FODMAP diet - does it work?

[Patricia22]

Have just been diagnosed with IBS so decided to join this forum. I have had the symptoms for many years. Mostly wind and bloating which becomes very uncomfortable after a few hours sleep/laying down. This happens every morning regardless of what I have eaten. Also now suffering from constipation. Have been referred to an NHS dietician to possibly follow the FODMAP diet which I know is very restrictive. I am waiting for an appointment. Has anyone had any success with this? Any other suggestions for getting rid of wind? I am aware of the worst food culprits so do try to avoid. Thank you for your help.

[Angusross]

Hi Patricia. The dietician will be able to advise you on the best way to proceed from here, in order to try and alleviate your symptoms. I have found the FODMAP diet helpful, as I suffer from excessive wind and having to dash to the loo on occasions when I've eaten something which triggers a bad response. It is a case of trial and error, in order to try and establish what makes you react badly. I strongly recommend that you keep a food diary while you wait for your appointment, so you can show the dietician what you eat and drink for each meal over a period of time and what effect the food and drink have on you. This will be very helpful in deciding how to move forward and what foods and drink to try and cut out for a while. It's a long process, but I found it most helpful in the long term in order to manage the condition , so you can cope day to day. Stress is also a factor, so have a think about that too. All good info for the dietician when you get there.

All the best to you

Angus

[carolnorrington in reply to Angusross]

Hi have had IBSD for 15 years and tried fodmap diet and kept to it as best it could but I found I lost a lot of weight which was not good for me as I am 5ft 9in tall and weighed stone when started and went down to 7 1/2 stone and to stop the diet and it was so restrictive in foods. I am now finding it very hard to put the weight on now.

[Patricia22 in reply to carolnorrington]

In fact, I need to lose some weight so might be good for me. I hope you can manage to put some weight back on as must be worrying for you.

[Patricia22 in reply to Angusross]

Thank you for your reply Angus. Useful advice to keep a food diary before I see the dietician. Haven't had my appointment yet. Glad the diet has been helpful for you. I find it hard to identify what causes my problem as it affects me every day whatever I eat. The FODMAP diet seems difficult to follow as it is so restrictive, but I will give it a go. I'm aware that stress can be a trigger and very much believe that mind and body are connected. However, I do find I still have problems when on a relaxing holiday. Thanks again for the reply.

Patricia

[bigbunbun3]

Hi I also have IBS -C the FODMAP diet is a real help, still stick to it as best I can.

[Patricia22 in reply to bigbunbun3]

Glad to hear the diet is successful for you. Just hope I can stick to it.

[Saleya]

I also had problems with obnoxious wind in my case for many years and discovering the FODMAP diet was a revelation for me. It's not easy to avoid the baddies totally and sometimes it's hard to trace the culprit back, but just avoiding the onion family and apples and pears and honey made a huge difference to me. Also the usual suspects like beans and brassicas. You do get used to it. You are meant to re-introduce things but I'm pretty sure what affects me now so I don't bother with it. I can tolerate a small amount of cauliflower and broccoli and that's fine for me. I am also fine with milk and bread etc but I try not to eat too much bread. I also use A2 milk to be kind to my digestive system, but there are a lot of milk alternatives these days.

[Patricia22 in reply to Saleya]

Thank you for your reply. I think that following the diet will be a problem when eating out or on holiday. I also don't want to go to friends and be a fussy person. I'm aware of the usual foods that cause wind, but before I looked at the FODMAP diet I didn't realise such as apples and pears could be culprits. I do try to avoid onion as I know that's bad, but it is hidden in quite a few foods so need to check labels. i.e. I had a tin of country vegetable soup yesterday and noticed that it contained some onion. I won't start the diet until I see the dietician but have printed out the diet from the Internet and am trying a week avoiding a certain category of food just as practise for when I do the real thing. Have been trying dairy free this week (hasn't made any difference). I bought goats milk and then realised that it is on the no no list! So getting used to things like this will be useful. However, I do realise that you really need to do the diet properly and then introduce food items gradually.