Ensure liquid diet

[megan.rose]

Hello all,

I was diagnosed with crohns last septemeber and have been on both predisolone and entocort. With little improvement they have put me on an exculsively liquid diet drinking ensure drinks for the 6-8 weeks. Just wondering if anyone had any experience with this and any tips to make it go as smoothly as possible.

Thanks in advance

 

[autumn_rose]

Hey, there. Sorry to hear you're having a rough time.

I was put on ensure, and couldn't keep it down. I actually advise people to stay away from it because it contains an ingredient known to cause bowel inflammation. The odd thing is, the same maker of ensure, also makes Humira, a drug that is frequently prescribed to us, because of our bowel inflammation. Conspiracy? I don't know, but it's awfully fishy to me. I would ask your doctor if you could make your own smoothies at home. Still a liquid, nutrient-dense option, but you know exactly what goes into it. Feel better soon!

-Autumn

 

[lenny]

Son is doing EEN right now, but he's doing it with 10% food. Has a few eggs and a small salad most mornings and then it's Peptamen for the rest of the day. It's not fun.

 

[Clash]

There is no conspiracy, especially since there are numerous nutrient dense formulas on the market and a lot of doctors use prescription only formulas. In a lot of countries, outside of the US, exclusive enteral nutrition is the first line of defense instead of stetoids. Studies show that it had the same efficacy as steroids(especially in pediatric patients) without all the side effects.

If you have problems with Ensure there are formulas that are more broken down and easier to digest your doc could direct you to.

Good luck.

 

[UnXmas]

How is your liquid diet going, megan.rose? Are you craving food or feeling too ill to miss it? I've never had to do liquids for more than several days, but I do have to have a lot of Ensure and other supplements alongside food. If the milkshake-style ones get too sickly, you might see if your doctors are ok with you having Complan, as I know they do savoury ones that are like soups, or Fortijuice, which is like fruit juice (or supposed to be). None of them cause inflammation.

 

[Optimistic]

Megan.Rose,

My teenaged son did EEN and my husband did it with him to keep him going (not me!).

We were coached to tell him to focus on just one day - "today I will drink these shakes" and go on from there. He freaked out when I said things like "3 weeks down, x to go", or when we talked about it really at all. I learned most every social event revolves around food, so we tried to fill his free time with things that had as few food cues as possible.

You may have heard that in a study at Children's Hospital Philly 80/20 EN/food worked as well as EEN in some children. Our drs mentioned some new rsch in Israel where results were boosted by both mixing in an SCD approach with EN and trading off exclusive periods of both approaches. For our son, eating a few meals a week was worse on him mentally. He just wanted to power through the EEN.

We got samples of many formulas from the dr so when he tired of one we had another ready to go.

You can do this. I know you can. And, if you feel you can't, I may be able to convince my husband to come do it with you! I think that helped my son to have someone to commiserate with. Surely there is a forum member in the same situation?

Keep us posted.

 

[Nym]

http://orgain.com/

http://www.baumancollege.org/community-resources/vital-scoop

I was on Ensure Plus for a few months, in combination with sieved cooked oats and apples. I won't touch anything related to corn or soy nowadays.

 

[autumn_rose]

There is no conspiracy, especially since there are numerous nutrient dense formulas on the market and a lot of doctors use prescription only formulas. In a lot of countries, outside of the US, exclusive enteral nutrition is the first line of defense instead of stetoids. Studies show that it had the same efficacy as steroids(especially in pediatric patients) without all the side effects.

If you have problems with Ensure there are formulas that are more broken down and easier to digest your doc could direct you to.

Good luck.

The 'numerous nutrient dense formulas on the market' that you refer to contain the same ingredient, again, proven to cause bowel inflammation. Same goes for prescribed liquid formulas- there's always side effects. I'm just giving my opinion that a liquid diet should be as natural as possible, not premade, processed, bottled junk. I tried several varieties of nutrition drinks and couldn't keep any of them down.

 

[Clash]

I'm not sure which ingredient you are talking about but peer reviewed scientific study has shown that polymeric, semi elemental and elemental formulas can be as effective as pred at inducing remission. Also, if carrageenen is the ingredient you are thinking of it isn't present in all of them.

All meds have side effects. Because you had a reaction to one doesn't mean that others will. There are a number of members that have done well with EEN. It's great to offer alternatives but there is no need to bash or dissuade treatments members may have been px'ed by their GI.