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First signs of flare-up?

Hi all, my daughter has been on Lialda for a couple days shy of a month for her colitis. Until yesterday the only symptom she has experienced since starting treatment has been a couple of mouth ulcers. Last night she had what I think was a Bristol 6 stool. She is fine this morning but I am preparing myself that the symptoms may be returning and we may need to change meds. It did make me wonder if it is possible for IBD kids to have an occasional case of looser stools such as a 'normal' person may have after something they ate or are we always to assume any loose stools are the beginning of a flare?

Adding: Just talked to the nurse and she said to keep an eye on it which I obviously will. They can have a fluke stool but to watch for the big picture of pain, blood, frequency, etc. During her last flare she was more like a 3x a day kid so even when I know her flare is happening her frequency isn't as much as some so I never want to discount anything.
 
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Yes, they absolutely can have normal "not normal" gut issues/loose stools. It's hard not to freak out and go straight to flare when that happens but they do get the normal bugs and sickness.
My son says he can tell the difference between "crohns" and just sick when he has troubles, he is usually spot on.
Definitely watch and be ready to jump if it doesn't resolve itself generally a tummy bug/ate something that doesn't agree with you resolves itself pretty quickly if it continues or gets worse instead of getting better warrants further investigation.
Trust your gut if it doesn't feel right it probably isn't. I made many calls to the GI in the beginning for probably everything those have lessened by a ton in the past 8 years now.
 
Yes, they absolutely can have normal "not normal" gut issues/loose stools. It's hard not to freak out and go straight to flare when that happens but they do get the normal bugs and sickness.
My son says he can tell the difference between "crohns" and just sick when he has troubles, he is usually spot on.
Definitely watch and be ready to jump if it doesn't resolve itself generally a tummy bug/ate something that doesn't agree with you resolves itself pretty quickly if it continues or gets worse instead of getting better warrants further investigation.
Trust your gut if it doesn't feel right it probably isn't. I made many calls to the GI in the beginning for probably everything those have lessened by a ton in the past 8 years now.
Thank you! That gives me hope she may be able to read her body better in the future. She makes me bonkers, most of my questions are met with "I don't know". I know she isn't trying to be difficult, she's just never been a good self-reporter. She's had years of ear issues/surgeries and she is not good about explaining her symptoms there either, makes helping her and knowing when to be concerned very difficult.
 

Maya142

Moderator
Staff member
It will probably take her a while to figure out when something is wrong, but she will. My daughter can also usually tell when the diarrhea is Crohn's or CDiff or just something she ate that didn't agree with her.

She will sometimes have diarrhea triggered by food, but the difference with that is that it doesn't last.

When it's caused by Crohn's, generally it will last longer and she will have other symptoms - such as mouth ulcers, abdominal pain, fatigue, night sweats, low grade fevers.

We watch for blood and for diarrhea that lasts more than 2 days, especially if there are other symptoms. Or if she has 10+ BMs in one day. I will call if or send a message through the portal if something does not feel right.

Usually her GI will do a Fecal Calprotectin test (a stool test that measures inflammation) and that will tell us if it's Crohn's or something else.

You will figure out what her "normal" is over time. In the beginning, we called the GI a lot more - they are probably used to that!
 
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