FIRST DAY OF FODMAP.

[CChris]

ANY SUPPORT,PLEASE, ON WHAT SEEMS LIKE AN OBSTACLE COURSE?

I've shopped for some basics, but being elderly and wearied by illness, I don't want to get into full-scale cooking again. Must admit I'm not very brave about trying new foodstuffs.

Help.

[shirlygirly]

Hi I have read the book and tend to dip in and out and adjust my meals

accordingly. Just avoiding the foods that need to dropped, but not every

food effects everyone the same way, and some of the foods we should avoid I had a suspicion were a problem for me anyway. To be perfectly

honest I Iike you do not want to go down the path of a whole new eating

plan, Im too old and cook for my husband as well, so I tend to adjust my

meal accordingly. Having said all that my IBS is dreadful at the moment

and Im thinking of cutting out dairy to see if that makes a difference as

there are lots of alternatives. Hope it works for you.

[MaggieJemima]

Trial an error best for me as some foods on Fodmap aggravate

Like the Queen I use a smaller dinner plate than others at home and try to get hosts to let me serve mysel when out,not easy!

Always start the day with porridge probiotic yog and banana

Try to eat cooked veg more than salad and soup for lunch

Hope this ramble helps

I am 1943 a good vintage year!

[Hidden]

I use the app from Monash university when shopping only using the 'green' foods. I buy gluten free bread and avoid milk replacing dairy with oat rice or coconut milk. These are readily available at Asda Tesco and probably the other larger supermarkets.

Breakfast I have porridge with banana and koko milk. Lunch cold meat salad or gluten free sandwich. Evening meal fish or meat with potatoes or rice and green light veg.

Avoid onions, use garlic infused oil not garlic. Avoid soya as causes gas. If you start off as above you can add in other foods on the 'orange' light list to see if they affect you or not if they do stop them and try something else.

I have been on green light foods almost entirely for the last two years and it has changedy life I now have no IBS symptoms and cB eat small amount of wheat products occasionally and others also occasionally. Only medicTion I now take is Imodium and probably only about once aomth whereas I was taking buscopan, amitrypteline and Imodium daily. Good luck. I am 68 by the way

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Well done n keep up the good work

[brities]

I agree the fatigue alone means full on cooking impossible - I ended up with grade two burns on my arm just too tired to cook everything from scratch after work. I cheat sometimes - chips/packet mash/microwave rice/frozen veg then cook at weekends from scratch in bulk/freeze for other days. The beginning is really hard - full n elimination and then introduction is hard if you get ill. If you have to introduce foods slowly to not cause too much stress.

[shirlygirly]

Hi Sashapet, Im going to check out Monash, how did you access it and

what is koko milk. Im just off to the docs for amitriptylene hope Im

successful. Im a bit worried about it because last time I went, about a

month ago, i was extremely upset because my ibs was

so bad and really feeling there was no end in sight, floods of tears etc

and was given codeine. Immodium is the only other drug Ive ever been offered and I have had ibs all my adult life and it has worsened in the

last 10 years, Im 77 years old.

[Hidden in reply to shirlygirly]

Koko is just. Brand of coconut milk and they also do a chocolate Koko.

[skylight99]

Hi I am the worlds worst at following diets but doing ok with fodmap. I am five weeks in now. I dreaded losing onions and garlic and eating gluten free pasta but it hasn't been so bad. You can use garlic oil as long as there is no pieces of garlic in and the green part of spring onions. Eating out and about is the hardest. Could you ask to see a dietician then you are not doing it on your own? good luck - what we really want is for the ibs just to go away! As soon as I stopped gluten I had an improvement so worth a try

[LIsaPBear]

I've recently started fodmap and I have gluten free rolls (they are not bad) and lactose free milk cheese and cream cheese - they are all really nice - can't taste the difference and available in tesco 'Lacofree' is the make, avoid onion completely - basically quite plain food on the whole - it has helped so far together with taking colofac. Lots of water and no squash or pop, cut down on caffeine and virtually no alcohol - all very boring but preferable to the IBS symptoms x

[CChris]

Some encouraging comments and ideas here.

I've been two weeks on the low-FODMAP schedule, and am still a bit fussed by constipation--otherwise, virtually no pain, less bloating, slightly less nausea (one of my BIG problems) and feeling a lot better. I feel I can look forward to feeling actually well in time, so will persevere with the programme.

For the first week the lactose-free/wheat-free seemed an exhausting and expensive ritual, but now I have my stocks of wheat-free pasta etc. feel that most of the foods are what one would normally buy and eat: the permitted fruits and veg are essential to avoid further constipation.

Must admit that I plan to have a registered dietitian (BDA) to help me get the re-introduction right, as I don't want to 'ruin the ship'...etc. This will cost me the price of a decent pair of shoes, which I reckon is a decent swap for IBS.

Good luck everyone.

[Helen37 in reply to CChris]

CChris, you can now request your GP to refer you to a dietician trained in the fodmap diet. The fodmap diet has now been accepted by NHS., so happily you will no longer need to pay for this service.

Good luck.

[CChris]

Thought you'd like to know:

Done a third week strictly following the FODMAP diet, and suddenly--just as I was on the point of abandoning it, I'm feeling well.

For two days I've had no pain, bloating, nausea, constipation, or feeling unwell. I've been able to do some effective gardening, cooking, raided the supermarkets, and generally felt I'm alive again. I have had energy.

I shall remain tentative, however, and not count chickens...

I'm not going to give up. It's only another three weeks till I hope to start on the re-introduction of ingredients that the low-FODMAP diet suggests are suspicious.

A dietitian will be helping through this.

I hope to be reporting again in a while, but it needs saying: you must follow the plan thoroughly--not pick-and-mix.

If you read my earlier posts you 'll see that this means I still have no new shoes!