Foods to aid digestion?

• By Whisperingdays
• Posted May 27, 2008 at 9:35 pm

Hi,
Your daughter is beautiful. I have Gastroparesis and I try and follow this diet that is for my disease. Although it is not the most appealing diet it is what they feel is the easiest of foods for your body to digest.

http://www.gicare.com/pated/edtgs08.htm

Most of the time it is hard to even eat the things that they suggest for me to eat. But I hope this diet you can use as a guide, to help you acheive the best nutrition for your daughter to make her happy and healthy.

It may not be what you are looking for but I hope it helps.

Best wishes to you and your daughter.

Whispper

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• By Achilles_Heart
• Posted May 28, 2008 at 8:09 am

Hey Whispper,

Thats exactly what I was looking for, I cant thank you enough!

I will use the lists to help me form a chart of which foods she can have lots of, which she can home some of, and which foods to stay away from.

Best wishes and prayers from me and Ruby to you.

Lucy.

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• By c-townchic
• Posted May 28, 2008 at 2:04 pm

My son had alot of motility problems at that age he seemed to like the different yogurts with the fruit on the bottom and for years I stayed away from popcorn corn anything with seeds as they are hard to digest it is hard when they are so young creating an exciting diet.Good Luck and God Bless her.He couldn't do milk or soy so I know its tough

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• By jamessmith
• Posted May 28, 2008 at 9:46 pm

she may have developed small bowel bacterial overgrowth. this is pretty common in CIPO and it can cause the food to not be digested properly.

so if you have not already asked your MD about this, it would be something to check.

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• By Achilles_Heart
• Posted May 29, 2008 at 5:12 am

Hi townchic thanks for the advice and support. :)

James youre right, she is already on an aggressive course of antibiotics for bacterial overgrowth, and they really seem to have helped over the last 3 months, however the old problems are returning. I really hope the change in diet has a positive effect on her digestion.

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• By jamessmith
• Posted May 30, 2008 at 11:36 pm

Darla 34 has posted about digestive enzymes helping her daughter with Cipo ( see below). it makes sense that it might help if the motility is not normal though the motililty specialists I have asked about this have not been supportive that it would help, but the downside of trying it is minimal. we have some digestive enzymes for my 21 year old daughter to try but she has not tried it yet, hopefully she'll try it this summer.

"CIP digestive enzymes
By jamessmith
Posted February 16, 2008 at 11:46 pm · 4 replies
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i have read some posts about digestive enzymes relieveing pain in CIP. Specifically, Darla34 has written about Creon helping her daughter.

There are several strengths of Creon so I would like to know which one you use?

i am also curious about the pain relief. Does it help with post meals pain or the just random abdominal pain that often occurs with CIP?

thanks

James

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Oldest first Newest first By darla34
Posted February 18, 2008 at 10:46 am
HI James,

The strength is Creon 10, she takes two with every meal, and 1 with every snack.

Our 16 yr old daughter has been taking Creon 10 digestive enzymes to break down her food for at least 2 or more years. Amazing difference in her health, fairly quickly.

I think it helps with the overall random pains, and the post meal. Since she has been taking them she hasn't complained about near as much pain, or having acute attacks like before. And is taking alot less laxatives to clean out with. (Also have found a milder laxative with alot less cramping called Alophen. Has the same ingredients in the other laxatives, but for some reason she says causes less cramping.)


Background: (We found out she wans't breaking down her food with by taking a comprehensive stool sample and sending it off to the Great Smokies Lab. I had seen whole vegetables in her stool, and pieces of meat and convinced the gi doc to do the test. After the test, she was put on the digestive enzymes. I don't think it was a routine test for our pedi gi, even though he is a motility specialist, because he wasn't familiar with the report and had to study it, but the recomendations were included with the report. He knew about the test and the company, but I believe he didn't use it too often. Maybe he uses it more now. I wonder and hope he does. At least patients would know if they are breaking down their food or not. Hard to push through things that aren't digested or get any nutrition from it as well. Plus alot less toxins to deal with. I bet that is part of what reflux is-undigested food gas/toxins.)

I also noticed a difference in her overall appearance and growth also in the following months.
Plus we invest in weekly massages, that help her body heal itself, and make her feel great for at least one or two days of the week.

Hope the info helps. Would like to know if you try it and if it helps.
Take care,
(Darla 34)

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• By darla34
• Posted June 2, 2008 at 3:00 pm

Hi,
Like James said earlier, it has made a big difference in my daughter's life.
You might ask the doc to do a comprehensive stool sample test. If you can recognize vegtables like that, they are obviously not digesting for some reason. I had a hard time getting the docs to see that problem, but he finally agreed why not use the test, and then was grateful he did afterwards. I bet he uses it often now.
My daughter also took so many antibiotics at a young age, mainly due to strep throat infections, that her gi system was lacking in good antibiotics. So we also take probiotics sometimes too to help heal the instestines.
Darla 34

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• By darla34
• Posted June 2, 2008 at 3:01 pm

James,
thanks for passing on the info.
Darla 34

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• By Achilles_Heart
• Posted June 3, 2008 at 6:39 am

Thanks both of you for the information, thats very kind of you. At the next appointment I will ask about Comp stool sampling. I doubt she will agree though what with the NHS being on a tight budget. I am looking forward to her coming off the antibiotics but also worried, because she was doing so well whist she was on them. Once she finishes them I will put her on a strong regime of probiotics, i wonder if they give a prescription for these. I asked the doctor about it before, but obviously theres no point taking them while shes on the antibiotics because they kill the good bacteria too.

Am i right in thinking that disestive enzymes is another term for probiotics?

Thanks again, Lucy. x

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• By jamessmith
• Posted June 3, 2008 at 11:09 pm

No, digestive enzymes are not probiotics.

probiotics are bacteria that that have positive effects on gastrointestinall function

digestive enzymes are enzymes that actually break apart the different types of food so they can be absorbed by the intestines. examples are;

amylase digests sugar
lactase digests milk sugar
protease digests protein
lipase digests fat

there are prescription enzymne supplements available - these are coated so the stomach won't inactivate the enzymes. example is creon

non presciption enzymes are also available but my understanding is that they are not coated so they may not be active when they get to the intestine.

digestive enzymes are commonly used in children with cystic fibrosis as they don't make enzymes that work correctly.

I suppose it is possible that in cipo, the patient's enzymes might also not work properly, but I have never read any research to support that possiblity.

however, enzymes are very safe so likely there is no downside to trying them.

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• By Achilles_Heart
• Posted June 4, 2008 at 4:01 am

Excellent, thank you James, this will be the first thing that I ask her doctor about. Lets face it - if there really is no downside, and i am finding whole bits of undigested food in her stools, then i believe that it is worth giving them a go.

Thankyou for helping me out there :)

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• By darla34
• Posted June 8, 2008 at 1:15 pm

Lucy,
Enzymes are awesome.
After my daughter started taking them, we stopped seeing visable food in her stool anymore, (except for things that the body can't normally break down like corn and nuts. That is what teeth are for. She just avoids certain foods.)
Enzymes helped her overall health as well, I think because she started getting more nutrients. Also her stools became easier to move.
The comprehensive stool testing to prove she needed help breaking down her food, was the turning point for us in diagnosis! Finally they understood why she was always constipated, in pain and why her whole body was reacting to the toxins (rotten food) left in her system too long-this is my theory as a mom.
The kids are helpless as you know and we are their first line of help and defense. We spend 24hours /7days/12months year with them, the docs spend 10 minutes every 3 months if that!
I have learned that if you don't have a cookie cutter mold child illness, that the docs have a hard time diagnosing the rare, understandably. I am sure you have experienced some of this as well...
Anyway not sure your financial position, but the $800 we had to pick up for the testing was the best $800 we have ever spendt on the child to help her health. I would do it over in a heart beat. Because it finally proved to the doctors where she needed help. Digesting. Not just meds to push it through or soften it up. Actually help the child digest her food so she could use it nutrionally. Crazy, I would have thought that would be one of the first tests in diagnosis any gi issue but it wasn't. (I have been told by a doc I highly respect that med companies don't sponsor nutritional test, the test is for nutritional purposes, so therefore the docs don't get much schooling toward using this type of test for diagnosis. Med companies sponsor alot of what is researched and then passed on to med school students. Sad to say )
Insurance company actually told us the test(comprehensive stool testing) was for nutritional purposes, therefore they didn't cover it. Guess they don't believe in healing, just medicating? The will pay for meds all day long, but not something to help heal you. Frustrating and sad.
Enzymes are only part of the puzzle, but a huge part as far as I am concerned. The probiotics are helpful too, to help heal the digestive tract.
As a teenager we had to get past the usual cookie cutter issues causing childhood illnesses like- stress, emotions etc. Yes the do affect the illness, but they aren't what caused it. We believe it is somehow hormonal related as well, been researching that aspect as well.
Hope some of this has been helpful.
Good luck, you have a tougher battle having a baby that is sick. At least my child is old enough to understand and communicate verbally. She is a major part of the research end of this puzzle because she is so open with me and willing to share the ugly details, and willing to listen and do what I ask and try what is needed. I am grateful. We have made huge progress in the past 3 years. We have also tried other alternative measures such as massage that is also a huge part of her health progression.
Darla34

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