How to treat food poisoning from Kimchi

[Moolia]

I had some Kimchi last Friday that was within date but tasted a bit "fizzier" than normal. About 4/5 hours later I got the worst diarrhoea I've ever had in my life! No cramping or pain, just bubbling intestines and completely liquid diarrhoea (sorry!).

It had gone by the next day, went back to normal stools and just felt a bit bloated ever since and am getting occasional mucus in stool.

So now it's 8 days later and I'm still getting a bit of mucus every now and again and feel a bit bloated but don't feel ill at all.

Is there anything I can do to speed up recovery from this? I would normally take probiotics but not sure if that is a good idea if it was the probiotics in the Kimchi that caused this.

I have health anxiety so please no scare stories, thanks!

It won’t have been the probiotics that caused it. Probiotics are a good idea.

I make kimchi and I’m surprised it’s given you food poisoning, it’s more likely to cure it.
However I don’t think you can speed up recovery, you could try a probiotic

Thanks, I just wondered if it could be an overgrowth of probiotics or something like that.

I don't know for sure it was the kimchi. I had a salad a few hours later so it could have been bacteria in the salad I suppose.

I'll give the probitoics a go. My health anxiety is making me worry that I still have symptoms a week later.

Whilst it doesn't sound much fun, nothing sounds particularly concerning here OP. The worst of the gastric symptoms seem like they passed fairly quickly. Might you even have picked up a seasonal virus instead of it being a direct result of any specific food? If it was something you ate you would have no real way of knowing what, it may have been something consumed the day prior even.

We all get a dicky tummy from time to time. I would speak to a GP if you are concerned, particularly if you are in pain or seeing blood in the stool, or the watery stool returns, they can always take a sample to test for certain bacterias . As an aside a small amount of mucus in stool isn't specifically abnormal, and can be caused by dehydration. If you've recently had watery stools I would focus on rehydrating and probiotics to let things calm themselves.

Was it home-made or store-bought, and was it pasteurised? I don't want to scare you but some unpleasant organisms can survive in kimchi. If the symptoms persist you should get your GP to analyse a stool sample.

Thank you @dontgobaconmyheart that is reassuring.

It was store bought kimchi but unpasteurised. @BarkminsterBlue do you mean that it could be some kind of bacterial infection that I need antibiotics for?

The diarrhoea stopped pretty quickly but I've just been left with bloating and a bubbly stomach and small amounts of mucus. No blood and no real pain, just uncomfortable.

Even when I had the diarrhoea I didn't feel ill as such, not even any cramping, just really bubbly stomach that you could hear gurgling over the sound of the TV!

It was this one www.amazon.co.uk/Tickles-Pickles-Kimchi-200/dp/B074YCQMGX?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Delicious but don't think I will ever risk buying it again!

OP - do you eat a very restrictive diet OP? Just that you only list having eaten kimchi and salad that day. It's unlikely to have been food poisoning with those foods, unless there has been cross contamination of some kind.

No, not restrictive, just that the other things I ate that day were very boring - bagel, toast, that sort of thing. The kimchi is my top suspect as the gurgling started a couple of hours or so after I ate it, followed by the diarrhoea later that evening.

I have had diarrhoea once before after eating salad. It can be contaminated with listeria, which is why pregnant women are advised to wash any bagged salad.

And I did eat half a tub of it 😳

I was thinking of E. coli or salmonella, neither of which would require antibiotics but they are notifiable organisms if either the kimchi or the salad was the source.

It was more likely to be from the salad than the kimchi. Salad is quite high risk for food poisoning and I was told to avoid it during chemotherapy

I had a the same thing from a ready meal. I took omeprazole and buscopan.

Gave it a few days and then I went to the GP who prescribed the same thing so I was obviously doing the right thing!

Just took a week or so to settle down. Hope you feel better. That horrible 'fizzing' coleslaw/kimchi etc is a grim!

That horrible 'fizzing' coleslaw/kimchi etc is a grim!

But fizzing for fermented food (kimchi) is usual. It's not usual for fresh food (coleslaw).

Half a tub of kimchi is a pretty unwise amount!

If your gut health is out of balance, digestive upset can happen when taking probiotics. Just eat a smaller portion next time but definitely keep up trying.

Just to update. I decided to go 24hrs without eating and it made a massive difference and I'm pretty much completely better now. Will remember that next time!