Is a partial liquid diet helpful?

[Daytripper]

Hi all :ysmile:

I'm 26 and have had crohns for ten years and I'm currently on fortnightly humira. I'm flaring on and off at the moment and I'm just starting to get a bit down about it, as you do!

Now I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right section of the forum, but I just wanted to ask about liquid diets. Can you have breakfast and lunch liquid drinks such as ensure, then a normal tea? Or something similar? Has anybody got any experience on this, or must you follow a liquid diet entirely to achieve any results?

Also, are there dairy free liquid drink options? Since dairy makes me ill.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Charlotte.]

Hi Daytripper!

As far as I know, the studies performed for enteral nutrition with elemental or polymeric diet drinks say that partial elemental diet can have an effect for children, not for adults, as far as I remember.
What about going liquid for a week and adding back in normal food gradually?
I have no experience either with liquid/normal, but after just 1 week of liquid polymeric diet I felt the best since being diagnosed (I continued with the liquid diet for 5 more weeks).

I can't have dairy as well (arthritis flares), what I experienced a few months ago after a few dairy free years. There is Elemental 028 which is dairy free, there should also be other vegan options, there has been a threat about it.

Hope you feel better soon!

 

[Daytripper]

Thanks so much for that info, it's really helpful and interesting to read...I feel quite inspired too! I think I may give the weeks trial a go. Did you find that you lost or gained weight at all during the 6 weeks? I don't want to lose or gain you see- I'm just at a healthy weight at the moment and as a crohnie that's not always easy! I'm going to have a look into the vegan options, thanks a lot for that.

 

[Charlotte.]

You are welcome. As far as I remember I gained a few pounds towards the end, maybe in the last week, because I drank way "too much" because I didn't feel full and missed other flavours, but, of course, the drinks didn't satisfy me at that point, even when I drank more of it.
Depending on the intake you won't lose or gain, the amount of calories is labeled on the drinks or the powders. As many of us "Crohnies" are not very efficient in using the nutrients that are provided in foods, you may notice that you don't need as many calories with the drinks as you normally do. I seem to need much more calories of food than I would need regarding my hight and weight, compared to healthy people.
You might also pay into account that the colon and lower small intestine are relatively empty and the stool volume might decrease, so you "lose" weight after a while on the scales and I also looked slimmer because the bloated belly that sometimes is even visible was no longer there.
In general, there should not be much of a difference in terms of weight, it's more about the overall daily intake of calories.

When you start and maybe also later you might want to add some water to the drinks, it is very sweet and the drinks can also cause diarrhoea when it is too concentrated and also not drunken slowly enough. Increasing the intake and slowly transitioning to liquid diet should also increase tolerance, see the manufacturer's homepage for Elemental 028, for example for further advice and your GP or gastroenterologist, of course.

 

[SauceySciencey]

Basically the only symptoms I have at the moment are twinges in my (guessing) terminal ileum, since that's where the colonoscopy showed the inflammation, usually between 330 and 430 each day (strange). Anyhow, I went down to just a iced coffee in the morning, another a lunch, lots of water. I found the pains I would get dissipated. I also found my appetite returning (each iced coffee was roughly 450 calories). I also found I could eat dinner normally. Whenever I stopped this the pain would return. Strange bloody disease.

 

[Daytripper]

Thanks for that info and advice Charlotte, my mum had a little shop around for dairy free drinks today and the woman in the shop told her she will never find a dairy free meal replacement drink......well, I will prove her wrong I think! I would love to get rid of my bloated belly, I'm only tiny and I look like I'm pregnant, even in my baggy tops my little tum sticks out! I call it my little pot belly.

SauceySciencey- can I ask what you used to make your iced coffee? It is a very strange disease....and as we all know, so unpredictable! I'm glad the iced coffee worked for you.

 

[SauceySciencey]

It's a brand here in Australia. Not sure who makes it actually. Just a run of the mill double expresso iced coffee. Doesn't seem to negatively affect me, I hear a lot of people can't do a lot of dairy, when it's really a saviour for me.

 

[Kero]

Daytripper, if you can find an Arbonne Independent consultant, the meal replacement shakes are delicious! They are vegan, and all you need is some water to mix them up.

 

[Justanothercp]

I frequently will go on liquid diet for a few days or partial liquid for a few days and it always helps. I have had bowel resection for stricture and have another one now that I am managing. But when I feel things are going bad, I will go to liquids and usually that helps. I will do bone broth, juicing, water/tea etc. Sometimes I will add in purees, like soups. (typically I have some frozen just for times like this!) Seems to do the trick.

 

[Daytripper]

Thanks everyone! SauceySciencey I'm glad that the iced coffee worked for you, it's strange how some people can have dairy and others can't, I'm glad it works for you. Kero thanks for the recommendation, I don't know any Arbonne consultants, but I've had a quick look on eBay and they've got some meal replacement shakes on there, vegan and for quite a good price too, so thanks for that! I'm really glad the partial liquid diet works for you justanothercp, it's inspired me to really give it a go, I'm making my own smoothies at the moment just to help myself until I get meal replacement drinks. Keep well all, and thank you.