what foods to avoid with strictures

Sorry, blueberry, I just asked you about this in my other post about my stricture.
So basically, you and I are in the same boat. lol
I don't know exactly what to eat myself. I also want to eat healthy but I guess for fruits and veggies, I'll have to puree them.

Man, I want a burger with lettuce and tomatoes and a big poutine!

How long have you been on pred and when did it start to help? I am on day 5 and still having obstructions!

I too have a BAD stricture and am waiting to have surgery till November. I get so aggrevated as well about how unhealthy I eat - it seems the more white products and processed foods I eat, the better I feel. But seriously, isn't this what causes disease? I want to eat healthy so badly but sometimes I get a stomach ache just looking at the salad bar.

I am in the middle of a very bad flare - my intestine is so severely strictured from so much inflammation that I am living off of fresh pressed veggie juice from my local health food store and my mom's chicken broth (a miracle worker during flare - always brings me out of them) and protein shakes with homemade yogurt. Also popping some anti-inflammatory pills called FYI (For Your Inflammation - by Garden of Life) So far, so good. The pain is now bearable while consuming these foods. I plan to move onto mashed potatoes with garlic tomorrow! If they go through ok then its on to breads again!! Yay!

As for everyone else, because I know we are all different ---my only strong advice is to sneak in at least one veggie juice a day. If we must eat the high carb diet and bland, non-nutritious foods then at least feed your body with tolerable juices - if your body can handle it that is. I know some can't.

The foods that really bother me are any whole veggies of any kind, even if they are cooked to hell; steak. coleslaw, pork.... I'm ok with cheeses and milk but try to avoid it.

I have narrowing as well, 40 years with cd and many surgeries, and obstuctions I've had very dangerous obstuctions, and it is a fear of mine now, once you experience a real obstuction where only surgery can help, you will do anything to avoid that. evan with my cd which is in my throat as well as small bowel, I have alot of issues of having my small bowel altered by so much surgery, that those issues,(malabsorbtion, dehydration, and all the extra perks that so much surgery causes, I'm on sdi because of these issues and have applied for ssdi, denied first time btu have lawyer's now

Try to remember easy to chew, easy to digest. I will say red meat has always caused me alot of problems when I have had strictures, so my suggestion is to avoid it at all costs. Hugs!

Another question everyone...how did you know when your stricture wasn't as bad and you could eat more? Was it only resolved by surgery or by drugs? or can they just go down on their own?

I made it 3 years on yougurt and protein/vitamin powder. You can always start there! or juice and protein powder. To answer your question about how you know - well my only advice is careful testing. We're all different, like Nanners can't do red meat, and I can't do bread, pasta or rice. We're all different. Don't take anyones word. Use your own intuition and careful observation (and small quantities!!) and puree! LOL. Njmom says hamburger is easier, for me steak is easier, seriously we're all very different so it's a shamans journey.

And penelope OMG loose pants wearers UNITE!!

Post Edited (janicea) : 8/31/2010 6:11:44 PM (GMT-6)

Janicea I am so glad I'm not the only one, I had to wear braces to hold up one pair of VERY loose trousers and not in a stylish way. We all have to find our own solutions in fashion as well as food!

I was thinking.... with my small bowel stricture the information I put up above was really good. But until last year, I had problems in the illeum and the cecum and for that, fiber killed. I had no illeocecal valve (it was stuck open and hard as a rock)... my best advice is to consider eating only gentle stuff. I should have read more carefully your post about where it was.. you can make yourself feel like you're doing something great by having a smoothie and protein powder along with the white-bread stuff, maybe?

have you had colonoscopy?

Also, you should get b-12 from other sources that food. like shots. I wish someone had told me that earlier when I was having illium probs.

B-12 is only absorbed in the terminal illeum. If yours is a mess, you're not getting any out of your food, ergo the shots.

Look forward to the colonoscopy because you'll get a lot of clarity and answers from that. Make sure you have a follow up scheduled with whoever gives it to you, because at least with me, I'm too high after the test to remember a thing LOL.

Compounding pharmacies often make a skin cream that will put b-12 in your bloodstream without going thru your intestines -- but put the b-12 issue on your list to talk to our doc about, ok?

I lived on a powder called "Ultimate meal" from the ultimate life co. maybe you can check it out!

Also cooked carrots, potatoes and stuff like that worked good for me once i could do food. White bread/gluten products "gummed up the works" if that's any help.

Also, if you have a health food store nearby, fresh juiced veggies like carrots are great, no fiber or pulp and a sense of really having done something great for yourself.

all the best.
:)

OH! My terminal illium stricture resolved internally by using Low Dose Nalterxone. It rebuilt itself from hard-as-rock, to "normal". Externally it was aided by releasing 2 adhesions and removing my appendix which was also adhered.

It does not work perfectly but it's pretty great now! I have an upper bowel stricture now, which was released in the same surgery, but seems to have re-adhered a bit, so I'm still careful with food but Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay better.

Post Edited (janicea) : 9/2/2010 3:01:10 PM (GMT-6)

My daughter's stricture vanished after about a year - due to Entocort and the SCD diet.

While she had the stricture I even peeled tomatoes and strawberries.