My 12 year old son was diagnosed with Crohns last week.
The initial symptoms started during spring 2014 after we came back from a vacation. He had strep throat and the doctor prescribed him antibiotic (Amoxycilin if I remember correctly). A month after that we noticed he was getting low grade fevers (99-100.5) during evenings almost every day after returning from school. We had blood work done and the results were mostly normal except some some inflammation indicators. The doctor then said it could be some kind of persistent virus and asked us to wait and watch. My son got little better, got a break from the fevers for a couple of weeks and we also thought it was just some kind of viral infection. But in Septmeber 2015 when the fevers returned, I took him to another pediatrician and on the very first visit he suspected there might some gut related issue based on my son’s weight, occasional stomach pain, mouth ulcers and referred us to a GI along with prescribing a bunch of blood work, stool tests, ordering ultra sound scan etc. The blood test results indicated inflammation, and anemia. Abdominal ultra sound scan results came back normal while Calprotectin in stool was unusually high (800+) in stool test.
We went to pediatric GI in November 2015 who was pretty convinced it could be an IBD and scheduled endoscopy/colonoscopy following month. Meanwhile we started giving my son probiotics (Pro-Kids brand) and milk with turmeric regularly which helped him feel better and stopped the fevers for a couple of weeks. The Calprotectin test number also came down to 300+. Encouraged by the positive results, we postponed the endoscopy and colonoscopy and told the GI we would like to continue what we were doing for a couple of more weeks and get another Calprotectin test done and then decide about the procedures. Everything was going well for a couple of weeks and then on one weekend my son had too much Pizza (he was hungry!!) and played basket ball really hard and the fever was back again that night. This time the fever was as high as 104 and he had to skip the school for a week. The Calprotectin test done from the stool obtained when he had high fever showed 1000+.
With that we decided to move forward with the endoscopy and colonoscopy and got it done last weekend. The doctor noticed patches of small ulcers all around the big intestine, colon and terminal ileum and the biopsy confirmed Crohns disease. The doctor says it is moderate and gave us a couple of options for next steps:
Start him off on only liquid nutrition supplement such as Ensure Plus or Boost for two weeks to bring down the current inflammation and then slowly and incrementally add solid foods to the menu. Then treat with steroids and/or anti inflammatory as necessary.
Put him on meds immediately and bring down the inflammation, then maintain it with meds as necessary.
We liked the first option better since it doesn’t involved medication but we thought drinking Ensure 6-8 times a day is going to be really tough. We asked her about SCD and she said we could try it out for a few weeks. We are currently preparing our kitchen and planning to go on the diet starting next week. We are really hoping that probiotics + vitamins + fermented food (sauerkraut, yogurt, and keffir) and removing sugars and packaged food completely from the diet will help him get better. I am also enquiring about Yoga classes in the area to enroll and thinking of trying some alternate therapies such as Homeopathy while keeping traditional medications as the last option.
The initial symptoms started during spring 2014 after we came back from a vacation. He had strep throat and the doctor prescribed him antibiotic (Amoxycilin if I remember correctly). A month after that we noticed he was getting low grade fevers (99-100.5) during evenings almost every day after returning from school. We had blood work done and the results were mostly normal except some some inflammation indicators. The doctor then said it could be some kind of persistent virus and asked us to wait and watch. My son got little better, got a break from the fevers for a couple of weeks and we also thought it was just some kind of viral infection. But in Septmeber 2015 when the fevers returned, I took him to another pediatrician and on the very first visit he suspected there might some gut related issue based on my son’s weight, occasional stomach pain, mouth ulcers and referred us to a GI along with prescribing a bunch of blood work, stool tests, ordering ultra sound scan etc. The blood test results indicated inflammation, and anemia. Abdominal ultra sound scan results came back normal while Calprotectin in stool was unusually high (800+) in stool test.
We went to pediatric GI in November 2015 who was pretty convinced it could be an IBD and scheduled endoscopy/colonoscopy following month. Meanwhile we started giving my son probiotics (Pro-Kids brand) and milk with turmeric regularly which helped him feel better and stopped the fevers for a couple of weeks. The Calprotectin test number also came down to 300+. Encouraged by the positive results, we postponed the endoscopy and colonoscopy and told the GI we would like to continue what we were doing for a couple of more weeks and get another Calprotectin test done and then decide about the procedures. Everything was going well for a couple of weeks and then on one weekend my son had too much Pizza (he was hungry!!) and played basket ball really hard and the fever was back again that night. This time the fever was as high as 104 and he had to skip the school for a week. The Calprotectin test done from the stool obtained when he had high fever showed 1000+.
With that we decided to move forward with the endoscopy and colonoscopy and got it done last weekend. The doctor noticed patches of small ulcers all around the big intestine, colon and terminal ileum and the biopsy confirmed Crohns disease. The doctor says it is moderate and gave us a couple of options for next steps:
Start him off on only liquid nutrition supplement such as Ensure Plus or Boost for two weeks to bring down the current inflammation and then slowly and incrementally add solid foods to the menu. Then treat with steroids and/or anti inflammatory as necessary.
Put him on meds immediately and bring down the inflammation, then maintain it with meds as necessary.
We liked the first option better since it doesn’t involved medication but we thought drinking Ensure 6-8 times a day is going to be really tough. We asked her about SCD and she said we could try it out for a few weeks. We are currently preparing our kitchen and planning to go on the diet starting next week. We are really hoping that probiotics + vitamins + fermented food (sauerkraut, yogurt, and keffir) and removing sugars and packaged food completely from the diet will help him get better. I am also enquiring about Yoga classes in the area to enroll and thinking of trying some alternate therapies such as Homeopathy while keeping traditional medications as the last option.
