Crohns

Hi Micah. I'm sorry you are struggling with this illness. What does your DR say about your disease? Are you in remission?

Hi Micah,

If you aren't in remission it is going to be quite tough to gain weight and also it is not going to happen quickly either.
Are you currently on any medication and how have you taken the ensure/boost, as in the odd one here and there or have you been just on that for a period of weeks?

As and when the right drugs have been found for you to knock you into remission then you should find that slowly you will gain weight. My son was diagnosed at 16 1/2 and weighed approx 92lb (5' 5 1/2) for the first 18 months or so he literally gained about 2/3 lb. He has just turned 19 and is now around 144 lb. So don't despair, it can happen but it will take time.

Get the drugs right and then eat plenty of what you like/what agrees with you and it should happen.

Yes he went into/and is in remission :)

For some, an initial drug is tried but it is not substantially effective, it may then be decided to add steroids to try and help for a relatively short time or for the person(more often than not children/teenagers) to try enteral nutrition for a time, typically 6/8 weeks where all their nutrition is met through liquid feed (similar to Ensure) For some, the break with eating solid food will bring on remission as can steroids with some(didn't work in son's case) He needed to move up the drug ladder and to take immunesuppressants.
Sometimes even with the correct medication you will still have to watch what you eat because they simply disagree with you. The foods you mention that you can't eat I think are pretty typical ones.

In son's case he was told to eat as much as possible of whatever he could(even if it meant that it was typically the 'wrong/unhealthy food' so fries/pizza/bacon you name it. Please though, I am not advising that this is the way for you to go, this was supervised by a dietician in son's case.

Lot's of people will begin to eat to a specific plan like SCD but I don't know enough about it to advise you. I do know that if you went this way you would have to be strict with yourself(and no cheating ;) and also be fairly prepared to give up a lot of what you like.

If you like pancakes is there anything that you can add to them that doesn't upset up-ice cream/syrup? Have you considered smoothies, maybe you could eat some fruit this way, you could add icecream/peanut butter? Unfortunately everyone is quite different in regards to what they can eat/tolerate-some can't eat fruit/veg(son :) ) some cannot eat dairy, some fatty foods and others don't do well with spicey foods. Whatever 'works' for you is good, you just need to adapt it so that you can get plenty of calories.

Another thing you must consider is your age, at 14 your body will still be growing/changing and using up lots of calories and if they are being used up you will not put on weight. Tis should settle down in a couple of years and then you could see the weight gain you are hoping for.

Hi Micah,

I am assuming you are in US? If this is the case then you really need to speak to your Primary care giver(I think that is what you call them) or your GI. I am in UK and we do things slightly different here. Either that, or someone more knowledgeable about the system there may be able to help.

The drinks available to you may be Ensure or Boost (different brands across the world) but you really should not be 'going it alone' you need specialist advice.

If you aren't in remission you really need to go back to your GI and ask him what alternatives there are that you can try be it another medication similar to what you are on/steroids/enteral nutrition or whether you need to try a completely different type of drug(different drugs work in different ways)

There is an asociation/charity in the US for Crohn's and Colitis(maybe Google it) and there should be plenty of info on that with regards to treatments/drugs etc there may also be a specific site for teenagers and questions.(I know we have one in the UK ) Hope you find the answers you need.

Can you talk to mum/dad about how you are feeling?

I think that 'keepingthefaith' who posts here is around your age and lives in your part of the world

 

Post Edited (vixen) : 5/23/2012 9:07:25 AM (GMT-6)

I know it's tough both for you and your parents, Maybe she can't totally relate but I would imagine that she too is going through lots of emotions right now. A diagnosis crohn's is quite a biggie no matter what age you are and there must be many thoughts/questions running around your mind.

Do you mind saying what medication you are on?
Keepthefaith has recently posted on the thread started by Beach-Mom it may help you to read through what has been said there if you are still stuggling to find people of a similar age I will see if I can find the link for the UK support group for youngsters for you. Hang in there, it's not all doom and gloom

Micah, I'm glad you are posting here on the forum. It's great to see a kid start to take ownership of their life this way, and I commend you for it!

The next step is for you to learn the names of your medicines and then to read about what they are for. You can do that by searching the web with the brand name of the medicine, or the name of the generic if that's what you're taking.