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What is a Low Residue Diet. Article.

DustyKat

Super Moderator
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) like Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis or diverticulitis, your doctor may suggest you follow a low-residue diet. A low-residue diet involves eating more easily digestible foods. A low-residue diet may reduce symptoms of IBD, such as diarrhea and stomach cramping; however, it will not cure IBD.

What Is a Low-Residue Diet?

A low-residue diet is a diet in which fiber and other foods that are harder for your body to digest are restricted. Fiber is made up of plant material that cannot be completely digested by the body. High-fiber foods include whole-grain breads and cereals, nuts, seeds, and raw or dried fruits.

Residue refers to undigested foods, including fiber, that make up stool. If intestinal walls are inflamed or damaged, digestion and absorption of nutrients and water may be impaired, depending on the location of disease activity.

In some people with Crohn's disease, the small intestine may also become very narrowed. The idea behind a low-residue diet is to reduce the number and size of bowel movements you have each day, thereby lessening painful IBD symptoms such as cramping, diarrhea, bloating, and gas. However, it does not affect inflammation or the disease itself.

A low-residue/low-fiber diet may be recommended for short-term use during disease flare-ups or following surgery to help with recovery. However, it is not a general eating plan for all people with IBD. Your health care provider or nutritionist can help make sure your diet plan is appropriate. In addition to dietary changes, your health care provider or nutritionist may recommend vitamin supplements.
Read the full article for recommended foods and foods to avoid plus menu plans....

http://www.webmd.com/ibd-crohns-disease/low-residue-diet-foods

Dusty.
 
Instead of creating a new thread about low residue, I thought I would just piggyback. This was a good article but not much different than our GI doc gave us. I'm looking for more specifics, maybe some tips and tricks.

My 13 year old boy is a seed, nut, and fruit eater. The first few weeks we've tried to stay low residue were fine, sorta a fun change from the normal, but now we are in the mundane. And it is fresh fruit season and he feels like he is missing out and I hate that for him.

How do you all do handle fresh fruit? Juicing? or cooking?

Fresh raspberries are the point of contention this morning.
 

my little penguin

Moderator
Staff member
You have to realize low residue is not for life - only until the inflammation gets under control.
My kiddo had life threatening food allergies to nuts for over five years .
If you feel focus on what he can't have or feel sorry for him then he will be believe he is missing out .
Focus on what he can have
Research recipe websites to find new foods
Especially baked goods
Have him help you pick /cook the new items so he is more invested.

DS went 9 weeks without any food only formula through thanksgiving /Christmas
So it can be done - your approach can make a big difference even if he is 13.


Our Gi ok'd nuts as long as they are in the form of nut butters or pulverized and put into baked goods ( ie. brownies).

Realistically missing out on a few foods is not the end of the world but fistula/abscesses that have formed from irratated intestines probably would make him feel worse.- which was how DS Gi explained it to him.

Fruit DS eats watermelon , cantaloupe, honey dew, oranges , peeled apples , peeled pears.
The skin is the issue in the fruits not the fruit itself.
 
Thank you. I needed that pep talk. I think I've been fairly positive with the food changes but when we came in with fresh picked raspberries my son was unhappy. I guess I was hoping I could juice them, but perhaps I should just give them away this season and not even bring them in the house.

We will concentrate on what he can eat.
 

DustyKat

Super Moderator
mlp is spot on malorymug. :ghug:

Think of Low Residue Diet as a treatment, it is not for the long haul and is designed to alleviate symptoms. Focus on that aspect of things and the positives it will bring knowing all the while that your lad will be able to go back to what he enjoys most.

It is a bland diet for sure, mind you Matt likes that sort of food!, but I think the main thing I did with him was to keep temptation well out of the house. That is not to say everyone else was restricted too but rather the things he had a particular love for were avoided.

Dusty. xxx
 
I find that I can eat raspberries if I puree them and pass through a very fine sieve to take out the seeds. Of the summer fruits, I have no problem with stewed plums; once stewed, I blitz them with a stick blender.

Skinned walnuts are probably the easiest of the nuts to digest.
 
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