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Hello everyone, I am a mother to a 12 year old boy with ulcerative colitis. He was diagnosed when he was about 7 or 8 years old and has been on a few different medications but currently on Imuran. I hope that we can connect with someone on here so we can support each other through the hard times and celebrate during the good ones. One of my concerns are development while on this medicine; He has been on Imuran for about year and a half now and has grow very little, any advice?

Hi and welcome to the forum! :welcome:

I'm sorry to hear about your son. But, you've come to a great place of support! There are many different places that might help you. We have a separate forum on here for those with Ulcerative Colitis. There's also one on treatments such as Imuran.

And best of all: we have one that is for Parents of children with IBD. We have many wonderful parents in there with all kinds of experience in there. I am sending you the link to help you take a look at this group. Please feel free to look around and let me know if you have any questions. Take care. :hug:

www.crohnsforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=49

Thanks so much

No problem. Glad to help!

Cross-stitch is correct about the parents forum we have lots of fun fabulous supportive parents there.
My son was diagnosed at 10, he will be 14 next month. He was on Imuran for several years and like your son did not grow/gain weight but I don't think it was from the Imuran. I think it was a lack of calories as he just did not eat.
We added an appetite enhancer and 8 weeks of supplemental nutrition (Peptide) and he gained 23 lbs and grew an inch in that 8 weeks which is why I think it was more a lack of nutrition/calories leading to his lack of growth.
He still does not like to eat, we took him off the appetite enhancer (periactin) not long ago and he went right back to not eating and lost 6 pounds in about 2 weeks so we restarted and he started eating again.
We also started supplementing with Vitamin D3 at the same time. Devynnsmom has a daughter about the same age as your son with UC. That should tag her to respond.

Hello and welcome to the forum, my name is Samantha. I have an 11 year old daughter who has ulcerative colitis. She has been on pentasa, mezevant and now sulfasalazine. The sulfasalazine seems to be working right now. She is scheduled for an upper and lower scope in July due to some problems she was having a few mos ago due to being bullied. But since the bullying has stopped, her symptoms have gotten much better. If things continue to go the way they are now, we can cancel her scopes.

Hey samantha,

Sorry for the delay in my response, I hope your daughter continues to do great with the new medicine she is now on and always holds her head up high.:thumright:

I don't think lack of growth would be from the Imuran. Has he been on long courses of prednisone? Is his doctor concerned about his growth? Is everything under control with the UC? Normal labs?

Are you supplementing with anything like Boost or Ensure, multi-vitamins? DS drinks an Ensure Plus daily for the extra calories. Is your son active and maybe burning more calories than he's taking in?

At this age, kids seem to be all over the board with height, weight, and puberty. I have to look UP to see some of my son's friends... and their only 13! While DS is on the small side, his GI said its fine as long as he's continuing an upward trend over time.

Welcome to the Forum!

Welcome! :cheerleader: We look forward to getting to know you

Hey Mehita, I hope all is well, to respond to your questions my son has tried prednisone but unfortunately he had to be taken off of it immediately due allergic reaction. As far as his GI or his primary physician neither have a problem with his height nor weight (he is in the 10th percentile for both), I guess I just want to make sure he is keeping up with his age group. Moreover, his UC seems to be under control with his current medication (azathioprine as know as imuran), he is also on cyproheptadine for an appetite enhancer (although it does not seem to be working very well). In addition, he is pretty active but needs breaks in between activities because he tries quickly; furthermore, he was drinking pediasure on a daily basis but recently decided to quite because he says it makes him too full (he will start trying boost tomorrow). Talk to you all sooner then later!! :thumright:



P.S. Thank you Jeannette for welcoming us:hug:

Hey yall...I hope everyone is doing awesome. I wanted to give an update on my sons appetite, last time I was on here I mentioned he was not really wanting to eat, but now the cyproheptadine seems to working. He is eating at least two full meals a day and a couple of snacks; also he is now drinking boost (he says he likes it better then the pediasure :thumright.

P.S. Happy belated 4th of July:us_flag:

So good to hear!