Let’s face it—kids are going back to school very soon, and they’ll be bringing home more than just homework.
Stomach flu, strep, and all kinds of gastrointestinal illnesses run rampant with the return to school each spring and fall in the U.S.
In anticipation of some unwell kiddos, one mom is urging fellow parents to consider having an old standby on hand as a remedy: Coca-Cola.
In a video that has drawn over 1.8 million views on TikTok, content creator Rose Jordan (@rosejordan_) suggests that having the classic carbonated beverage on hand can be a boon to parents with children who pick up sicknesses like norovirus at school or daycare.
“I’m knee-deep in Coca-Cola—norovirus TikTok, and it really has me thinking because when I was pregnant with my son six years ago, I had hyperemesis gravidarum, I don’t know if I’m saying that right, but from the moment I found out I was pregnant until the day I delivered, all day every day I’d just throw up. I lost like, 20 pounds during the pregnancy, I was getting IVs constantly, couldn’t keep water down to save my life, but I could keep Coca-Cola down, which was weird, and I was never really a Coca-Cola person.”
Coca-Cola home remedy
She says she grew up in a Pepsi household, but ended up craving Coke while pregnant and found that once her son was about 18 months old, he also wanted the beverage frequently. She says there’s a solid chance it was because Coca-Cola settled his stomach.
“I didn’t want him to get into soda, especially that young,” she says. “But his stomach issues completely went away and he literally demands—he’s five-and-a-half now, but he drinks a Coca-Cola every single day. My daughter got norovirus nasty last month, and him and my—my daughter and my son go to the same school, they’re in the same class, they sit at the same table. Obviously, they were both exposed to it.”
However, her son has not displayed any symptoms of norovirus, she says, with the one real difference between her children being his consumption of Coca-Cola.
With this experience in mind, she recommended parents keep the soda on hand in case of an upset stomach.
“Now that I’m seeing all this stuff about norovirus and Coke, I think there’s actually something in Coca-Cola, I’m sure it’s not good, that reduces stomach acid or something, and I don’t know,” she says. “So kids are going back to school next week, they’ve been with family, traveling, doing all these things, you know the virus is going to pop right back up so if you have young kids and they get sick at school, or whatever, I would just keep Coca-Cola handy in the house, because there’s something to it.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @rosejordan_ via TikTok direct message and email regarding the video, as well as to Coca-Cola via email.
Viewers weigh in
Several viewers shared their suppositions about why Coca-Cola might be regarded as a remedy for upset stomach.
“it’s cause it has phosphoric acid, which helps with vomiting and nausea,” one commenter wrote. “That’s usually why it also helps migraine suffers also, keeps them from vomiting/nausea!”
“It’s the phosphoric acid that is in Coke,” another commenter wrote. “I was told it is added because the sugar content is so high it has to have something to keep it down.”
“It was created to aid digestion, as was Pepsi,” a commenter wrote. “The syrup works well and we got it from the pharmacist. The pharmacists also had soda fountains in their pharmacies and would mix the syrup with carbonatated water and sell it by the 8 oz glass. I remember getting it as a child.”
Others shared that they had similarly used the soda as a remedy for nausea, migraines and other ailments in the past with great success.
“My grandmother would keep Coke in her fridge for stomach aches and headaches,” one commenter wrote. “It’s the only thing that would help my morning sickness and migraines when I was pregnant.”
“I feel nauseous a lot & have severe motion sickness that is easily triggered… I feel better if I drink some version of coke (usually coke zero) a day,” another commenter wrote.
“I’m a physician’s assistant in the Netherlands and I was actually taught in school to recommend Coke for nausea and throwing up, and salty chips if they want to eat,” a commenter wrote.
Why do people think Coca-Cola can ease an upset stomach?
Carbonated drinks like Coca-Cola soda are widely believed to be a remedy for many varieties of upset stomach, from nausea to gas.
This is likely because the carbonation can ease the gas in some kinds of sour stomachs, allowing people to burp and release pressure. However, it can also make the situation worse, depending on what is actually going on.
While there is some debate about the “why” among experts, it is widely believed that the ingredients used to make Coca-Cola can calm the stomach.
@rosejordan_ Someone explain the science to me plz #norovirus #toddlermom #toddlerhacks ♬ original sound – Rose Jordan | UGC Creator
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
