Can anyone recommend food choices which have h... - Behçet's UK
Can anyone recommend food choices which have helped their behcets my grand daughter (14 yrs old )is having a miserable time at the moment
Hi, Bless her, being so young and dealing with BD must be so hard for both you and your Daughter.
I find sticking to a wheat/gluten free and dairy free diet makes my tummy symptoms a bit better to manage. Some fruits strangely go straight through me at times too.
It will be a case of reading food packaging for a while if you want to take wheat/gluten completely out of your daughters diet. Wheat/gluten is put in things you might not think it would be in, such as condiments, crisps, soy sauce and things like that.
Hope this helps.
Clare x x
I hate the thought of children with this, so I hope you can find her relief. My life changed after being Gluten Free (exculsively with no cheating). Also dairy free can be very helpful. When I went gluten free, I was dairy free for the first year too and now I allow very little dairy but absolutely no WHEAT or GLUTEN. I even stopped using products that have it in there, especially shampoo and conditioners.
I have to agree with all above. I too since a child had major tummy, constipation, etc issues of the g.i. system. As I grew older I couldn't understand the bloating, nausea and projectile vomiting part of it that was getting worse and worse. I did a total 360* once I went gluten-free (about 5 years now). Began a new and nasty flare in 2012 and have now also gone dairy free. I have been researching and reading about the anti inflammatory diet which sounds to be right up our alleys. It has shown decreases in C-reactive proteins, etc in people who followed this diet. Recommended for people with auto immune disorders, chronic disease and cancer. You can look up the anti inflammatory Food pyramid by Dr.Andrew Weil. Very interesting, and encouraged by the benefits so I will definitely give it a try in addition to staying wheat and dairy free. I also noticed that probiotics daily helped my tummy too
Good Luck to your girl and hope she finds relief. Only took me 2 weeks to figure it out on gluten free diet
Another thumbs up for a gluten-free diet here. I had a 5 year remission when I first went onto it. The diarrhoea and gastritis I had been having for many years resolved within a few days and other symptoms lifted in a few weeks. Nowadays if any gluten creeps in I get a lot of joint pains. Blood tests for coeliac disease are clear, though the tests were only performed recently after being off gluten for 14 years.
Chocolate definitely makes my headaches worse. Strong dark chocolate gives me a migraine, which sends me into a flare and milk chocolate gives more of a nauseous, hangover feeling the next day. I have been in denial about this for many years, as what is life without cake AND chocolate? Actually, there are lots of yummy GF cakes around, but no choc-free chocs, sadly!
I am also looking into anti inflammatory diet. Limiting starches generally seems to help me personally.
During a flare I definitely react to the deadly nightshade family - tomatoes, potatoes, peppers and aubergines. If I don't eat them, the burning GI tract recovers more quickly. I do eat them between flares, but in small amounts.
I have found that I am extremely sensitive to detergents, so anything washed up by hand has to be rinsed very thoroughly, otherwise I get stomach pains after eating off it. Plates etc from the dishwasher are OK.
I was getting similar pains after eating some fruits and veggies, and these have disappeared after switching to organic. It's actually not that much more expensive. I buy a bit less, and waste a bit less.
I hope you and your daughter find some approaches that work. Giving up foods you like is a pain, especially if you are 14 I imagine, but the pain soon becomes pleasure when you realise eliminating things is helping give you your life back.
Thanks for the info prepared to try anything she has had B since she was 8 and appears to be flaring up more often .another big problem is fatigue she is only coping 3/4 days a week at school wee soul.
Mennock
Bless, this disease is rubbish but being 14 too must be so tough - I hope your granddaughter has good medical support? One of my Consultant's have recommended an immune boosting diet which sounds very similar to the anti inflammatory diet described below and includes going Gluten free. I was completely Gluten free in the past but my Behcets got worse and flares more frequent so I can't say that worked for me but then I wasn't doing the other aspects of the anti inflammatory diet nor was I dairy free. My other consultant at the COE advocates "very healthy eating!" I'm going to research the anti inflammatory diet and may give this a go - I guess anything is worth a try. I hope your grand daughter feels better soon and finds something that works for her - please let us know how she gets on.
I too have only just started (yesterday) to switch to include a lot of organic foods, not just fruit and veg but also meat, sugar (raw), green tea, chocolate, flour, and this seriously was only just yesterday......there is a lot more to change over in our pantry and fridge, but my wife and I thought we would start somewhere.....apart from obviously trying to help my symptoms as I have had to increase my prednisone again this week, we decided that it was worth the extra expense for our children also.....
I have a good friend who's sister in law has MS and was diagnosed a year or so ago, and he has seen vast improvement in her since she decided to change to organic....she is a young woman who lost her husband to cancer about a year before her diagnosis and has 2 children, so she decided that her children would have at least one parent.....she has gone from barely being able to stand to walking around quite normally..........
I personally think there has to be some link between not only Behcets, but all autoimmune diseases and what we put into our bodies...you need to be very careful of reading labels on food and actually understanding what mumble jumble they come up with to disguise all of the crap the companies are putting in to our foods and what they are trying to convince us to eat.......
I am hoping that I will see some improvement in myself from changing to organic, I will keep you posted and I wish your granddaughter the very best!
Keith.
I use a fruit & veg blender called a nutri-bullet that I purchased from Argos but you can get them online and other places. It is really brilliant for getting all the nutrients out of foods without struggling to eat. Even adding veggies to the fruit shakes taste lovely and are very digestible. I add flax seeds, sunflower seeds and pumpkin to them which are great for energy as well as the digestive system.
I also use Almond milk which you can get easily in the supermarket and tastes great...even on cereals or just as a glass of milk. Also use water or juice and add protein powder to make whole a meal replacement when I can't eat normal food.
I started with just one in the morning for breakfast but now have 2-3 a day......kids love them so I am sure your granddaughter will enjoy experimenting with it whilst getting healthy.
Worth a try 
Sorry to hear your daughter has it to . She finds sugars don't help and wheat products so is going to try and have gluten/sugar free and see what if any difference it makes . She was diagnosed 6years ago but is very easily tired now.
