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How do you start tracking triggers?

Hi everyone. My son has ulcerative colitis and he is not on any diets. He has been having a lot of flare ups in the last three months and I am wondering if it could be linked to something he is eating? Where do I even start? I have a call into the dietician to see if they can help me in anyway. Any advice would be accepted and appreciated. Thank you!
 
Also to mention that my son is 3 and he has been dealing with colitis for over a year now and he does not tell me when his stomach is sore etc. .. the doctors believe that since he is so young that he does not realize anything is happening and that aches and pains are his normal
 

valleysangel92

Moderator
Staff member
You could try keeping a diary of what he eats and how he seems after, if he isn't telling you about pain then maybe just keep a look out for things like D or if he is off his food. Over time this will show you if/when his symptoms get worse and what food may have triggered it.
 
Hi and welcome.
My little girl is 4 and has colitis but has suffered since she was a baby.

The journal idea is a great suggestion.

Does he show signs of triggers/allergies?
Any sneezing, wheezing, hives, stomach pains, abdominal cramps, diarrhea or any obvious sign?
 
I have noticed he gets diarrhea the most. I find he has a day or two of it, on and off during the day then ends up bleeding. He seems to really struggle through his movements also, seems uncomfortable all the time. He will rub his head and gets sweaty sometimes, or he will want us to hold his hand. His eating habits will start to decrease also - after his remicade infusions he will be good for a few days then start going down hill. I am not sure if these are normal behaviors or not but it seems to be a pattern with it.
 
I see you've gone milk free and some have found success with gluten free.

I haven't read all the replies you've received but has anyone mentioned EEN to you?
Here's a link talking about it. PRESS HERE!

Diet is important but it sounds like your guy needs to get his disease under-control first.
Right now his body is still battling and his colitis is still causing problems so finding true triggers (if he has any) will be harder to figure out because of his symptoms.

I'll tag in EthanClark, Polly13, QueenGothel, MLP as they have/had younger ones like yours.

Please PM me anytime.
 
We never had any success with fad diets. Beyond switching to LF milk. We tried pH diet ( she was super healthy at this time) but then she had a huge flare... We also tried GF and honestly the only way I could get her to stick to it was to do it myself. GF was a really constipating diet for both of us, so rather than doing GF I would recommend more of a whole foods diet. Both me and my DD were chronically constipated from GF, so it depend on the individual. The GF prepackage processed foods aren't any better for you really. But if you have an itch and need to scratch it you can buy them. Personally most of it tasted like sawdust to me. I guess in time you can get used to sawdust. They are improving because of celiac being so dominant now. I do have a decent list of yummy GF recipes but they are few and very far between. Most of it has to be homemade for it to taste good. But if he suffers from diarrhea GF might be great for him, to bulk him up a bit. We now really just try to avoid GMOs, preservatives and pesticides. So we eat mostly organic if we can. Is it just milk you have cut out or all dairy. Bc organic yogurt is soo good with the probiotics, potassium, Vit D, calcium... It is a win win in my book. My kid is Lactose Free and yogurt doesn't bother her because it is heated. But to each their own.

Beyond that there is the Paleo Diet, Makers Diet and SCD. Some people it works for others it does nothing.

EEN doesn't really work for UC it is more a CD thing. (Farmwife) but I would highly recommend getting nutritional shakes. We used Nutren Jr. So you would need the milk free equivalent. She loved them and gets excited when I give her them. It took a lot of work to get her to that point though. But if you tried EEN and it worked it might be another piece to the diagnosis of which IBD your dealing with.

Personally I was never able to find a trigger. Food in my opinion didn't make any difference with my DD, she like your son never showed any signs of distress from foods, or ever showed an intolerance to pain. It is natural for us to want to control it. Some kids diet makes no difference, others it does. A western medicine nutritionalist will tell you food doesn't matter with IBD, if it bothers them don't give it to them. If you want to get real advice talk to someone in holistics about incorporating anti-inflammatory food into his diet, like sweet potatoes, avocados, salmon. I think adding foods rather than taking them away was a huge factor. Fattening up on the good and skipping the rest. It took me a year to figure that out. A very stressful money wasting year.
 
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