where do I start?
#329800 - 05/15/08 08:21 AM
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I've had IBS for most of my life and now it's really out of control.. where do I begin? How do I start?? I need a buddy or someone to bounce things off of to get me started on all this info... I have cut out red meat, fried foods, dairy and I still suffer.. I drink tons of peppermint tea, use heating pads on my tummy and I"m on all kinds of meds which aren't working very well! I've had all the tests done and they can't find anything wrong with me!! Help!!!!
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Welcome to the Boards. One place to start is by posting what you are eating. Other people can look at it and suggest changes and substitutions. Since you've cut out red meat, fried foods, and dairy, you probably just need some help getting enough SF.
Also, are you IBS-C, D, A, P? And what meds are you taking?
Take care.
-------------------- [Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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ok, well, ibs-d.. I eat a lot of bread.. seems like that settles things.. I have toast and tea for bfast (decaf always). Seems like Campbells chicken noodle soup is ok for lunch or organic turkey breast from the deli. Dinner is usually turkey, chicken or fish, green beans, mashed potatoes (made with chicken broth-no butter or milk), cranberry sauce, sometimes stuffing.. baked potatoes are ok. pretzels are ok, hard and soft. Herbal teas are ok, cooked carrots are good. On toast, I use Olivio spread.. Pork is ok too.. spaghetti is ok too. (Prego sauce).
any suggestions?? I take meds before each meal, take Imodium daily as needed and for prevention. I just took a class on accupressure . stress is high (2 kids!) In Sept, I'll have time to join a gym or something to help reduce stress.. My attacks happen across the board - sometimes all of a sudden and sometimes they last for days. Metamucil every day too.. I'd like to try to put on about 20lbs too, since I've lost weight and was underweight to begin with. Soy doesn't settle too well, neither does yogurt.
Thanks for any help you can offer!!
Wendy
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Olivio is dairy, I would cut that out. You could try a soy margarine and see if you can handle soy in tiny doses. If you can't, there's always nut or fruit butters to use as a spread.
How do you make your stuffing? I love my mom's stuffing but it absolutely kills me because she uses fatty sausage in it. (Though she tries to be nice and uses olive oil instead of butter for me!)
I don't do well with spaghetti sauce (my bladder definitely doesn't, but I really think it's too acidic for my bowels as well). I eat my pasta plain with a tiny tiny bit of olive oil and salt/pepper/basil/whatever strikes my fancy.
Most people here get attacks from pork, so you might want to eliminate that for awhile. I don't eat pork myself, so I can't attest to it one way or the other.
If you want to try putting on weight, I'd suggest adding in some bananas and avocado, both of which are IBS safe foods (though eat the avocado in small amounts, because a whole avocado does have a lot of fat). Both are calorie dense foods.
-------------------- IBS-C
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What Fen said. Plus:
First, bread will settle things because it's SF - that's a very good move for you. And the acupressure for stress is great, too.
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Seems like Campbells chicken noodle soup is ok for lunch or organic turkey breast from the deli.
Every Campbell's soup I've checked has MSG in it and I don't tolerate that at all. Plus according to one source I found, it gets 33% of its calories from fat which is higher than the 25% max Heather recommends. And ditto for whatever chicken broth you're using. If it's Campbell's, the last time I checked it had MSG.
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Pork is ok too.. spaghetti is ok too. (Prego sauce).
Pork is red meat and that's a trigger food so you must avoid it if you want to follow Heather's approach. Unlike Fen, I do fine with jarred tomato-based pasta sauce BUT you must check the ingredients carefully: no meat, no dairy, no MSG and you might do better avoiding HFCS at least until you're more stable.
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My attacks happen across the board - sometimes all of a sudden and sometimes they last for days.
That's a pretty standard IBS-D pattern, at least it was for me.
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Metamucil every day too..
I think Metamucil is a mistake for IBS-Ds since it contains both Soluble Fiber (2/3rds) and Insoluble Fiber (1/3rd). My guess is that you'd do better with a Soluble Fiber Supplement that is straight SF. Read this for an overview of SFS: web page
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Soy doesn't settle too well, neither does yogurt.
Some people have trouble with soy at the beginning - it is a beanish type thing and can cause gas. You can try Beano if you want to continue to eat it or you may find that by adding it in a little bit at a time you'll gradually adjust to it. You may also find that once you begin to follow Heather's guidelines and your gut calms down you'll be able to tolerate it fine. Or you can forget about soy and use rice milk or almond milk as your dairy substitute.
Yogurt is dairy and dairy is a trigger food and should be avoided totally.
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I'd like to try to put on about 20lbs too, since I've lost weight and was underweight to begin with.
Then you're in luck because the one thing that really stands out for me in your menu is how little you're eating before dinner. IBS usually does better if you feed it a little bit throughout the day. Eat like a Hobbit: "Daily hobbit meals include Breakfast, Second Breakfast, Elevenses, Luncheon, Afternoon Tea and Supper, supplemented with plenty of snacks in between."
Try a pre-breakfast of applesauce mixed with your SFS. For breakfast, one of Heather's breads or a muffin from the Recipe Board or your toast with a non-dairy spread along with a hard-boiled egg white for protein. Mid-morning snack could be another slice of bread or another muffin or a smoothie (yummy and a great way to get some fruit in you). Lunch should be heavy on SF (the noodles in the chicken-noodle soup are not going to do it). Make sure you're having that deli turkey on a roll or on hefty slice of good French or Italian bread with low or non-fat mayo or (even better when you're first starting out) a little cranberry sauce or chutney. Throw in a few pretzels. Afternoon snack could be pretzels or pita chips (make your own if you can't find any low-fat enough) or more bread or muffin or one of the yummy sweets from the Recipe Board. Avoid trigger foods at dinner and don't eat too, too much. When you're first starting out you may have trouble with *any* IF even green beans. Try sticking with the veggies from the SF list for a while like zucchini. Before dinner have something small: another 1/2 cup of applesauce with SFS or a few pretzels or a sweet.
Two general points. First, I believe that until your gut has pretty much calmed down it can be difficult if not impossible to identify triggers (pork is OK, soy is not, and so on). That's because as long as your tummy is annoyed at you, almost anything except pure SF can set it off. (web page) So until you're stable, your best bet is to follow Heather's guidelines to the letter.
Second, it sounds to me like you've tried to learn the basics of Heather's approach from the Bulletin Board and that really doesn't work. Try reading this to get a good overview of what this approach involves at least as far as food is concerned: web page
I hope some of this helps. Heather's approach has been miraculous for me and I hope it's the same for you. Please feel free to ask questions.
-------------------- [Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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that's funny about bananas because sometimes they don't agree with me.. I'm new to this website so the abbreviations are going to take a while to learn.. it seems all so complicated. I do try to nibble through out the day.. if I stay on top of hunger, it helps.. somedays it's impossible though.
thanks for the ideas.. I'll definately research more into Heather's diet.
Wendy
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Hey there! I find that drinking tea, ANY tea bothers my stomach. I tried pepermint and that was BAD. Even chamomile is bad all tea so far. I'm waiting for my fennel tea so we'll see.....
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I am new to the board and also hitting an all time low in terms of my IBS being out of control. I think it's hormonally induced, but I really needed to start paying more attention to what I was consuming and HOW I was consuming it. To that end, I printed out Heather's cheat sheet and have been using it faithfully. Although I am still not out of the woods, my colon has not seized up since I started using the cheat sheet. I work at Barnes and Noble so I'm going to take a look at the book tonight on my break! HTH
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