food diary

If you can tolerate Panera Bread better than any other place to eat out, then while you go about your diary logging, look for connections between atrifical flavors, preservative and dyes. I think Panera doesn't use that stuff in their food (they make their bread fresh everyday, so there's no need to load it up the way grocery-store breads do). You might also look to see if they use a lot of organic products. Sometimes people are allergic to the pesticide residue left on foods and that can cause stomach problems. If you can't find complete nutritional information on their website (I think you can), you can always ask to look at the ingredients list in the store. (I've done so, wondering if they put ham in their clam chowder).

The other thing about Panera (only "fast food" place I ever eat at) is that they don't deep fry anything, and their meats are grilled, not cooked on lard. So grease/fat content may be another thing to look at when you are trying to figure out your triggers. Chick-fil-A is the only other place I can eat at (but not one near me, so I only eat it on rare occasions) because they deep-fry in peanut oil, which doesn't trigger me the way trans-fats do. Peanut oil is one of those healthy, good-for-you fats. If you can tolerate their fast food too, then you may well have a problem with greast and fat (as I do).

I like the Chicken Frontega myself!

I had severe colic as a baby (had to be hospitalized for it). I had some problems off and on with constipation as a child, but then my gall bladder went bad, so now I mostly have D, unless I take medicine.

They have found a link between being premature and having bowel problems (I posted a link to the story, but that's been months ago). They think maybe the bowels don't finish developing normally, as they would have if the baby had stayed in the womb. A LOT of people on here with true IBS were born premature or underweight or both.

You know, that's really interesting ... I worked in an NICU in january as an elective nursing class, and want to work there when i graduate, and one of the main problems (that's really severe, actually) is something called NEC (nursing lingo for necrotizing entercolitis) ... it's caused by an immature gut, and not tolerating formula/breastmilk/whatever well. They sometimes have to remove like half of the babies' bowels who have it severely ... it's bad news. but yeah, you have to really watch the babies GI stuff, and I's and O's, etc. hmm.....
totally makes sense though, because preemies w/ respiratory issues are way more prone to asthma/other resp. problems as they get older. i'd think the gi tract would be the same way.

i wasn't a preemie, or underweight at all, when i was born. i was 8 lb, 15 oz, in fact ... but i did have the colic thing really bad...

Dbab, next time your mother goes on about carrying you 2 weeks (guilt-trip--all mother's do it at some point, lol), tell her at least she wasn't my mom. I was a MONTH overdue. The doctor kept telling her I was undersized and refused to induce or do a C-section on her. I came out at 8 pounds and about 4 oz. They had to pull me out with forceps because I was too big to come out on my own. She's 5'4", but she was under 120 pounds before pregnancy, so also very small to have such a big baby. Of course, not as big as you, lol.

LOL you guys crack me up...and man, you guys were porkers!  My nephew was also one (at least nine pounds, I think), jeez louise, and my poor sister is 5'2" and probably 110 pounds normally.

I was a pipsqueak because my mother didn't take the best care of herself during her pregnancy and also had pneumonia when I was born - I came out a month early and was just over four pounds!  Freakin' freaky, the nurses called me "peanut" and left me in an incubator so I could finish developing, LOL.

I've definitely made up for it now though, weight-wise!  Ha!

I just love roly-poly babies!!!

I can't help but think it is the preservatives and possibly the yeast but most likely the preservatives. Have you tried other fresh bakery bread. Most supermarkets do make a lot of their own bread. I want to try that Paninia you guys talked about.

Actually, Lil, taking out everything and then adding things back in one at a time isn't a bad idea, since nothing says you can only have a reaction to one thing. I think that can frustrate a lot of people to think they've found their trigger, then to find they're sick because they really have another trigger too.