New To Crohn's... HELP!

Sounds like you are retaining lots of gas or stool. Either of your medications could be causing more bloating. Has your diarrhea slowed? With the slowing of your bowels, you also then retain everything else, like gas. Do you pass a lot of gas? Get gas pains in the abdomen?

Also, you may be absorbing more of the steroids from the Budesonide than normal. Most people do not get systemic side effects from Budesonide but some do. So weight gain can be from that. IF the weight gain is from the Budesonide you should lose it once you stop the medication. However, the bloating is not usually part of that issue.

Have you talked to your GI about this problem? By the way, welcome to Healing Well!

Welcome mayee18!

I remember when I first got sick I had a tremendous amount of upper GI gas, just like you're describing. One of the reasons for this was that I had become lactose intolerant. It's really common. I bet if you eliminate the lactose from your diet you will have a lot less gas. Lactose is the sugar found in milk. You can take lactase pills when you consume dairy products to help digest the lactose, or you can skip the dairy. Dairy products like yogurt and hard cheese have very little lactose, but everything else will need your attention.

Lactose intolerance often comes with age, but when you get a stomach virus or have inflammatory bowel disease you can also become lactose intolerant. When you are better you might be able to eat more dairy with less gas.

So the bloating and the weight gain are not really connected. You might have gained weight from the budesonide, or you might have gained weight because you feel better, or you might have only seemed to gain weight because you no longer have diarrhea. I would not worry about the weight gain so much, but I understand your concern. You should call the GI, just like Ides suggested.

Glad to hear you aren't eating a lot of dairy. I know that this is frustrating. It will get better.