Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

This is a very long post so I'll give you the reader's digest version first: Our 12 year old son has IBS. He has been in severe pain the past 3 weeks, meds aren't working, diet isn't working (doesn't like a lot of the foods I give him and that he should be eating). He and I are both getting frustrated. Any suggestions?

Now for those of you who want to read the long version:
Our 12 year old son was diagnosed with IBS in February by a pediatric gastroenterologist. He told us to eliminate spicy foods, fatty/greasy foods, caffine, gassy foods and take lots of fiber. He recommended Fiber Choice (I think that is the name of it). He also prescribed bentyl and levsin. The bentyl has never worked and the levsin worked at first but seems to have stopped working. Our son has been in severe pain for the past 3 weeks.

I have purchased both of Heather's books and am trying to follow the diet. The recipies sound really good to me but I know our son won't eat a lot of them. He only likes basic foods so I have tried to re-create his favorite foods using "safe" ingredients. The difficult part is trying to prepare safe meals for our 12 year old son that our 6 year old son will also eat. I have gotten some recipies off of the recipe boards that my whole family will eat. That has helped.

In addition, our 12 year old doesn't like anything hot so he won't drink the peppermint tea that seems to work for a lot of you. I have tried pepogest, but that gives him heartburn. He spends a lot of time on the heating pad but that hasn't even been working lately. He wakes up every morning in pain.

He missed 14 days of school in January and cannot miss any more so a lot of days he is in tears when we leave for school. It just breaks my heart! Luckily he has wonderful, understanding teachers (one of them has IBS) that let him lay down during the day and take it easy.

I will do anything to help our son but don't know where to turn next. I feel like I'm up against a brick wall!!

Sorry this is so long but I do feel better to just communicate with people who know what we're going through.

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