I need a good diet to help limit my flare ups with Crohns and C-Diff

I just turned 18 not even two weeks ago. I was diagnosed with Crohns in October, had C-diff for 2 months before I was hospitalized. I've been hospitalized for 2 weeks at a time, twice since January. The first time they put me on Flagyl in hospital, then Dificid out. The second time they just treated me with Vanco and I couldn't stay there any longer and just went home still sick (I have to be at home to watch my brother cause both my parents work and when I'm in the hospital my mom gets days off easier so she abuses them and stays at home)

Ive been dealing with this flare up for almost 2 months now. When I was in the hospital 2 weeks ago they did a blood transfusion, but it seems like I just keep losing more and more blood. My mom told me to try this Paleo Diet and I've been trying to do that for a couple days. Mainly eating Fruits and Meats. (Kinda hard when noone goes to the store to get food and you have to resort to eating 5 week old deli meat on stale bread for 2 days)

But anyways. I'm going to see my Doctor today and doing a stool culture as well to see if the C. Diff is still active. (I know it is, I can distinguish the pain, and I know how it smells) I just need to know if other people have tried the Paleo diet while suffering from Crohns with C. Diff and Lupus or another Auto Immune Disease and its worked for them. If not what Diet did you find successful?

I absolutely can NOT have:
Potatoes
Beans
Broccoli
Red Meat
and if I get picky I have to cut out the seeds from all my fruits.

Foods I love:
Any kind of Sandwiches. (Subway ftw)
Grilled Chicken
Strawberries and such
Apples with Peanut Butter
and I can eat a lot of healthy Salads.

I'm just tired of being in pain and not being able to live my life because my doctors won't listen to me. So I'm trying to take as much control as I can as a patient.

I had to wait till I turned 18 to even qualify for a referral for a Crohns Specialist, so I've just been seeing a regular G.I. Doctor who he himself says he's not qualified enough to treat the severity of my condition(s).

It sounds like you have a lot on your plate and nobody is really helping you: you should not have to leave hospital prematurely because your mother wants you to look after your brother.

I'm not terribly keen on the SCD diet, as I think it's outdated, probably more restrictive than it needs to be, and potentially unbalanced. If you do decide to buy the book and give it a go, make sure you get enough calories: that can be the hardest part on this diet. If you cannot get to a food store regularly, buy in bulk when you do go and freeze stuff. Have you looked into online food shopping as well?

As far as treating recurrent c. diff is concerned, look into fecal transplant therapy if all else fails. It may have a bonus of helping your Crohn's if it's in the colon, but that is not guaranteed. It's not an easy treatment to obtain, but it is the gold standard for treating obstinate c. diff infections.

Are you on any meds for your Crohn's?

Sorry I can't help a bit more. C. diff is not my area of speciality; hopefully somebody else can chip in with more advice. I would also see the Crohn's specialist ASAP.

Argh. So much bad parenting in one post. How do these bad parents justify it to themselves? Your mum needs a dose of Crohn's for a while, then she might understand how debilitating this disease is. Until then, I think you're stuck with somebody who has the empathy of a brick, sadly.

Woah. At that height you must be a guy :-/ Was the 1800 calories per day? If so, that doesn't sound nearly enough for somebody of your height and age...

Fairly standard meds for Crohn's. Hopefully you're tapering off the Pred and not lingering on it; that's not a good med to be on for any length of time.

I'm quite impressed by your GI doctor's willingness. As far as success stories are concerned, you'll find most of them on the UC board. (Along with non-success stories too.) FT is something of a hot potato on the UC board at the moment. Here's one thread:
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=38&m=3079476

If you do a site search for fecal transplant, more threads on the subject will come up. I can't give any tips from personal experience 'cos I've never tried FT, but I wish you good luck with it.

You have two parents and they're expecting their ill 18-year-old child to look after his 2-year-old brother for 7+ hours a day - what is wrong with people? Even if you were healthy, I'd still consider that completely unacceptable. But you're not. You have severe Crohn's and are facing spinal surgery.

This seems like borderline abuse to me. Unfortunately, for as long as you're living at your parents' house, you're probably stuck with the situation. I suppose if there was an easy way out, you'd have taken it by now, but is there anyone you can talk to? Even better, stay with for a while? I feel for your kid brother, but you need to look after yourself too.

For Crohn's, have you tried a biological med like Remicade yet? Prednisone won't heal anything, and I'm not convinced Imuran is strong enough by itself. I do think trying FT is a good idea as well; hopefully it'll at least get rid of the c. diff.

Best of luck. You deserve a break :-/

I'm supposed to be getting paid for it. But I haven't seen a penny in almost 6 months. And my leftover money my mom used when I was in the hospital last. But it's not like a have a job or anything, so they expect me to have all the free time in the world to watch him. When I barely have enough time for myself, and when I do have free time, I spend it stressing over little things and bigger things.

Im not too sure about the remicade, but Ii know a good bit of the meds for helping crohn's are unusable on me because it'll flare up my Lupus, or so says my Rheumatolagist. I'm on Benlysta and Celebrex to deal with my Lupus but the Benlysta can only be adminstered when I dont have an infection, and thanks to the C. Diff I haven't been able to get an Infusion for a while now.

Pmedic: Im starting Florastor tomorrow, my GI said 2 pills a day so I'm going to try that. As for the diet, if it takes 6 months to see a change, and I'd have to be extremely strict I dont think that'd be best for me considering I don't always have food for myself and have to resort/relapse on eating unhealthy things.

Like right now, my parents just made Steaks when I just talked to my GI about how bad red meat hurts my stomach. I try talking to my mom about not eating stuff like that and she just says that it doesn't bother them to eat it, so why should they not be able to eat it. Steak is probably my favorite meat, and we rarely have it, so when we do, I want to eat it.

Its like putting a bowl of chocolate in front of a dog and expecting him to not eat it.

It sounds like your parents are exploiting you. One of my mum's friends used to babysit her grandchildren 5 days a week, but the daughter paid her for it. Once something turns into the equivalent of a full-time job, it's utterly unreasonable to expect it to be done for nothing. Call child protective services by all means, if that's what it takes. I'm sick and tired of seeing parents get away with this $h1t - I've just read a really sad and depressing post from a teenage girl, so I'm feeling even more jaundiced than usual.

Diet-wise, you could try a liquid diet for a few weeks. It works better for for small bowel Crohn's than colonic Crohn's to be honest. But it may be a good test run for the SCD in that if your symptoms improve on a liquid diet, your disease may respond well to dietary modification generally. All you would need to do is stock up a month's supply of Ensures: and don't have dinner with your family! Once the liquid diet is over, the idea is that you then reintroduce solid foods very gradually; no more than 1 or 2 at a time every couple of days. If a food gives you a bad reaction, omit it from your diet.

That said, no diet will work unless you have control over what you eat. You need to buy your own food if you cannot rely upon your family to do it for you.

I am sorry to read of all your struggles, particularly with your family.  It must be tough to be your age and not have the support of your family.  However, it is awesome that you are taking charge of your illness.  Sometimes, my family is not as supportive as I would wish for.  I sometimes think they don't understand the illness.  It is wrong for your parents to have you babysit all the time, particularly when you are not well.  I, too, have been suffering with C-DIFF for the last couple of months in addition to Crohn's.  I agree with the others no diet is going to help you get over C-DIFF.  Flagyl and vanco did nothing for me.  I am on a second round of Dificid and hopefully next week will be undergoing a fecal transplant. At this point, I would do anything to get better.  This is a good place to learn and vent!  I certainly understand what you are going through illness wise.