IBS!

[Holls09]

Hello I am new here! So I have a few things wrong with my bowel! I have been getting problems for the past 10 years. I get severe constipation which causes really bad piles so I bleed nearly every time I go to the toilet.

I take movicol to make me go but then I end up having bad diarrhoea for a few days. I can never find a balance. I have really bad bloating most days and bad gas. I eat well and exercise most days. Sometimes when I do go I feel like I haven’t fully emptied my bowel!? I can go days without eating much but feeling full and bloated! What is wrong with me!?

[keithfre]

Have you tried the FODMAP elimination diet to find out what foods may be triggering your IBS? I did it and found that wheat and onions were a problem, but not lactose or high-FODMAP fruits in moderation. The FODMAP effect does seem to be cumulative.

I do still tend towards constipation, but keep it more or less under control by eating oatmeal porridge for breakfast and 'opening' foods such as rhubarb and beetroot. If all else fails I take macrogol (prescribed by my GP): it can take a couple of days to work, and can cause diarrhoea if I take it for too long. On the other hand, my IBS pattern untreated alternates between C and D anyway.

I would also recommend Peter Whorwell's book Take Control of your IBS.

[rozwalts]

Perhaps try a low residue diet for a week, then go onto a low fibre diet. It works for me, though I am still working out which of the higher fibre diets I can eat. Anything with oats is a no go area, ditto most foods with skins and/or seeds, plus nuts I cannot eat.

I can have boiled new potatoes with skins, petit pois peas, green beans, cauliflower, broccoli, mashed carrots/swede. The only fruit I can have are bananas (mashed), lychees, melon, cooked apples/pears, plus tinned peaches or pears. I try to add a couple of new items each week, bought two pineapple 'lollies' in Morrison's this morning, so will see how they go.

The only bread I can have is white, although the malted prawn/mayo sandwiches I had on holiday were ok. When I tried the malted bread I used to buy, it had the usual bad effect. The same applies to pasta, it has to be white, not wholemeal.

Live yogurt, which I have twice a day on Special K in the morning, and on a mashed banana or tinned fruit as part of my evening meal. Basically trial and error is the way to go for me.