Oat Flour For Diarrhea And Digestive Problems

This post is about a way to stop diarrhea. It is simple, cheap, easy to do and easy to get. I have tried it on animals and it works on them, so can't be a placebo effect.

I keep getting searches about how to stop diarrhea because of something I mentioned in a post about things to put in your emergency preparedness first aid kit. This makes me think there are a lot of people out there with diarrhea who can't afford a doctor now.

If you can go to a doctor when you are sick, I think you should do it. If you can not afford a doctor, then that is an emergency and you should treat it as such.

The solution that I have used for diarrhea during emergencies where I could not afford medical care, was oats ground to powder or even oat flour. It works better if the oats are freshly ground. I have never used oat grains this way except green ones. 

I used old fashioned rolled oats. I ground them in a blender most of the time. Sometimes I used a food processor, a mortar and pestle, and two rocks that I found on the beach. I have also used oat flour in a small bag from the health food store.

I don't like the oat flour because it seems to be less effective and does not taste as good as freshly ground oat flour. It is better than nothing, however.

The dosage is pretty simple. I have used as little as 1/8 of a teaspoon up to a couple of teaspoons. When I took larger amounts I took it very slowly. As soon as it starts working I stop taking more.

I pour out a tiny amount of the oat flour onto a saucer or something else convenient to hold it. I lick a finger and dip it lightly into a bit of the flour so that the tip of my finger is white. I lick it off and let it slowly dissolve in my mouth and swallow. I drink a little water to help it down and encourage it to spread throughout my digestive system.

I usually wait a little bit to see if I feel anything happening before I dip my finger again and repeat the process. I do this very slowly to give it time to begin working. I am not sure whether you could get constipated by overdoing it, but that has never happened so far. This is true both for myself and my cats.

My cats seem to realize that the oat flour will help them and they willingly and even enthusiastically lick it off of my fingers. I offer it to them when they have any kind of digestive upset. They seem to know how much they need and will stop of their own accord when they are ready. 

When I have a young cat that has never been dosed with oat flour before, they may protest the first couple of times and I have to force them to take it. It has never been necessary to keep doing that after they realize that it helps them.

I consider oat flour to be a preparedness first aid kit item, although so far I have not stored any in the actual first aid kit. I think I will put a small amount in a container for my bug out bag, however. I am going to put some in my cats' bug out bag as well.