“Oral rehydration solution treats dehydration from diarrhea.”
Oral rehydration solution works well to treat dehydration from diarrhea.
For diarrhea, oral rehydration solution is the proven first treatment for replacing lost water and salts. It is cheap and is usually all that is needed unless dehydration becomes severe.
Keep a few packets of oral rehydration solution at home, and mix them exactly as the label says when diarrhea starts.
Safety note: Severe dehydration needs IV fluids, not just drinks. WHO lists signs of severe dehydration as at least two of these: unusual sleepiness or passing out, sunken eyes, being unable to drink or drinking poorly, and skin that goes back very slowly after a pinch.
Talk to a healthcare professional if: you or your child show signs of dehydration, such as sunken eyes, unusual sleepiness or being unable to drink; there is blood in the stool; or diarrhea lasts 14 days or longer.
A Cochrane review of 17 trials in 1,811 children found oral rehydration worked about as well as IV fluids for most children, and WHO names it the main treatment for diarrhea. The trials are mostly in children, but the result is large, consistent and backed by decades of use.
Oral rehydration solution works well to treat dehydration from diarrhea. In trials in children it worked for about 95 in 100, with about 4 more treatment failures per 100 children than an IV drip.
In the Cochrane review, children treated by mouth left the hospital about a day sooner on average than children given IV fluids, with no difference in weight gain or in dangerous sodium levels. A second Cochrane review found the newer, lower-salt WHO recipe led to fewer unplanned IV drips, less stool and less vomiting than the older recipe. WHO says ORS is absorbed in the small intestine and replaces the water and salts lost in stool, and it costs a few cents per treatment. In adults with cholera, the newer recipe works as well as the old one but more often causes a short-lived dip in blood sodium without symptoms.
WHO's oral rehydration salts, mixed in about 34 ounces (1 liter) of clean water, contain 2.6 g of table salt, 13.5 g of glucose (a sugar), 1.5 g of potassium chloride and 2.9 g of trisodium citrate. That gives equal amounts of sodium and glucose, which helps the gut absorb both. Sports drinks and wellness electrolyte powders are made to different recipes, so these trial results apply to oral rehydration solution, not to them.
- Hartling L, Bellemare S, Wiebe N, Russell K, Klassen TP, Craig W. Oral versus intravenous rehydration for treating dehydration due to gastroenteritis in children. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2006;(3):CD004390. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD004390.pub2. PMID: 16856044. PMCID: PMC6532593
- Hahn S, Kim Y, Garner P. Reduced osmolarity oral rehydration solution for treating dehydration caused by acute diarrhoea in children. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2002;(1):CD002847. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD002847. PMID: 11869639
- World Health Organization. Diarrhoeal disease. Fact sheet, 7 March 2024
- World Health Organization and UNICEF. Oral rehydration salts (ORS): a new reduced osmolarity formulation. Joint statement, May 10, 2002. Via the Rehydration Project