Treatments for Chronic Diarrhea

Once we determine the cause of your diarrhea, we work with you to develop a personalized treatment plan. If you are not comfortable taking a lot of medications, we may recommend alternative therapies, such as herbal supplements. If your treatment includes medical nutrition therapy, we take time to understand your food preferences before recommending changes to your diet.

Chronic diarrhea treatments may include:

• Anti-diarrheal medicine: Medicines to slow movement in your intestines or make your bowel movements less watery
• Antibiotics: If your chronic diarrhea is due to a bacterial infection, you will need antibiotics to get rid of it.
• Fiber supplements: You may need a fiber supplement to add bulk to your stool (bulk forming laxative). This can help make your stool less watery.
• Medical nutrition therapy: Working with experts from Nutrition Services who specialize in gastrointestinal disorders, we help you find foods that are less likely to cause diarrhea. This may include avoiding fatty foods and too much fruit.
• Oral rehydration therapy: Drinking a rehydration solution can help you replace lost minerals and body fluids, if your diarrhea causes dehydration.
• Pain management: Offering innovative approaches, experts at Stanford Health Care’s GI Pain Clinic address the source of your pain. Your treatment may include medications, stress management, or alternative therapies, such as acupuncture.
• Total parenteral nutrition: Getting all the nutrition you need from special fluids you receive through a catheter (thin, spaghetti-like tube) in your vein. Total parenteral nutrition can help you if your intestines need time to heal or your stomach has lost its ability to absorb nutrients from food taken by mouth.
• Tube feeding: Helping you get adequate nutrition when your body is not getting enough nutrients from food by mouth, tube feeding works by delivering specially formulated liquid nutrition directly to your stomach through a special tube, also known as a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube.