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Check out my blog about life with Crohn's at lacialtman.wordpress.com! You can follow by email or wordpress. I will be talking about diet a lot, as I KNOW it has a big factor in IBD and management of symptoms whilst flaring. Thanks!

Reply posted for altman282.

 Reply posted for altman282.

Hi All,
My name is Jason and I am in my early 40’s. I learned about dietary changes from someone who had Ulcerative Colitis. I would love to share my experiences in hopes that you can find better health as well.

I lead a very busy lifestyle. I am married with two younger kids, we both work, kids go to different magnet schools and have after school activities.
When I was 12, I had some tests done because I was not growing or gaining weight. At 12 years of age, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. This would change my life forever.

I went through many challenges, surgeries and diet changes to try and help the problem but it just kept coming back. At 12 I was drinking 6 Ensures a day to try and gain weight. Eventually I couldn’t drink them anymore and did the Enternal Nutrition with a nasal gastric (NG) tube for almost 2 years every night. I had bowel resection surgeries at age 19, 24 and 26. I am 5’ 10” and weighed 96 pounds twice in my life around the times of my last two surgeries. My weight was like a yo-yo. Diarrhea, cramping and blood were a constant thing. I was on all different kinds of medications.

In 2006, I was suffering from diarrhea, weight loss and fatigue. After a colonoscopy, I found that I had a fistula in my large intestine. The choices were Remicade for the rest of my life or surgery to remove my colon and have an external ostomy appliance. I chose to find other things which would allow me to manage my life without all of this. Here I am years later and doing extremely well with changes in diet and lifestyle.

As a result of my quest to educate myself about true health and wellness I found a passion to share my knowledge and experience with others like you. I managed to do everything I did to achieve a healthy body while leading a very busy life. I would love to hear more about you as well as share my experiences. My email is jamenta3@gmail.com. I’m looking forward to chatting with you.

 Reply posted for leahdeas1.

Hi Leahdeas -Thanks for writing! I have started trying to eliminate everything from my diet and start at the basics - rice for several weeks and that settled things out a bit, then added bits of chicken. I tolerated that pretty well, but still having pain and bleeding etc. I have UC. And I found this web site  ihaveuc.com  which has  so much sharing of information and is so positive in it's approach. So through that and reserach, I started adding probiotics Renew Life 10 billion live cultures in tablet form. The bleeding and pain stopped within days. I also found I stopped having diarrhea. So next I decided to try to add one new food at a time, give it a week, then if I tolerated that add another new food in small amounts. If I didn't, then stop that food, go back to rice and chicken and continue the probiotics. I have had a couple of set backs when trying blueberries for the first time, and then again with - believe it or not, rice based pretzels. But I started again and am doing much, much better. I've increased the Renew Life to 30 billion, which I'm going to stay at, and next am trying soup made of chicken and chicken stock (home made) with pureed carrots in it. It sounds restrictive, but it's more than I've had in a long, long time -so for me, it's not restrictive at all :)
   Everyone is so different, aren't they? But this is working for now, and I'm also looking into the SCD diet by Elaine Gottchell. Again, for some people they would consider it restrictive, but it's not eliminating all carbohydrates, just specific ones that seem to injure the intestinal wall because of the way they're broken doen on a cellular level. So, I hope that helps. 
Thanks for writing back - it's good to share the ideas and not to feel so alone in all this !  Take care - best of health to you !  

 Reply posted for bird11.

Hello! I have Crohn's disease and always felt food is a contributing factor, but all the doctors say it depends on the person for food intolerances. I found JJVirgin, The Virgin Diet. Tried it March 18 and this is the best I've felt since being diagnosed in 2009. You have to drop soy, dairy, eggs, peanuts, gluten, GMO, and sugar. Before this diet I would eat an egg and a piece of toast (wheat)  for breakfast. Now I can't have either. After three weeks you are supposed to try to reintroduce each of the main items (except GMO). I've figured out what I can eat (sweet potatoes, brown rice, salmon, chicken, certain veggies, etc.) do I still have diarrhea? Yup. Do I still have pain, NOPE! I swear for weeks on end I felt like I ate glass, before the diet. Burned all the way through. I lost 20 pounds on this diet and my weight is holding steady.  I'm not a typical Crohn's person, instead of losing weight when diagnosed, I was slowly gaining weight. My colon rectal surgeon would shrug his shoulders, "everyone is different." 

So keep looking, before JJ Virgin I tried three other diets. This was the best for me. 

I am in the same boat as you.  I have had the disease for several years but the last few have been pretty bad.  I was doing very well for a few months until I found out they were not making Asacol anymore.  Tried the other drugs but only made things worse.  Finally got Delzicol approved by my insurance which is the same as Asacol.  However, because of all of the ups and downs in meds. between approval I am in a flare.  My Dr. just added Uricel to see if it will help.  However, I constantly struggle with the nausea and vomiting.  I would love to eat small meals but can't even stomach that most of the time.  I have lost over 10 pounds in three months.  Am looking for any food suggestions or things that will stimulate my appetite and help with the constant nausea.  I can go all day without eating anything and never feel hunger.  This is not good since I am very vitamin deficient.  What has worked for others?  I am pretty desparate.

 Reply posted for annanas28.

I do enjoy teas and if ginger tends to be decent I'll have to look into it.

Thank you

 Reply posted for tomoth.

Good to know some options. Thank you all for the replies.

 Reply posted for njackson597.

Hi njackson,

I am sorry to hear about your struggles. I have always relied on one thing to calm my UC: ginger. I buy a ginger tea that is excellent from the Yogi brand (you can even find it on amazon), and I also keep handy at all times ginger chews. Crystallized ginger also is nice because it has a bit of sugar in it. In general, ginger tea just makes everything better :) I have also found that kefir and frozen kefir are very soothing when I am feeling badly. I love spicy foods but mostly have to avoid them, and if I decide to indulge a little frozen kefir afterwards is a nice treat. I hope you feel better!

 Reply posted for njackson597.

Hey njackson;

My G-E told me in no uncertain terms to stop using dairy products.

I have never had trouble with D-Ps, and I did stop for a week to see if there was any different, but there wasn't.

I have Instant Breakfast every day and a glass of milk with my PB&J sandwich.

Again, this stoopid disease affects everyone differently. I consider myself fortunate that I don't have problems with D-P.

regards,
TOMOTH

 Reply posted for tomoth.

i was diagnosed at the beginning of this year with uc and it has been rough for me. my flare ups would last up to a month and i get afraid to eat sometimes.

i tried soup one day and it wouldn't stay down, the same with a hamburger and small fries from McDonalds.

i'm currently taking lialda 4 per day and then was placed on prednisone for the next few weeks.

has anyone became lactose intolerant as a result of uc or crohn's? i love to drink milk but have my ups and downs with it. i'm currently going through a flare up right now and stick with small portions of things just to keep something in my stomach.

does anyone know of any food options that may not irritate the bowel but helps with nausea? i've been experiencing a lot of this lately, especially at night.


- natalie

Hello All;

I came down with U-C in 2009.

I completely believe/agree that mine was caused by a long-term super-stress situation.

My doctor knows very little about U-C - and he admits it.

I'm on Lialda for maintenance. 4 pills/day. I don't know if it does anything or not.
If I miss a dose or a whole day's dose I don't notice anything. My doctor insists
I keep taking it.

--

Diet:

The one thing that sits "well" at all times, is a McDonald's double-cheese burger. Why, I have no idea whatsoever. But I never have a problem with it.

The one things that doesn't sit well is something with too much grease - worst ever encounter was an IHOP grease breakfast: Greasy egss / ham / sausage / bacon / hashbrowns. Paid for that breakfast at the cash register, and then all the next day. :-)

At this time I can eat just about anything. I can do raw vegetables / roughage / etc - if I only do it one time and then give my system a few days to unstress from all the work it had to do to process that stuff. We have Greek Salad or Chef Salad once a week.

Beer and hard liquor are pretty much off my menu - but I can drink sake and not have a problem.

Mexican food also works for me - and, surprisingly enough, I can eat super-spicy stuff that even my (Mexican) wife can't handle and I have no problems. In fact, my system seems to work fine. It is interesting to note that, talking with my friends (who are Mexican), none of them have any kind of digestive problems, and no one they know has digestive problems either. My guess is that the acid in the chili's kills-off some of the bad stuff in the intestines.

regards,
TOMOTH

 Reply posted for altman282.

I'm of the opinion, having had this awesome disease most of my 41 years of life, that no one diet works for two people- just as no two people have all of the same symptoms....which is mind blowing, even for me. High fiber is bad...coffee is worse. Coffee has been considered a powerful stimulant for peristalsis and is sometimes considered to prevent constipation, a diuretic, and a dehydrant....ie. not a good idea for those of us who wouldn't mind a few days of mild constipation, LOL.  

As for fruit....everybody's different. I grew up in the "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" generation, as did my mother....well- look at me now! LOL And colon cancer runs in my family. So much for that theory. Fruit *does* make me sick if my body says so. It's important to remember that this is an auto-immune disease, meaning that the body is confused as to what the enemy is....thinking that we are our own enemy and so many factors will set off the attack. Are our sugars, triglycerides, blood pressure cholesterol or even stress levels too high? What is going on environmentally to set off the flare up? Heck...lettuce has set off a flare up! We just never know what's going to get my digestive track in an uproar.

That's not to say that helpful suggestions are a bad idea, we're here to support, encourage and uplift one another....So please don't think I'm attempting to poo-poo (pardon the pun) the idea of a "Diet Blog"....I'm not saying that at all- what I am saying is that for those new to IBD, there is no "One Size Fits ALL" so please don't get your hopes up that a diet or a drug or an exercise or some new fangled fad is going to make it go away. It's just not that simple. BUT! The good news is...WITH diet, properly regulated medications, exercise and support groups like these....remission isn't far from the horizon!  

 Reply posted for teresita.

Hi Teresita - I feel the same way! Sometimes it helps just to know you're not alone. I'm having similar problems and have gotten so discouraged. I went to mostly white rice(I add a pat of butter and scant amount of salt for flavor) and having one yogurt daily for the protein, and that was it for about a year on and off. Believe it or not, I haven't lost weight between all the pain, bleeding, running to the BR and that diet!  I started a very simple food journal where I jotted down everything as I went through the day that I put in my mouth --- whether it was food OR fluids. I found out that I was drinking coffee with milk and sugar in the morning, but never thought about it because it was just my routine. On days when I felt really low in sugar and hungry, I added plain sugar cookies to "bring my sugar up" - my rationale, I guess for a sweet. Anyway, I found that yogurt increases my pain within 15 minutes or so, but I didn't know that til I started writing it! The cookies and animal crackers made my stomach hurt . So...I started just plain rice with a pat of butter and salt - for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I don't plan on this for very long, but I'm hoping to treat this like when you have a baby and you introduce only ONE food at a time, a week apart, so you know what they might be reacting to. Remember those days? I have 4 kids, so I remember how we used to give them rice cereal first. if they were okay,  we'd add peas or carrots but never both at once - so we could tell if they were having any problem with a new food.
That's just an idea, but I hope it helps. i wouldn't stay on just rice for long becausof the need for protein and vitamins for intestinal healing? But I'm going to try for a week or so, and then gradually add a food at a time. It's work, but it might be worth it...and the morning coffee? I can skip that if it helps keep me from running to the bathroom two hours every morning  :)

 Reply posted for teresita.

Hi Teresita - I feel the same way! Sometimes it helps just to know you're not alone. I'm having similar problems and have gotten so discouraged. I went to mostly white rice(I add a pat of butter and scant amount of salt for flavor) and having one yogurt daily for the protein, and that was it for about a year on and off. Believe it or not, I haven't lost weight between all the pain, bleeding, running to the BR and that diet!  I started a very simple food journal where I jotted down everything as I went through the day that I put in my mouth --- whether it was food OR fluids. I found out that I was drinking coffee with milk and sugar in the morning, but never thought about it because it was just my routine. On days when I felt really low in sugar and hungry, I added plain sugar cookies to "bring my sugar up" - my rationale, I guess for a sweet. Anyway, I found that yogurt increases my pain within 15 minutes or so, but I didn't know that til I started writing it! The cookies and animal crackers made my stomach hurt . So...I started just plain rice with a pat of butter and salt - for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I don't plan on this for very long, but I'm hoping to treat this like when you have a baby and you introduce only ONE food at a time, a week apart, so you know what they might be reacting to. Remember those days? I have 4 kids, so I remember how we used to give them rice cereal first. if they were okay,  we'd add peas or carrots but never both at once - so we could tell if they were having any problem with a new food.
That's just an idea, but I hope it helps. i wouldn't stay on just rice for long becausof the need for protein and vitamins for intestinal healing? But I'm going to try for a week or so, and then gradually add a food at a time. It's work, but it might be worth it...and the morning coffee? I can skip that if it helps keep me from running to the bathroom two hours every morning  :)

 Reply posted for teresita.

Start a food diet. Jot down everything and I do mean EVERYTHING that you eat.  Then have another column were you jot down how you felt a few hours afterwards.  It took me nearly 2 years of doing this to figure out my worst offenders.  My worst offenders (and they are pretty similar for most people but not all) are: Fatty foods, especially oil, alcohol ( I can have one glass of wine a week), dairy, chocolate, acidic foods like tomatoes, oranges, pineapple; and  spicy foods also fresh onion and fresh garlic.  After getting back on track and feeling really great I started to have major intestinal cramping. I wracked my brain trying to figure out what I was eating wrong: talked to my doctor, several nutritionists, etc.  They suggested it might be gluten intolerance.  So I stayed off all gluten for one week with no change.  Every single day I felt bad for 6 months. It was making me depressed and tired and I cried a lot.  Finally I decided to stay off the gluten for a longer period of time, this time for two whole weeks.   Wahhlaa!  I felt like my old self again.  I did indeed have (and still do) gluten intolerance.  I had a biopsy of the small intestine per my doctors urging and I do not have Celiac disease but rather gluten intolerance. I now stay away from anything with wheat, barley, or rye in it.  This is difficult to do but WORTH IT because I feel so much better.  So consider giving the GLuten Free diet a try.

 Reply posted for teresita.

There's no single diet that works for all people with IBD--you have to experiment to see which foods trigger symptoms and which don't. The closest thing to a rule of thumb is to avoid high-fiber foods--to stick to a low-residue diet. But again-not all people with IBD have to do this, but it does help people with strictures who have trouble passing bulky, fibrious foods.The best course of action would be to ask your GI doc to recommend a qualified nutritionist to work with you on developing a diet that will help to alleviate your symptoms. Best of luck.

 Reply posted for teresita.

There's no single diet that works for all people with IBD--you have to experiment to see which foods trigger symptoms and which don't. The closest thing to a rule of thumb is to avoid high-fiber foods--to stick to a low-residue diet. But again-not all people with IBD have to do this, but it does help people with strictures who have trouble passing bulky, fibrious foods.The best course of action would be to ask your GI doc to recommend a qualified nutritionist to work with you on developing a diet that will help to alleviate your symptoms. Best of luck.

 Reply posted for altman282.

I'm having a hard time finding what works with my colitis . What do I eat , what do I not eat. I need some insight 
. I ready to loser mind. I'm a single mom and have to take care of my son . I'm so tried from bleeding and having to run to the bathroom.
what can I eat to make it easier on me.