Dangerous weight

 Hello. My brother has crohns. He has had it for about 10 yrs. He was recently switched from remicade to Humira and now his weight is dangerously low. He is 6'1" and weights only 156. Can anyone help me to help him? I am just not sure what to give him for food or anything. Just looking for some advice. Thanks a bunch.

kandice

yeah ensure or boost will work for him. Steriods will also help him gain weight. Sucks to go on them if you dont have too i know.

Kandice -

I am 5'8 (female) and was down to about 105lbs when I started Humira back in April, I am now at about 120lbs so the Humira definitely helped me gain weight.  I stopped having as much D and the weight finally started coming back.  Now I'm kind of concerned it won't stop.  I am starting to be a little more careful about how much I eat beacuse I don't want to gain too much. I think bland foods were the easiest to keep down, wheat breads, mashed potatoes, noodles.  Stuff like that.  Hope your brother is feeling better soon.

MB

Does anyone know if any of these products like ensure are made without corn syrup or cow's milk?

When I was really sick, I couldn't drink Boost or Ensure. The hospital tried in vain to get something down me like that but it just made me sick. Maybe a milk protein in it? My GI kept trying to get me to drink milkshakes - high calorie on their own! but they made me sick too.

I found I could tolerate tomato soup. So I ate that every day for weeks. It certainly didn't do a good job of keeping weight on but it slowed down the weight loss a little.

I have had crohn's for 7 years, and have had 2 periods of skeletal weight- I am in my second period now- the first time around I just stopped eating because it hurt too much- I dropped to 73lbs (I am 5'5").  Right now I am slowly rebounding a bit from my second lowest weight- in july I was hovering between 79 and 85lbs.  I have been trying to "beef up" for my surgery in december.  My mom is a nurse, and is pretty close to one of the nutritionists at her hospital.  They have this stuff called prostat, an extremely high grade protein.  It is a gel-like substance, which eww, I know- but even milk shakes were not helping too much with my weight- they just shot right through me, so I don't think much was being absorbed.  This protein stuff you can mix in anything- which is good because at the moment and for the past 6 months liquids have been it for me.  I am happy to report that since I started using them almost daily I have been able to raise my weight to around 90lbs give or take, and now my blood work is better, and my blood pressure is no longer 70/40-good to know because my last colonoscopy/endo a month ago I was not even able to be sedated because they thought that just a test like that was not worth putting me under/slipping me a mickey with such low blood pressure.  Since I am having surgery again in less than a month now I don't want any problems with the anesthesia!!!  I wish your brother the best, and just try your best to not have that scared look in your eyes whenever you see him- I know that was so hard for me with my family members, especially when I hadn't seen some of them in a while.  You almost get the feeling like you are letting your loved ones down, and that can be very hard.  I know that my family wishes the very best for me always, and the scared look is justified, but it makes me sad knowing thatnot only am I in pain, but others can feel it just by seeing me- I never wanna drag anyone else down- ya know!!!  All the best, Erin

Rootsmith- You can get thew nestle repleat by calling homelink. Here is the number.. 800-776-5446. You will need to ask about the dairy free part. I am not sure if it is or not.

Erin- Good luck with your surgery. What kind of meds do they have you on? If you have not tried remicade you should definately talk to your doctor about that. My brother has only had one surgery in since getting this disease. It was in 2001. I see that you are from penn state but my brother has a doctor here in wisconsin and he also gets seen at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN 1-2 times per year. about 3 yrs ago his regular doctor here wanted to do another surgery but we didnt agree and that is when he went to Mayo. They took him off all his drugs. At that time he was taking between 30-40 pills a day. Since then he only takes steroids when absolutely necessary because of what the long term affects can be. How much of your intestines have they taken? I am really glad I found this site and I am going to definately tell my brother about it. Thanks for everyones help.