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How long do you go on a liquid diet for?

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Posted 1/25/2009 4:55 PM (GMT 0)
How long do you go on a liquid diet for? I am planning to start one tomorrow. The last time I tried it, it was too hard. However, I am planning to be persistant this time. When I was in the hospital, I was on it for about 1 week, but I had an IV.
Posted 1/25/2009 5:22 PM (GMT 0)
I usually do for a week or two and generally against my own volition, but it does seem to help :)
I know others try it much longer though.
Posted 1/25/2009 5:31 PM (GMT 0)
It was so tough the last time I tried it, but I am determined to get better now. I have to buy lots of juice tomorrow: cherry, vegetable, and maybe grape.
Posted 1/25/2009 6:25 PM (GMT 0)
I know..it is pretty frustrating. Are you on any specific kind of diet? I basically just drank ensure the whole time. It was easier to get down than water in most cases, but I know that a lot of people don't drink ensure. I don't anymore anyway or...for the time being.
Posted 1/25/2009 6:36 PM (GMT 0)
I am kind of desperate and want results. I am not on any type of specific diet.
Posted 1/25/2009 6:55 PM (GMT 0)
I did a full liquid diet for about 3 months once while waiting to decide if I needed to have a resection. I was pretty religious about it because if I strayed off, I payed dearly. If you can do the liquid nutrition drinks you can maintain your weight for the most part. I was able to do milkshakes and eggnog so I was getting a good amount of calories into me. If you can't take lactose you can do the instant breakfast drinks made with soy or lactaid milk. There is also a clear nutritional drink that is lactose free that I have been given in the hospital. I'm not sure where you would get it, but your doctors office or pharmacist might be able to help you. I didn't like the taste, but i don't like the taste of a lot of drinks.
Posted 1/25/2009 7:56 PM (GMT 0)
The important thing is to make sure you get all the nutrients and calories you need on your liquid diet, so juices aren't enough. The easiest method is to choose a meal-replacement product and stick with it for all your meals. (Sticking to one product may also make it more likely that you reach remission.) You could try one of the options available at drugstores, such as Ensure or Boost, or order one of the specialty products (e.g., Peptamen, Vivonex, Optimental). Abbott Nutrition and Nestlé Nutrition make a number of products in this class. Good luck!
Posted 1/25/2009 9:07 PM (GMT 0)
If diarrhea is your problem, relying on juices may only exacerbate the diarrhea. Also, it will tend to increase hunger because it has a very high glycemic index, so your blood sugar levels will tend to spike every time you drink juice. Much better to use the meal replacements. If you can only tolerate clear liquids, you may need to be in a hospital.
Posted 1/25/2009 10:11 PM (GMT 0)
NostraHistoria, do you want to go on a full-liquid diet because of too much diarrhea or because you think you may have an obstruction?
Posted 1/26/2009 10:53 AM (GMT 0)
I want to go on a liquid diet to give my bowels a rest. I am getting blood. Who knows where it is from. I want to see if it is from the bowels, colon, or hemhorroids. If I still get blood even on a liquid diet, then the hemhorroids probably are not the problem. If I am getting the blood from stools passing through my system, then I know that my bowels need a rest.
Posted 1/27/2009 5:28 PM (GMT 0)
NostraHistoria, I wanted to check in with you to see if you started the liquid diet and if it is helping.
Posted 1/28/2009 4:04 AM (GMT 0)
NostraHistoria I was on an Ensure and water only prescribed diet for 6 months after I was first diagnosed. I was having severe bleeding and had a bad fissure ( well I guess there are no good fissures) when I began this. The doctor also had me on pretty high doses of prednisone and other meds at the time. The idea was to give my bowels a rest and I think it did that somewhat. I did not stop bleeding, but the bleeding lessened a bit. I was told to drink 5 Ensure a day to maintain my weight. It was hard to gag those drinks down each day. I actually don't mind them now, but when it is all you can "eat" they become really awful. Some days I could only drink 2 a day. Yes, I was starving all the time. I stuck with it though. Good luck to you.
Posted 1/28/2009 5:44 AM (GMT 0)
I've only done it out of necessity - meaning, nothing but liquid would go down. It was not pleasant and I had a hard time maintaining weight. Matter of fact, I dropped 40 pounds in about 2 months (which put me ta a normal weight) and then I had a hard time staying healthy.

Boost and ensure, milk shakes, cup of noodles, anything I could tolerate is what I ate. Just be sure and try and get those calories in so you're well nourished.
Posted 1/28/2009 6:39 AM (GMT 0)
I started it Monday, and it seems that I have some stools left over from when I was eating. I had a BM today, and I guess you can say it was diarrhea. It was very loose and watery. I guess that is how it will be looking when I have a BM. I had maybe very little bits of solid from the gelatin in jello and some tiny bits of bread in some instant soup.

If you are interested in how the diet goes, I can update weekly on Mondays on this thread. I also started to do some running because for over 1 year I stopped working out. I am so desperate to getting better now that I am ready to do just about anything to get better.
Posted 1/28/2009 10:32 AM (GMT 0)
NostraHistoria, please keep us up to date. What exactly are you drinking during the day? A meal supplement?
Posted 1/28/2009 2:20 PM (GMT 0)
I am having all sorts of instant soups, jello, juices, and green/mint tea. The soups are what are getting me through it.
Posted 1/28/2009 6:25 PM (GMT 0)
Good luck with the liquid diet. They usually work well for me. I usually do them for a week, then try eating, and if I still get sick I continue for another week, etc., and after a month of it not working I usually call the doctor. You might want to try drinking some Ensure just to make sure you get enough vitamins and calories (to me, the new chocolate flavor is good if it's ice cold).
Posted 1/28/2009 9:30 PM (GMT 0)
I am in PL studying and I have not been able to find anything close to Ensure.
Posted 1/28/2009 11:03 PM (GMT 0)
When I go on a liquid diet I try to do it for at least 5 days. I start off with a day or two of only clear liquids (jello, broth, juice, water, popsicles). I then go to a meal replacement supplement. I find its a lot easier to stay on the meal replacements than on clear liquids. I usually take ensure, or lately I've been using slimfast. It has a much higher concentration of nutrients than ensure and I like the flavour a lot more. Luckily since I`m still in university, slimfast is much cheaper than ensure and tastes much better. After the liquid diet I then try to add in easy to digest foods slowly to test out how my stomach is doing and not to shock it. I`ll go for poached eggs, and mashed potatoes without the skin, plain white rice and slowly add in other things from there.

I hope your liquid diet is going well!
Posted 1/29/2009 3:12 AM (GMT 0)
Hey there, I'm on home TPN with clear liquids for 2 weeks before surgery. I got hooked onto Resource Breeze by Nestle Nutrition. Its a clear liquid 8oz drink with 250 cal and 9g protein. The peach flavor is great. A case (27 boxes) was only $33 with free shipping from nestle-nutrition.com (found a 10% off coupon and free shipping from retailmenot.com, search google for nestle nutrition coupon). Only other way to get it is from Walgreen's and may have to be ordered.

Have also done full liquids for a couple weeks in the past without TPN. I liked the Ensure Plus just fine. If I didn't keep up the calories, I lost weight.
Posted 2/4/2009 3:52 AM (GMT 0)
NostraHistoria,

Good luck with the liquid diet! It will be 3 years soon since my son started enteral nutrition as a main treatment and main source of nutrition for his Crohn's. For the most part he is not able to tolerate food so he drinks the formula. Since you are in PL I think you might find special formula made by Nestle there. It's called Modulen IBD. Might be expensive though if you'll have to pay out of the packet but maybe your Doc. can prescribe it for you (don't really know how it works there).

Once again – good luck.

Chachka (12 yo son with Crohn's)

Posted 2/4/2009 9:46 AM (GMT 0)
I have not seen that product here.

As for an update on the liquid diet, a few days I was seeing less blood, but recently I took some Tylenol Arthiritis because of a cold and now I have the same blood I had before.
Posted 2/4/2009 6:58 PM (GMT 0)
until you feel good and try re introduce Low Residue Food first and see How things goes. Their is no specific period. it is depend on individual basis.
and how he can tolerate the food. listen to your body .

best of luck
Posted Today 12:47 PM (GMT 0)
I Want to ask my son start modulin ibd before 4 days and we are giving a lawfflex diet with it in these 4 days , from tomorrow it will be only modulen IBD but today he told me that his faeces is soft not like before anyone can answer me if that is a normal change ?
Posted 12/6/2014 7:41 PM (GMT 0)
They doctors have tried to put me on Modulen only diet , the stuff is disgusting , not sure how people tolerate it especially as I am such a strong willed person. Now trying what I call a soft food diet. So not quite liquids , low fibre pure and healthy, feel much better than when on the Modulen !!! Just wondering if would be worth trying a full liquid diet such as high calorie soups and /or blending, mashing everything... Any opinions or experiences??
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