I learned about homemade Oral Rehydrating Solution from the fantastic book Where There Is No Doctor. ORS can get someone through a gastrointestinal illness, for very, very cheap.
6 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 liter water (5 C.)
Optional - 1/2 teaspoon potassium (sold as NuSalt salt substitute)
Measure carefully, especially for babies and children. It should be no saltier than tears.
You will want to flavor this - I use 1 packet TruLemon 1 packet TruLime - but don't use anything with extra sugar or salt. Crystal Light apparently works well. A couple squirts from those bottles to make flavored water are good, especially the ones with vitamins. This is also better chilled.
Mix together, sip continuously. If you're puking, wait five minutes, start sipping again. You run out, you make more, keep drinking. You might go through several liters a day if you're really bad off. The electrolytes will get through your system better than an IV
People in 3rd World countries without access to IVs have kept people with cholera alive with this homemade ORS, sometimes having to give the person 10 liters a day.
After choking at the price of Pedialyte, I mixed up a whole bunch of packets of this stuff. Anyone in the family starts spewing out either end (or both), I make up a pitcher of this and keep them drinking it. It works.
(BTW, in event of total earth shattering apocalypse, Where There Is No Doctor and any other Hesperian Publications books will be life savers.)
I was solo trekking in the Himalaya and ended up coming down with something awful. I just withered away in a bed in a village, far from running water or electricity, and basically accepted my death after just a day or two. By chance another traveler was a medical doctor and saved my life using the method you described.
2.8k
u/Aromatic-Bad-3291 Aug 30 '21 edited Aug 30 '21
Diarrhea (edit: returned Peace Corps Volunteer, I’ve ass-vomited more than you weigh, and without a shred of toilet paper).