New to IBS
#247964 - 02/22/06 06:37 PM
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mcamp
Reged: 02/22/06
Posts: 2
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I am new to having IBS. Actually I have not been told by a doctor that I definitely have it. At my last office visit (1 week ago) my doctor told me he has absolutely no idea what is wrong with me. Not what you want to hear when you have been suffering for 2 months with nausea, heart burn, diarrhea, and acid reflux. Recently the Dr. told me to eat a very bland diet. whole wheat toast, brown rice, whole grain cereal, plain broiled chicken. I could not figure out why my symptoms have been getting worse from eating like this until I stumbled upon www.helpforibs.com. I didn't know I was supposed to stay away from whole grain products. Tomorrow I am going to try eating just oatmeal, white rice, plain bagels or english muffins. Hopefully this will calm my symptoms so I can get the IBS under control. Does anyone have any eating suggestions to ease my pain. Please let me know. I am desperate to get my symptoms under control.
Thanks!!
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Hi there,
Sorry to hear that you are feeling so awful right now. I'm sure it doesn't help to hear your doctor say he has no idea what is wrong with you. I think I lucked out in the sense that my doctor also suffers from IBS. Like you, before I knew what was wrong w/ me, I was eating like you described, but that is definitely not the best thing for our bodies! I find that the best thing I can eat when I feel so terrible is fresh french bread from the grocery store bakery. I love the fresh french bread from whole foods or safeway (do you have either of those stores, Nob Hill/Raley's adds whey, a dairy prodcut to their bread, so be careful). White rice and oatmeal are also good options. As for bagels and english muffins, I would just make sure they don't have High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) in them, so read the ingredients list. HFCS isn't a trigger for everyone, but until you are feeling better I would stay away from it just in case you are sensitive to it. I would also suggest eating bananas, which are a good soluble fiber source and help with diarrhea. Applesauce (no sugar added, and No HFCS) is also another good, safe food. I just buy the unsweetened kind and it is very safe. Finally, I would just suggest that you eat enough. If you let your stomach get empty, that could be the worst thing. I know for me it is. If I don't eat, I feel much much worse with regards to my IBS. So keep snacking on safe foods ALL day long.
Hope you feel better soon. Once you start to feel better, everyone here has a lot of safe and delicious recipes for you to try. You won't feel as deprived as you might think you will.
HTH, get well soon,
Amber
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Oatmeal and applesauce for breakfast are "safe" for me. Steamed or broiled fish, sweet potato, regular potato and white rice are also foods I'm comfortable with. I make sure to cook meats until they are soft and I also avoid raw or undercooked vegetables.
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Penny
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Have you had a colonoscopy yet? It's great that you want to eat better to get your symptoms under control, but I think it will still be good if you had the doc run all the tests to rule out anything else if you haven't already had them.
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Welcome to the boards! I think you will find the support you need here. The same thing happened to me with the whole grain foods. When I completely stopped eating meat about 7 months ago (b/c I couldn't quite seem to handle it and didn't know why), I started eating a lot more whole grains, thinking it was healthy. Now that I was diagnosed with IBS, I realize that the whole grains were aggravating the IBS quite a bit. It was difficult to make the switch b/c I always thought the white versions were overprocessed. However, now that I have switched to white breads and also watched the veggies I eat (not too much insoluble fiber), I feel better.
I like Sara Lee mini bagels. Each one is 100 calories, and you can have 1 or 2 depending on your appetite.
I also like Iron Kids bread. It rocks. It also has added iron and calcium, so that is good for me.
Good choice to change to soluble fiber foods. I think you'll start to feel better. Along with that, you can take chamomile, peppermint, ginger, fennel for other stomach discomfort. Be careful of overdoing the peppermint and ginger since you said you have acid reflux. I do, but I am on medication for it, so the peppermint and ginger usually don't aggravate it.
Good luck!
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*Janice*
"Where there is love there is life."
-Mahatma Gandhi
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Welcome! I do well / did well when it was really bad with rice cereal, plain chicken breasts, rice or eggless pasta, shrimp, baked fish, and more rice cereal. When it was really really bad? Rice crackers and plain rice with a little soy sauce or fruit juice for flavor. Before I knew what was wrong, I was living on white bread, chicken, and water - the only things I could put in my mouth that didn't seem to set me off (I don't recommend that).
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Beth
IBS - D
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Thank you everyone for your quick responses. Today I ate a banana and a plain bagel. I already feel better. I think the whole grains were really aggravating my IBS.
I have an appointment tomorrow with a new GI doctor. Hopefully she will be more helpful than my last GI doctor.
Thanks again!!!
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