I was diagnosed 2 years ago. Haven't had a flare up for months, until a week ago.Finding it hard to cope, as all my favorite foods are on the do not eat list, especially fruits.
I am a senior that has travelled all Summer, and this is curbing my travel plans, as I constantly require a washroom. So for now I live on rice cakes, bananas, and peanut butter. I'm going to try fish, and seafood. I downloaded the FODMOP website. So very frustrating!
I sympathise. Sorry I haven’t got any real solutions but I found that eating soluble fibre, such as white bread, before each meal helped me a lot for several years.
It doesn’t help me now unfortunately, and I also have to avoid most fruits
I have some general advice about what to try for IBS to help you manage it in a previous post of mine:
The problem with this condition is that everyone is tolerant/intolerant to different food/drinks so it’s hard trying to work out what your particular triggers are.
Then chuck in the stress of wondering what is triggering it without adding external factors into the equation.
Stress, previous illness, medication etc.
It’s like you’re forever clutching at straws.
I get a similar thing. I can go for weeks or even a couple of months or so, pretty normal. Then it comes back, does its thing and gradually goes away again. I can never tell how long a flare up might last but with careful "back to square one" diet it usually passes in a couple of days. I then just have to be a bit careful with what I eat, until I find I am pretty normal again for "X" amount of time!
And I can never tell. A flare up can happen seemingly caused by nothing wrong I have done, and not by stress either.
For me, the way through a flare up is more or less what you're doing. Restricted diet for however long it takes. My foods are different to yours, but I mainly rely on plain cooked white fish, eggs, white rice (sometimes a little brown as well) and ciabatta toast with butter, plus a small range of steamed vegetables.
I haven't died of that yet! Or got malnutrition.
When the flare up passes, I gradually go back to a wider range of foods such as I can normally eat with no problems.
But like you, I find fruits difficult, and even trying very tiny amounts, can have slightly negative effects. It cannot be fructose intolerance in my case, as I can happily eat honey.
But I have lived without fruit in my diet for at least 2 years now. I am basically fit and well apart from IBS and backache. I certainly don't have scurvy, and my teeth have been better!
I take a multivitamin and mineral A-Z complex daily.
Try fish, but maybe try a plain one, and just bake it in tinfoil or in a dish with a lid, with a little water and just salt added. I am usually fine eating most fish so long as it doesn't come with a sauce or have pepper added. I just buy frozen steaks, and cook them plain. Or tinned fish in spring water or brine.
I haven't tried any other seafood.
Ibs or not
Not coping 😕
Not normal poop
IBS OR NOT?
SIBO real or not
