Daughter has crohns

I am not a Down's person, and I haven't had strokes, and I still have trouble with poor peristalsis.  I think it is a result of years of chronic inflammation.  I have found that miralax at a low dose works well for me, but everyone's different. There are many people on this forum who suffer from similar issues.

Have you tried senna for a more direct stimulation of the bowel?  I realize that it's not desirable to use a powerful laxative like that on a regular basis, but on some occasions perhaps it's reasonable.  I also hope that as her inflammation heals she will not be having so many problems with her bowel function.

I'm sorry to hear your daughter's having such a tough time, do try the senna also introduce some fennel into her diet as it relaxes the colon, prune juice daily will help to keep her regular once she's started going, i wish you both well, Slainte

Senna is a natural laxative. Do a web search and you can read about it. You can buy it at any drug store - I used a generic sennekot this summer - it was senna mixed with a stool softener and it was very effective. It did give me some mildly unpleasant cramps the first few times I used it.

Another thing I will ask about is Omega 3 supplements. Anyone take these. It may be a concern for ehr because she tales asprin for stroke prevention (history of strokes) and Omega 3 can thin the blood.
Mary G.

We saw Kathleen's GI Thursday and he was optomistic that we will get everything under control. So far the Crohns is mild and the Asacol is working. She will be on that indefinatly assuming her blood work for liver function (wich we will check every 4 months)is always OK. Her problem right now is that her intestines are not working to get the stool out. The miralax is working because it's loose stool. She started taking ExLax to get her intestines "moving" it didn't work so we've upped the dose of that, if that doesn't work then we will try Dulcolax. Of course I was concerned about the "dependancy" factor of that. He explained that she's already dependant on it in a way because her intestines are not working without the stimulation. It's not an ideal situation but she needs the stimulation. This can be from the down syndrome and/or strokes. The celiac numbers have come way down. From 150 down to 54, under 20 is normal) so we're doing good with the diet.He really spent a lot of time with us explaining everything. At least her crohns right now is mild and we don't need steriods. It can stay mild or progress there's no way to know. She's having some good days now so I know it's headed in the right direction.In fact she has a couple of good days a week, and last spring when it all started she was only having a few good days a month. It's been almost a year getting to this point. All this "poop" talk has finally invaded my dreams... I had a dream the other night that there was ppop all over my bathroom, in the sink everywhere, and I had to clean it up... Iasked about the omega 3 and probiotics and he was OK with her taking both it certainly can't hurt. We go back in 4 months for blood work (liver function and celiac numbers).
Mary

Google a drug called Amitiza. Our daughter is 16 and has Crohn's. She also has a motility disorder that was diagnosed this summer after doing manometry tests. She is doing much better after starting the Amitiza. They also believe her colon is slow due to constant inflammation. We did Lactulose, miralax, sennokot, MOM, all kinds of drugs for years. she also had a cecostomy tube for antegrade enemas. The Amitiza has been much better for her.