FODMAP diet

[ivorlilacs666]

Hi, Can someone tell me how long it takes for the low FODMAP Diet to kick in please? I know it's only been 5 days but I seem to be getting worse not better with my IBS + D. Perhaps I'm being impatient....

[Hidden]

This is something I am going to follow but for IBS C (I sometimes have diorrhea but that I've noticed that seems to be if I eat dairy so I am now using lactose free products). I was naughty today and ate normal cheese an have had nausea, another symptom I get. I have read a few posts on this and it works for some and not for others but you need to give it around 6 to 8 weeks to see if it works.

Very best of luck Ivor

Alicia

[ivorlilacs666 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you. I shall persevere. Good luck to you too.

[Hidden in reply to ivorlilacs666]

Thank you

[Shortybum]

I did 2 weeks on it and was totally constipated it was horrendous so I stopped

[dipsy14]

I did it for 6 months .... thinking if I give it a real good go it will eventually sort the problem and I can honestly say to the gp ive done it! It did nothing for me at all ..... so disappointed and actually mucked up my eating. Of course everyone is different and some have really good results. But its not all I was made to believe it would be. Im not stupid, ive tried so many things over the last 15 years its untrue. But since all the pain and misery over that time ive now been diagnosed with renal cancer, a cyst inside the kidney 10cm, adhesions so bad that they couldnt get access through key hole to remove my ovaries one which had a cyst over 15cms and worse than expected during surgery. They drained and capped it instead. Its not solved my pain and bloating but its certainly helped me feel better than I did before. It just makes me wonder how easy it is to be dismissed with ibs. So I would say stick to fodmaps for now, 8 weeks is about doable. After that, no joy, look to go back to gp. Dont be fobbed off. But try other things dependant on your symptoms. Im currently on kefir its helped me a lot yet I dont have sibo. Who knows what the answer is :-(. Good luck., let us know how yiu get on.

[Iesgobdafydd]

I actually didn't think low FODMAP was helping me at all when I got to the end of the period the dietitian wanted me to try it for, because I was still getting symptoms every day. But when I tried reintroducing foods with FODMAPS in the way they suggest you do, to see which ones disagree with you, they pretty much all made it worse, and brought back some particular symptoms that had actually cleared up. So my advice would be don't give up till you get to that stage, unless like Shortybum it's making things so much worse it's unbearable. But if your symptoms seem to have got worse on the low FODMAP diet, and if that persists, it's worth thinking about what you're now suddenly eating more of, and whether that could be disagreeing with you - FODMAPS aren't the only things people can react to. If you can't figure out what foods disagree with you, using food diaries and the low FODMAP diet, you can try a "few foods diet" approach. My dietitian's version of this was to pick one food from each of the major food groups to include, so that you still have a fairly balanced diet, but a friend of my sister's in Canada cut right back to only eating white rice to start with (obviously that's not healthy but if you think about it, people can live without food at all for limited periods so a few days of just white rice aren't going to kill you unless there's something else badly wrong). The idea is that as soon as your symptoms all settle down, you reintroduce more foods one at a time every couple of days, removing them again if they cause a reaction. The book "IBS Solutions" talks about a "few foods diet" which if I remember correctly involved three foods - turkey, pears and white rice, if you'd like more information about it.

[Nettiedc]

I started fodmap 3 years ago. I was in the middle of a particularly bad bout. Because I was feeling so poorly at the time it was about 6 weeks before my stomach settled down & recovered from the bout & I started to feel benefits. By then I didn't want to reintroduce high fodmap because I felt so well! Reintroduction took a long time I allowed 1 week per item, 3 days of eating it, then 4 days without so I could clear it from my system & try the next item. There are still things I haven't reintroduced because I don't eat them so often. Fodmap worked for me, it gave me my life back, but other factors such as stress also affect me, so if you find it's not working try assess stress levels or other factors which may impact you. Ibs is very complex and so different from person to person x