Pumpkin: Why is it such a popular treatment for diarrhea?

A recent search of the term “pumpkin diarrhea pets” on Google (aka “Dr. Google”) returned more than 485,000 results. Of course I did not check all of them, but the ones on the first few pages extolled the virtues of pumpkin for treating diarrhea, predominantly in dogs and cats. Not surprisingly, I often receive this question, “My dog/cat has diarrhea. Should I give him/her pumpkin as a binder?”  Let’s take a closer look at pumpkin, why it is used for management of diarrhea, and whether it might make sense for your companion animal.

Before we begin, however, please be aware that if your pet is experiencing diarrhea, a veterinarian should first determine if an underlying medical condition exists. Pets, just like humans, get diarrhea for many reasons; you should first know what you are dealing with before you attempt to manage it. Severe diarrhea can also result in dehydration and loss of electrolytes, potentially serious issues that may require medical intervention such as intravenous fluids and electrolyte balancing solutions to resolve.

Once your veterinarian gives the “all-clear” to manage your pet’s diarrhea more naturally, you can consider whether pumpkin is a viable alternative. 

What is pumpkin?
Have you ever thought about what a pumpkin is – other than something we carve into Jack-O-Lanterns at Halloween or bake into luscious pies at Thanksgiving? Pumpkins are actually a fruit in the squash family. Like many fruits, pumpkins contain high amounts of fiber, which is important to digestive health.

What is fiber?
Fiber, also referred to as “roughage” or “bulk”, is any part of a plant that cannot be broken down and digested by the body’s enzymes (Mayo Clinic, 2012). Dietary fiber is found in all plant-based foods, including fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, beans and seeds.

There are two types of fiber – soluble and insoluble – and most foods contain a combination of the two.
•  Soluble fiber: As the name implies, soluble fiber is “soluble”, or breaks down, in water. Soluble fiber absorbs water from the digestive tract, forming a gel-like substance that slows down the digestive process. Soluble fiber is found in foods such as oats, peas, beans, apples, citrus fruits, carrots, barley, psyllium – and pumpkin.
•  Insoluble fiber adds bulk to the stool and tends to speed up the passage of food through the digestive tract. Insoluble fiber is found in foods such whole-wheat flour, wheat bran, nuts, beans and certain vegetables such as cauliflower, green beans and potatoes.(Vorvick, 2012; University of Maryland, 2011; Mayo Clinic, 2012)

As you can see from above, the soluble fiber in pumpkin slows digestion, which is beneficial in the management of diarrhea. And, since it absorbs water, it “bulks” up the stool, helping to control the loose, watery stools characteristic of diarrhea. Clinical studies show that soluble fiber helps regulate stool frequency and consistency in people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) (University of Maryland, 2011).

While insoluble fiber can benefit those suffering from constipation, it is best to avoid feeding too much insoluble fiber to animals suffering from diarrhea, since it can act as a natural laxative. Opt instead for more soluble fiber, such as that contained in pumpkin.

Incorporating pumpkin into your pet’s diet
Think that incorporating pumpkin into your pet’s diet will be a hassle? Think again. A good source of pumpkin is as close as the canned food section of your nearest grocery store. Canned pumpkin is an excellent source of dietary fiber, with about 7 grams of fiber in a one-cup serving. Just be sure that pumpkin is the only ingredient; you don’t want any added salt or spices. And be sure not to purchase pumpkin pie mix!

Feeding your pet some pumpkin has additional benefits. Pumpkin is packed full of nutrients, including beta-carotene, zinc, iron, vitamin A and potassium. And, since fiber provides a feeling of fullness, adding pumpkin to a pudgy pet’s diet may help achieve weight loss by reducing the daily caloric intake (be sure to discuss any diet regimens with your veterinarian to ensure your pet is receiving the proper amount of nutrients).

The amount of canned pumpkin you feed will depend upon your pet’s weight. I suggest working up to 1 tablespoon per day for smaller dogs and 2 tablespoons per day for larger dogs.

Too much of a good thing
I have received comments from people who tell me that giving their pet too much canned pumpkin actually causes diarrhea. Indeed, consuming too much fiber too fast can cause a myriad of undesirable GI symptoms, including intestinal gas, abdominal bloating and cramping. To avoid these undesirable effects, simply incorporate small amounts of pumpkin slowly to your pet’s diet and work your way up to the suggested dose. This will allow the bacteria in the digestive tract to adjust to the increased fiber.

The bottom line
If your dog or cat suffers from mild to moderate diarrhea, and your veterinarian has ruled out a serious underlying medical condition, the soluble fiber found in pumpkin may help relieve the symptoms. Just be sure to introduce it slowly and feed it in moderation. Also, encourage your pet to drink plenty of fresh water. Proper hydration is important in helping soluble fiber do its job.

W. Jean Dodds, DVM
Hemopet / NutriScan
11561 Salinaz Avenue
Garden Grove, CA 92843

References
Mayo Clinic, 2012. ‘Dietary Fiber: Essential for a Healthy Diet’, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fiber/NU00033

University of Maryland Medical Center, 2011. ‘Fiber’, University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland, http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/fiber-000303.htm

Vorvick, LJ, 2012. ‘Fiber’, MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002470.htm

Vomiting In Children: Diarrhea | Treatment | Nausea Remedies Children

Diarrhea and nausea remedies children: vomiting and nausea in children

Nausea and vomiting in children

If your child is vomiting, which could cause a stomach infection, or other viral infection or even an allergic reaction to certain foods and medicines. In this case, the symptoms of vomiting will not last long, when considering the environment. However, if accompanied by diarrhea, nausea or fever symptoms, you should call a doctor immediately. If your child is vomiting, and if she refuses to eat or drink, crying without tears, then you should call a doctor immediately. Meanwhile, to keep symptoms of vomiting at home, you may at some simple methods. Give your child in the stomach a break and run regularly on the table, until symptoms disappear. Meanwhile, you can include a meal replacement with oral rehydration solutions, essential nutrients such as salt and sugar.

Vomiting Treatment

If your child feels a sense of hunger, you can move him or her on a liquid diet. Vomiting leading to severe dehydration of the body as the essential fluids lost very quickly. It is therefore important, even if your child is confident of a clear liquid diet to ensure he / she uses essential fluids at regular intervals. If your child is unwilling to drink water, try to soak him ice chips or a cloth with cold water. If your child does not experience vomiting after eating clear liquids, you can use crackers or toast and other easily digested foods. You can also start with rice and potatoes. Avoid all oily, fried foods, milk and dairy products.

Diarrhea and nausea remedies children

A simple and effective home remedy is to offer your child something warm Coke. A cup of warm cola, which has been touched and is moderately flat helps curb nausea. Another effective remedy for nausea is lemon juice. Juice of one fresh lemon juice with salt and sugar is an effective solution to hydrate again. Smelling half slice of lemon also controls feelings of nausea. Ginger is very useful in the treatment of nausea at home. A mixture of ginger juice and honey to control nausea. Alternatively, you can try to reduce your child ginger tea or a solution of lemon juice, mint juice, honey, ginger juice to vomiting. Cardamom is also a useful way to treat symptoms such as nausea. Take a cardamom seeds have been roasted, dried, finely powdered and mixed with a teaspoon of honey. Give this mixture to help your child learn to control vomiting.

How to stop diarrhea naturally?

Stop diarrhea naturally

How to stop diarrhea naturally?

Rice water

One natural diarrhea treatment that is simple to prepare and highly effective is rice water.

This is the water from cooking rice or rice porridge. If you want a better, more nutritious version, use brown rice instead of polished white rice, and add a pinch of sea salt, or a small square of kombu seaweed while cooking. Otherwise, just ordinary rice water will do.

This simple diarrhea treatment not only helps to stop diarrhea, but also to rehydrate the person who is suffering from diarrhea and losing body fluids. It is said to have save millions of lives of rural children in developing countries who suffered from diarrhea.

Within medical circles, credit for this diarrhea treatment has been given to Prof Wong Hock Boon, an eminent pediatrician from Singapore. When the good professor died on 28 December 2008, a tribute stated:

The use of rice-water for oral rehydration in the management of acute gastroenteritis was pioneered by him, and this led to a new and highly cost-effective approach to diarrhoeal diseases in the developing world.

Prof Wong Hock Boon did not, of course, “pioneer” this diarrhea treatment. Mothers in traditional Asian societies knew how to stop diarrhea with rice water for ages! What Prof Wong Hock Boon did was write about it in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet in 1981. He being a professor, other doctors took note, tried the same treatment and found that it works. And that led to millions of lives being saved.

If a natural health practitioner had written about it, well… you know what will happen. It will be poo-poohed as an “old wives’ tale”.

Yet Prof Wong Hock Boon was able to get his paper published in a highly prestigious medical journal even though he did not fully understand why rice water effectively helped to stop diarrhea. In a report about Prof Wong’s method of how to stop diarrhea, the August 1981 Issue No 6 of Dialogue on Diarrhoea wrote:

The means by which rice water helps to stop diarrhoea are still being researched. One explanation could be that starch-like sugars tend to draw less fluid out of the body and into the gut compared with a similar amount of simple sugar such as glucose. Some babies with diarrhoea can digest starch more easily than simple sugars.

Dialogue on Diarrhoea also noted:

Professor Wong and his colleagues have found that many babies who have not responded to other rehydration solutions respond well to rice water. If diarrhoea starts again with the re-introduction of milk, extra rice water is given with additional rice porridge…

I find it interesting that:

• 
  Prof Wong and colleagues still used “other rehydration methods” first when they already knew that rice water was more effective.


• 
  They noted that re-introduction of milk often led to diarrhea, yet they did not stop milk to stop diarrhea!

This only goes to show how medical doctors, in spite of their discoveries, observations and their supposed brilliance, remain limited in their way of thinking and their practice of medicine.

How to stop diarrhea – the yin and yang way

I don’t know if medical researchers have since found out why rice water works as a diarrhea treatment. I could not find any research references. The Oriental theory of yin and yang, however, does offer an explanation. The principle of yin and yang looks at phenomena in terms of energy. From this perspective, diarrhea can be considered to have expanding / downward / rapid energy.

This energy is countered by rice, which is a plant that grows upwards, slowly and forms a compact / contracted grain. Moreover, in the five elements theory, which is an extension of the theory of yin and yang (but too complicted to explain here), rice is considered a grain that nourishes the large intestines and lungs. So rice probably works better than other grains even though, from the nutritional perspective, it is just starch.

And why rice water instead of rice to stop diarrhea? Probably because in water or soup form, the “essence” of the rice is more readily absorbed. In Chinese medicine, a lot of remedies are taken in the form of soups and herbal brews.

How to stop diarrhea – bancha twig tea

Another traditional diarrhea treatment, based on the same principle of using slow, upward, contracted energy, is bancha twig tea or kukicha. This is tea made from tea twigs rather than tea leaves. Nowadays, it is mostly available in macrobiotic and organic foods stores, with the original product coming from Japan. However, twig tea used to be also consumed in China in the past, especially by the poor. It is the tea drunk by samsui women, a band of unmarried women who migrated to Southeast Asia early last century, to work as manual construction laborers.

For stronger contracting energy to stop diarrhea, a few drops of shoyu or natural soy sauce may be added to bancha twig tea.

Umeboshi / Kuzu

Alternatively, half to one umeboshi, a pickled sour plum, may also be added to the drink.

Umeboshi is an unusual fruit, actually a type of apricot, that drops from the tree while it is still hard, It is then pickled in salt and widely eaten as a salty snack in Eastern Asian cultures, including China and Japan. The fact that umeboshi is a hard fruit, and then pickled in salt, gives it strong contracting energy to counter the loose, expanding energy of diarrhea.

Umeboshi may also be mixed with kuzu to stop diarrhea. Kuzu is a starch made from the gigantic root of the kudzu plant. Although being a root, kuzu has downward energy, it is a very yang / contracted root – the starch is densely packed and the starch particles are very small, compared to the starch from other roots like yam, tapioca or potato.

This can be observed for example, by mixing different types of starch with cold water. Stir the various starch mixtures and you will see that the kuzu settles down the fastest. Both umeboshi and kuzu are very healing for the entire digestive tract and they act as natural remedies for any digestive problem, from the mouth to the anus. Umeboshi and kuzu not only can stop diarrhea, but also vomiting, nausea, indigestion, flatulence and other digestive problems.

Kuzu, in addition, is rich in minerals and it enhances energy. This is particularly helpful for diarrhea patients, as diarrhea tends to make a person lose minerals and feel weak.

my dog has had diarrhea for 2 days, frequent intervals, bland diet

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Expert: Patti – 7/29/2008

Question
I am trying to find out if there is something I can give my dog who has had diarrhea for 2 days.He is acting normal,happy and playful no problem eating,but he has been sick and every time he has diarrhea he eats it then vomits.Help,is there anything I can do to help him instead of taking him to the vet? Answer
Hi Krista,

Because your dog isn’t acting depressed or unresponsive, and is acting normal, you can try treating this at home, but if the diarrhea or the vomiting persists, then you have no choice but to have your dog examined by your veterinarian.

You can also give your dog Pepto Bismol in treatment of diarrhea, vomiting, and indigestion, if he tolerates aspirin (because it contains aspirin). In general, the dose for Pepto-Bismol regular strength liquid:  0.5-1 ml/pound every 6-8 hours by mouth. Regular strength tablets (often the form preferred by dogs): 1/4 tablet/20 pounds every 6-8 hours by mouth. That translates to a small terrier-sized dog gets one half teaspoonful at a time, a Labrador-sized dog two teaspoonfuls.
Treatment should only be needed for 1-2 days. If diarrhea persists or worsens, contact your veterinarian. Side effects you might see is tongue color may darken temporarily, and his stool may turn a gray-black or greenish color during treatment.

Besides the Pepto Bismol, you give your dog a bland diet for the next 3 days, to see if it helps.
Give your dog’s digestive tract needs complete rest. Allow no food or water until your dog has gone at least six hours without vomiting. Begin with very small amounts of water at frequent intervals. If there is more vomiting, go back to the short fast, for another six hours. Do not be discouraged. The stomach often needs complete rest for twenty four hours or more.

Offer water every 15 minutes or so. Give a Poodle sized dog one teaspoonful at a time, a German Shepherd about two tablespoonfuls. Over a period of a few hours gradually increase the amounts offered until your dog’s thirst is satisfied. If you wish, give clear liquids such as low sodium chicken broth or a little Jell-O. After at least 12 hours, when your dog’s thirst has been satisfied, you may begin giving small amounts of food.

Mix one and a half cups of cooked white rice with one half cup of cooked chicken or turkey meat (no grease, no skin) Jarred chicken or turkey baby food can be substituted. Boiled or baked potato may be substituted for the rice. Begin offering small amounts of bland, easy to digest food.

Give a Poodle sized dog about one half teaspoonful at a time. A large dog can have as much as a tablespoonful. Over a period of twenty four hours, gradually increase the amounts being fed until your dog’s hunger is satisfied. Do not rush things, as that can cause your dog’s sore stomach to distend, and make him vomit again.

The following day, begin mixing the bland diet half and half with your dog’s normal food. Instead of one or two big feedings, divide the normal amount into four or five small feedings.

Best of luck,
Patti