Use ORS. Prepare the oral rehydration salts mixture (ORS) sold in pharmacies with water according to the instructions on the package. NICE recommends giving low-osmolarity ORS to children frequently and in small amounts.
- Avoid fruit juice and fizzy drinks. According to NICE and the NHS, these can make diarrhea and vomiting worse.
- Keep breastfeeding. If the baby is vomiting, breastfeed or feed more often and in smaller amounts.
- Eat when you feel ready. Stay away from fatty and spicy foods; eat small amounts often.
- Rest and get fresh air. The NHS also recommends distracting yourself and sipping a cold drink.
- Prevent spread. Wash your hands with soap; do not go to work or school for 2 days after the symptoms have passed.
Other practical steps the NHS recommends for nausea are: ginger or peppermint tea, not lying down right after eating, and avoiding clothes that are tight around the waist. Strong-smelling, fried or fatty foods can also make nausea worse.
Signs of fluid loss (dehydration)
According to the NHS, the following signs indicate fluid loss in adults and children:
- Thirst, dry mouth and lips.
- Dark yellow, strong-smelling urine or peeing little.
- Dizziness, tiredness, sunken eyes.
In a baby, a sunken soft spot on top of the head (fontanelle), few tears when crying and fewer wet diapers are seen. Drowsiness or irritability is also an important warning sign.
In children and babies
According to NICE, vomiting from a stomach virus in children usually lasts 1–2 days and stops within 3 days in most. Diarrhea usually lasts 5–7 days.
According to NICE, the risk of fluid loss is higher in the following children:
- Babies younger than 1 year, especially younger than 6 months, and babies with low birth weight.
- Those who have had more than 5 episodes of diarrhea or more than 2 episodes of vomiting in the last 24 hours.
- Babies who cannot drink fluids or who have stopped feeding during the illness.
Do not dilute formula to make it lighter; the NHS asks that formula be prepared at normal strength. If a baby in the first weeks of life vomits forcefully after every feed, see a pediatrician the same day. For this picture, see our guide to pyloric narrowing (pyloric stenosis). For a detailed fluid plan, you can read our guide to diarrhea and vomiting in children.
In pregnancy
According to the 2024 RCOG guideline, nausea and vomiting occur in up to 90% of pregnant women. Its severe form, hyperemesis gravidarum, affects 0.3–3.6% of pregnant women. According to the NHS, pregnancy nausea usually goes away by weeks 16–20.
According to the NHS, during pregnancy contact your physician or midwife the same day in the following situations:
- If you have not peed for more than 8 hours or your urine is very dark.
- If you cannot keep food or fluids down for 24 hours.
- If you have dizziness on standing up, abdominal pain, fever, weight loss or bloody vomit.
The NHS recommends consulting a pharmacist before using ginger supplements. For details, see our guide to nausea in pregnancy.
What should you not do?
- Do not use anti-nausea medication on your own. According to the product information approved by TİTCK (Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency), metoclopramide is not used in children younger than 1 year and can cause involuntary movement disorders. Do not use anti-nausea drugs (antiemetics) without a physician's recommendation.
- Do not start antibiotics on your own. NICE recommends that antibiotics not be used routinely for stomach viruses in children.
- Do not give a child antidiarrheal medicine. According to the NHS, antidiarrheal medicines are not given to children under 12.
- Do not give aspirin to anyone under 16. The NHS clearly recommends this.
- Do not try to induce vomiting in poisoning. The poisoning guideline of the Turkish Ministry of Health no longer recommends inducing vomiting; it must never be done with corrosive substances.
- Do not "treat" with cola and fruit juice. According to NICE and the NHS, these can make diarrhea and vomiting worse.
- If you have diabetes, do not stop insulin on your own. The NHS asks you not to skip insulin even if you are not eating; follow your physician's sick day rules.
What does the evidence say?
- ORS: NICE and the World Health Organization recommend oral rehydration solution as the basis for preventing fluid loss. According to the WHO, ORS consists of clean water, sugar and salt.
- Ginger: A 2015 Cochrane systematic review on nausea in pregnancy found that ginger may help, but that the evidence is limited and inconsistent.
- Wrist pressure (acupressure): The same review also found no strong evidence for wrist point application. The NHS states that it may have "some" benefit in pregnancy.
- Cola and soda: This is a common home remedy, but NICE and the NHS do not recommend fizzy drinks.
- Returning to solid food: According to NICE, a child can return to their normal foods right after completing fluid replacement.
In Türkiye
- Poison information: According to the Ministry of Health guideline, the National Poison Information Center can be reached 24 hours a day at 114. For vomiting after a medication, chemical or suspicious food, call 114 first; if there is confusion or difficulty breathing, call 112.
- Mushrooms: According to the same guideline, in mushroom poisoning symptoms can start within the first 2 hours or after 6 hours. With vomiting after eating wild mushrooms, do not wait for the symptoms to pass.
- Botulism: According to the guideline, in botulism transmitted through foods such as home-canned goods, nausea and vomiting are accompanied by double vision and difficulty swallowing. With these symptoms, call 112.
- Honey: Infant botulism can occur when babies younger than 1 year are fed honey; do not give honey at this age.
- Medication safety: According to the summary of product characteristics approved by TİTCK, metoclopramide can cause tardive dyskinesia (an involuntary movement disorder). For this reason, anti-nausea drugs are used under a physician's supervision.
- Appointments: You can contact your family physician or book through MHRS (the Turkish Ministry of Health's central appointment system).
Which doctor should you see?
- First step: Your family physician. They make the initial assessment for nausea that does not improve within a few days or recurs frequently.
- For children: A pediatrician.
- In pregnancy: Your obstetrician-gynecologist.
- For prolonged or recurrent complaints: Gastroenterology or internal medicine.
- Bring with you: The number and duration of vomiting episodes, how often you pee, all medications you use and the foods you ate in the last 24 hours.
When should you seek emergency care?
- For vomit that is bloody or looks like coffee grounds, call 112.
- For green vomit (in a child it may also be yellow-green) or sudden, severe abdominal pain, call 112.
- If there is a stiff neck, sensitivity to light or a sudden severe headache, call 112.
- For nausea that comes with chest pain, pain spreading to the arm, jaw or back, or shortness of breath, call 112.
- If there is confusion, excessive drowsiness, bluish or mottled pale skin, or rapid breathing, call 112.
- If there is vomiting after a head injury, go to the emergency department without delay.
- If a poisonous substance, medication or wild mushroom has been swallowed, call 114; if there are symptoms, call 112.
- In a person with diabetes, if vomiting comes with extreme thirst, frequent urination, fruity-smelling breath or drowsiness, call 112.
- If a baby younger than 3 months has a fever of 38 °C or higher, go to the emergency department without delay.
- If a baby younger than 1 year is vomiting, refusing feeds or has fewer wet diapers, see a physician the same day. If the baby is drowsy, go to the emergency department without delay.
- If you cannot keep fluids down or vomiting has lasted more than 2 days, see a physician the same day.
Related guides
- When should nausea and vomiting be taken seriously?
- Diarrhea and vomiting in children: a guide to fluid loss
- Projectile vomiting in babies: pyloric stenosis
- When is vomiting dangerous?
- Food poisoning first aid guide
- What helps headache and migraine at home?
- Symptom Guides
What changed? (October 2026)
- New guide: based on the 2024 RCOG guideline on pregnancy nausea and the NHS fluid loss recommendations reviewed in 2026.
- The risk of fluid loss in children and the distinction between 114 and 112 in poisoning were clarified.
Sources
- NICE. Diarrhoea and vomiting caused by gastroenteritis in under 5s: diagnosis and management (CG84). 2009. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg84/chapter/Recommendations (accessed October 7, 2026)
- T.C. Sağlık Bakanlığı. Birinci Basamağa Yönelik Zehirlenmeler Tanı ve Tedavi Rehberleri (Besin zehirlenmesi, botulizm, mantar zehirlenmesi; UZEM 114). 2007. https://hsgm.saglik.gov.tr/media/attachments/2025/07/03/zehirlenme-tani-ve-tedavi-rehberi.pdf (accessed October 7, 2026)
- TİTCK. Metoklopramid hidroklorür 10 mg/2 mL enjeksiyonluk çözelti, onaylı Kısa Ürün Bilgisi. 2020. https://titck.gov.tr/storage/Archive/2020/kubKtAttachments/TTCKOnaylKBTRKTIPSANMETOKLOPRAMD_780caf32-1898-4ed5-ad8f-59473044ec37.pdf (accessed October 7, 2026)
- RCOG. The Management of Nausea and Vomiting in Pregnancy and Hyperemesis Gravidarum (Green-top Guideline No. 69). BJOG 2024;131(7). https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.17739 (accessed October 7, 2026)
- Matthews A et al. Interventions for nausea and vomiting in early pregnancy. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2015;(9):CD007575. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD007575.pub4 (accessed October 7, 2026)
- World Health Organization. Diarrhoeal disease (fact sheet). March 7, 2024. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diarrhoeal-disease (accessed October 7, 2026)
- NHS. Diarrhoea and vomiting (last reviewed December 21, 2023); Dehydration (last reviewed May 1, 2026). https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/diarrhoea-and-vomiting/ and https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/dehydration/ (accessed October 7, 2026)
- NHS. Feeling sick (nausea) (last reviewed November 17, 2023); Diabetic ketoacidosis (last reviewed June 8, 2023). https://www.nhs.uk/symptoms/feeling-sick-nausea/ and https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/diabetic-ketoacidosis/ (accessed October 7, 2026)
- NHS. Vomiting and morning sickness; Severe vomiting in pregnancy. https://www.nhs.uk/pregnancy/related-conditions/common-symptoms/vomiting-and-morning-sickness/ and https://www.nhs.uk/pregnancy/related-conditions/complications/severe-vomiting/ (accessed October 7, 2026)
- NICE. Head injury: assessment and early management (NG232). 2023. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng232/chapter/Recommendations (accessed October 7, 2026)
Frequently asked questions
How many days does it take for vomiting to stop?
According to the NHS, vomiting due to a stomach virus usually stops within 1–2 days. Diarrhea can last up to 5–7 days. If vomiting lasts longer than 2 days or you cannot keep fluids down, see a physician.
What should you eat and drink after vomiting?
First, drink water or ORS in small sips. When you feel ready, start with small amounts of low-fat foods. Fruit juice and fizzy drinks can make diarrhea worse.
Does ginger help with nausea?
It may help some people. However, according to a Cochrane review, the evidence is limited and inconsistent. Consult your pharmacist before using ginger supplements during pregnancy.
Can you give a child water after vomiting?
Yes, but a little at a time. For children at risk, NICE recommends giving ORS frequently and in small amounts. If the baby is breastfeeding, keep breastfeeding.
Which medication is used for nausea?
Most anti-nausea medications are prescription-only and are chosen according to the cause. Some can cause involuntary movement disorders in children. Instead of taking medication on your own, consult your physician or pharmacist.
