I know this reply is coming way late, but for anyone dealing with constipation, there is a great book called Cure Constipation Now, A Doctor's fiber Therapy To cleanse and Heal. There is even a section on Crohn's Disease. It is written by a gastroenterologist Wes Jones, MD. I wish I had this book for reference many years ago. This is the most comprehensive information you will ever get on a step by step plan for dealing with constipation.
There are alot of different fiber supplements out there, and he talks about which ones are best to start with and then which ones you can move up to. He talks about it like training your bowels like if you are training for a marathon, and if you take off running before proper training, it can bring on set backs.
One word of caution, for those with sensitive stomach's is that Fiber One and Kashi cereals/bars can bring on alot of gas and stomach discomfort. Both of them have Chicory Root extract in them and even Dr Jones talks about how the manufacturer's should put warnings on the front of their boxes about this.
I am going through this also with my daughter, age 7 who suffers from constipation most of her whole life, and even when she is eating nutritiously, we still have to use the mirilax. Have been on 1 to 2 tsp daily for almost 6 years and trying to get her off of the meds by increasing her fiber, but she has a sensitive stomach and I believe she has problems with sugar alcohols which is also in alot of the different varieties of fiber supplements, so trying to find the correct one that doesn't cause her alot of gas and bloating. I figured this out because whenever I gave her prune juice (the new one without the pulp, she had the worst odorous gas I have ever smelled. Thus, we don't do the prune juice which has sorbitol in it (one of the sugar alcohol's).
One of the things Dr Jones talks about in his book (and this is for people who don't have a wheat intolerance/allergy) is that the best bread a person can buy that is available in many different cities is Great Harvest Bread. They don't sell their bread at grocery stores, you have to go to their bread store. The reason why Dr Jones recommends it is because their wheat is freshly ground daily. Their bread is expensive though, $6.00 a loaf in Nebraska.
Thus, I've been grinding my own wheat berries in my Nutribullet. You can use a vitamix also, with their grain grinding attachment, or even in a coffee grinder, or blender if you put it on the liquid setting. Grind the wheat berries for about one minute, and then put the flour through a tightly meshed metal strainer and swoosh it around a little but don't pound it, and then dump out the last little bit of harder peices.
Most of the flour a person buys at the stores, is bleached and then bromated and they are only using the endosperm of the wheat berry for the all purpose flours, which takes away all of the nutritional parts of the wheat berries and the fiber. Also, once the wheat berry is cracked open, every minute it sits on the counter, it starts loosing it's nutritional values (alot of B vitamins). I have tried the hard red and hard white wheat berries and the hard white is not as strong of a wheaty taste. From what I have read, they say it's best to start out with hard white wheat berries to make the adjustment. Also, you can mix an all purpose flour with your freshly ground flour to make a more gradual adjustment. King Author is supposed to be the best flour out there, if a person wants to start out with their brand vs grinding your own. They have quite a few different varieties of wheat flours and an amazing website with many reviews and tips. Another note, I have been using Hodgkin Mills quick rise active yeast which is supposed to be better for whole wheat breads. They give you extra yeast in each on of the packets, which helps with getting the heavier whole wheats to rise, so they aren't so thick, heavy and compact.
Larger HyVee's carry King Aurthor flours also, and they also carry some of the wheat berries if a person wants to try grinding their own flour. Whole Foods and some other health food stores also carry the wheat berries. Soft white wheat berries are used for pastries, cakes, donuts, pancakes, etc.
I am still working on my flour ratio's, that my super picky daughter will actually eat that I am making into bread. I did get a Hamilton Beach bread maker and have been very happy with it. Thought I would mention this as I read alot of reviews on different brands with alot not being so great. The Hamilton Beach only cost about $70.00. I ordered it online through JC Pennies and it was delivered to my house for free.
Hope this info helps someone out there.
All I can say is when I did get my daughter to eat 1 slice of the bread I made into french toast to disguise the hard red wheat flour I started out with initially, before learning about the hard white berries, we were having amazing bathroom results that I would have never dreamt of in a million years. Now I just have to find the perfect combination of flours to start out with so I can get her to eat it without having to make it into french toast everyday.
My kids were pretty easy with suppositories - from the time they were infants, they were both unable to tolerate any meds that were swallowed (children's aspirin, cough syrup, etc.) - we started using aspirin suppositories when they were infants. By the time we got to the glycerin suppositories, I guess it was 'same old, same old' to him. :lol:
