Swelling/bloated
#25346 - 11/03/03 02:34 PM
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My daughter's stomach gets very distended, but usually doesn't have pain, thank God. Does anyone have this? She tried insoluble fiber had PAIN. At least with insoluble fiber she doesn't have the pain. How can we stop this extreme swelling though? 
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Hi - best thing I've found for bloating is fennel. Helps relieve it and prevent it too. Info is here fennel
- Heather
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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Thanks fo writing. My daughter tried the fennel tea, but it didn't seem to help. The soluble fiber helps for no pain, but her stomach still distends a LOT after eating even a small amount. She drinks a lot of herbal peppermint& green tea...Do other people with IBS have this bloating that doesn't have pain or gas?
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I have the same problem...everytime i eat anything, even if its just a small amount, i suffer really bad bloating but not usually pain. at the moment it just feels like ive constantly got an elephant inside of me! Ive just received heathers fennel tea so hopefully that might help.
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Are you sure it's just anything? Perhaps she's eating something on a daily basis that's a trigger? I know back when I didn't know what my trigger foods were I always looked 6 months pregnant!!
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IBS-C
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I can't speak for ''stressed mom's'' daughter but when i say anything i mean anything...even if its just soluble fibre ie a piece of bread, a piece of fruit, anything i eat makes me instantly bloated.
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Hi, my 15 year old daughter is having similar problems: severe constipation (rock hard cement plugs) and scary bloating. I thought we had it figured out for about 3 weeks--we eliminated milk and all dairy completely from her diet and put in a mega-mix of insoluble and soluble fiber. She also took one "Culturelle" bacteria supplement (available over the counter in a drugstore) in the morning, along with one flax oil capsule and one Posture-D Calcium supplement. The flax and Calcium supplement were repeated in the evening, along with a multivitamin. I also found a very heavy, German-made linseed bread in a health food store, and gave her that as a supplement for lunch. (It's pretty hard to eat without some marmalade or jam on it, and the weight alone probably moves things along by sheer gravity...) Her breakfast, lunch and dinner always included some form of beans, lentils or peas. It seemed to help to spread the fiber out over the day, which is sometimes hard with teens. They are never hungry in the morning! I tried to choose foods that did NOT have any high fructose corn syrup added--it's in a lot of stuff that is in the grocery store. Well, she did just great on this diet! We had taken her off Zelnorm, because it wasn't working anymore, and found that on this diet, she was going on her own several times a day, normal in every way, and wasn't bloated at all. We made sure that she exercised in some way every single day. Things were really looking up until this past weekend, when she gave into temptation and had way too much fruit (melon!) one evening. We seem to be back to the same awful cycle of intense bloating, constipation, and finally having to resort to Dulcolax and Fleet phosphosoda, etc. The laxatives almost never work as prescribed, and she needs far more than recommended to get her going. We keep pushing the fennel tea (which she hates) and the peppermint tea (which she will tolerate, but is getting sick of). I have pulled back on the Benefiber, and have held off on starting the Acacia fiber for fear that it might be contributing to the problem. I read somewhere (probably the Citrucel advertisement!) that Benefiber can ferment in the gut and cause gas in some people. I think Benefiber is the same stuff as the Acacia, but am not sure. She is taking one or two peppermint/fennel capsules inbetween meals. We're hoping that we can get her back to where we were a week ago. It's hard for kids to deal with the bloating. We have a supply of loose clothing with elastic waistbands, and do the best we can to reassure her. We find that we have to get her to school late sometimes, after the laxatives have had a chance to work. She will drop 15 pounds almost immediately after they take effect, and after having a chance to recover, can then go to school. Has anyone else found a solution to this problem? What seems to work? Is there an explanation for this bloating?
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Yes, I did. The biggest help for me was taking beano with any fiber, taking acidolphilus-bifidus at morning and at night, and taking citracel each morning. Also, eating a couple of soy yogurts a day is helpful.
Hope this helps
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"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." -- e e cummings
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maybe she can take acidolphilus-bifidus, three capsules, right before bed. i take the NOW brand and refridgerate it after opening. I take it in the morning, too. For me, this gets me moving. Thus, I am less constipated, thus there is less "bad" bacteria in my gut, thus there is less bloating. You see, my bloating was caused by the gasses produced by the bacteria in the excess fecies, as well as the sheer amount of waste waiting to be expelled. ACTIVE CULTURES, found in acid-bif pills and soy yogurt, restore healthy intestinal flora. This = pooping and no bloating! I have been there -- And I know your daughter will get through this.
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"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." -- e e cummings
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One reason the bifidus and other live cultures are helpful is that they are "good" gut flora, and they help reduce bloating and gas. They're considered probiotics. Acacia actually encourages the growth of probiotics (the good gut flora), which means that it is a prebiotic, so it also helps reduce bloating and gas. Benefiber is not the same thing as acacia - it is guar gum, a completely different soluble fiber.
Probiotics and prebiotics in general do not have an immediate, drastic effect. They're products that you need to take consistently for a while, to build up your good gut flora, before you'll see an effect. And then you need to keep taking them regularly to continue their effects. Soy yogurts can definitely help here as well.
Probiotics/prebiotics are all definitely worth the wait as they do have clinically established effects on IBS. The soluble fiber aspect of the Acacia is something that will help right away though, especially if your gut is used to soluble fiber. This is a different benefit to the supplement than the prebiotic aspect.
Hope your daughter is back on track soon.
Best,
Heather
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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Heather - how long does it take for the acacia to work to notice considerbaly less bloating? I am having b/m between 1-3 times a day now (which is more than i was having when i was 'normal') so the acacia has definitely helped with this. However, the bloating just seems to be getting worse...im drinking plenty of water, doing exercise and trying to watch my diet but at the moment im in a total rut.
also i have increased my acacia intake to 2teaspoons before breakfast and 1teaspoon before dinner - in a few days i will increase this to 2in the evening as well. I don't take any before lunch because it is awkward for me to do that, unless i carried the powder with me which would be rather tricky!
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It is so hard to deal with these problems at that age! I was also 15 when my IBS began, I'm now 33. The bloating still reamins to be my most troublesome problem. I haven't found a good explanation or a good solution for it yet! I would NOT cut back on your daughters fiber supplements though, that will only make the constipation worse! Instead of using laxatives when things do back up have her try a glycerin suppostitory, I know a suppository won't sound like fun to a 15 year old but once I actually made myself do it, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. They work faster, I usually go within 5-15 minutes but they cause less cramping and I don't think they are as addictive, although you can become dependant on them just like laxatives. A lot of people find calcium to be constipating, so becareful haw much she is taking. Magnesium is good for constipation. If I find myself getting backed up I will load up on some insoluble fiber-a big bowl of raisin bran with rice milk, or a salad with gabonzo beans and peas. Sometimes that will give me some dirreah but usually at that point I don't care! I have started taking the probiotics about 2 months ago and I am started to notice a LITTLE less gas/bloating, they do take time. I also find that food enzymes help, especially with questionable foods. When the pain and bloating get bad have her use the heating pad or buy her some of those Therma-Care heat packs, you get them at the drug store by the femmine products, there are for menstraul cramps but I use them all the time, they fit into your panties and if you were a longer shirt or sweater noone can tell and they stay hot for 8-9 hours. I wish I could do more, I'm sure it helps that you are so understanding.
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Taking it one day at a time.....
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Sorry about the confusion about the two fibers!
Oddly enough, my bowel movements completely depend on probiotics. If I buy "bad" ones, or I don't take them at night, I don't have a bowel movement. Also, my I did not have a natural bowel movement for a couple of years. I took the probiotics one night, and had a bowel movement the next morning. For me, they ARE NOT the only thing that I need to do to "stay health" (GI-ly speaking), but they are a vital factor. Any thoughts on this, Heather?
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"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." -- e e cummings
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Wow, this is really interesting. I haven't heard of someone having such a dramatic and rapid improvement from probiotics. The only rapid response I've heard of is from a handful of folks who can't tolerate them, and get nausea right away. My guess is that's a response to something inert in the capsules, not the flora itself.
Check the research library here under "Herbs, probiotics" for all the studies they've done with IBS.
- Heather
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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I am very confused on which brand and type of pre and probiotics are the best ones to try. I've done all the fiber supplements, 75% of my entire diet is fresh fruits veggies and whole grains but the constipation is virtually relentless. I've heard that FOS and other probiotics could be beneficial but it is hard to know which company makes the best products and which products work best for C variety IBS. I've been on Zelnorm and it helps intermittently and I still require a laxative to help me have a bowel movement. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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Hi - Are you getting a high soluble fiber basis? All the fresh fruits, veggies, and whole grains are really nutritious but also very high in insoluble fiber. Paradoxically, for folks with IBS this can actually worsen constipation. Check here for soluble/insoluble fiber info web page
What fiber supplements have you tried, and at what dose? Many people simply don't increase their dose to a high enough level, or drink enough water for the soluble fiber to work. There is dosage and other info here web page
For probiotics, search the board for brands that people have found effective.
Best,
Heather
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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Hi there - Since your bm's have increased to a very normal daily amount, I'd keep your acacia dose right where it is. You don't have to keep raising it until you're at the maximum dose - what works best for you is what matters.
In fact, you might want to drop the dose down to where you were at previously. If you were not used to fiber, an increase can cause bloating. Once your good gut flora is increased from the acacia, bloating should get lots better. But this could take a few weeks, so keep yourself on a dosage that is really tolerable until then. More isn't always better, especially if you've normalized your bowel function already.
And, I sound like a broken record, but keep drinking strong hot fennel tea. Try and get some daily exercise too, as that can help your body expel gas and decrease bloating.
Best,
Heather
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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Thank you, Michelle and others for your input, and thank you Heather, for clarifying the difference between Acacia and Benefiber. I have a different question, now, as we are faced with trying to get the bloating down before a school play tomorrow. We tried some max. strength ExLax (the senna kind) and waited about 8 hours. Nothing, not even a twinge. So, we then tried the suppository approach. This too proved to be useless. Then, we tried the Fleet enema approach. This didn't work either. Finally, under some pressure from a frantic teen, we agreed to try the Fleet phosphosoda approach, and this is as far as I will agree to go without talking to the doctor. We have run her up and down the road, had her do situps, and so on, and so far, there's not even a rumble. Should we have put her on strictly clear liquids for a while as soon as the bloating began, and would the laxatives have worked better without other solid food? We really hadn't thought about this much when resorting to laxatives, but now we're wondering what on earth her body is doing to the stuff we're giving her! It really isn't doing much! Maybe they're getting lost in the food!???
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