Low residue diet ?

[Artificial]

Is anyone doing a low residue diet?

From having my colonoscopy last week, which showed i'm still really inflamed, along with my prednisolone and pentasa not really having an effect I thought i'd give it a go (although my doc told me I don't need to change my diet at all...!)

For anyone who has done it or is doing it, does it really help?

and has anyone else tried pred and not had great results with it?

Thank you.

Rachel.

 

[Grumbletum]

Hi Rachel
I was put on 20mg Pred when first diagnosed and began to feel a lot better. But I had a CT scan after 5 weeks on the Pred and it showed there was still a lot of active Crohn's. My GP said the Pred was probably masking the symptoms.
I tried Low Residue too in the beginning, but it didn't alleviate symptoms. By a long process of elimination I now know what my trigger foods are.
But it's worth giving LR a go, especially if you have narrowing, cos it does work for a lot of people.

 

[Crohn'sFor Life]

The BRAT diet is helping me now.

Bread
Rice
Applesauce
Toast (white bread)

50 mg of Prednisone is still not controlling my flare-up.

 

[Entchen]

I'm on this, by doctor's orders (due to narrowing in small & large intestines). My goal is not to alleviate symptoms, but rather to prevent a blockage. However, my stomach is noticeably calmer on the low residue diet.

 

[lola99]

I weaned off prednisone a month ago. I had to wean because it gave me cushings. Moon face,buffalo neck,acne, hair growth/darkening,night sweats and gained weight around my midsection. I felt great on it for the first month then i was told to start weaning. I flared back up agian. So i was asked to start taking the full 20mg agian. I took that for another month then weaned agian. Im now on entocort/asacol/imuran. im starting to flare back up agian. My doctor told me that not everyone gets the side effects like i did or not so quick. He said i was just sensitive to it.

 

[tanukihat]

Pred is usually my magic drug at 40mg/day. One week and I have no D's, no stricturing, and appetite through the roof. However, for my most recent flare it didn't do jack until we upped it to 60mg/day. Or, more accurately, I upped it myself and then when it worked I casually mentioned to my gastro doc that we might consider raising the dose (what do I pay this man for again?). I'd been completely unmedicated for some time before starting this course of pred (along with 6MP) so maybe that had something to do with it. I'm going to be on this course for a good long while while the 6MP takes its sweet time to kick in, so we'll see how it goes.

I started a close approximation of a low-rez diet a couple months ago. Thankfully, I was already enjoying many of the allowed the things. Really I just cut out fruits and veggies, and replaced them with V8 Fusion (great stuff, but the sorbitol can cause bad gas).

 

[Artificial]

Thank you for all the replies

Second day on low res now...pretty boring!

Think I will definately speak to me doc about upping the prednisolone.

 

[tanukihat]

Low rez doesn't have to be boring! Yeah, if you follow the Mayo Clinic low rez diet, you'll be eating broiled fish and rice every meal, but that's not your only option. You're just thinking like an adult - think unhealthier!

Consider breakfast: all the tastiest sugary cereals are low fiber (Captain Crunch and Cocoa Crispies are the lowest). If you don't like sugar for breakfast, remember that plain bagels and english muffins with your choice of premium spread is just fine (I like chive and green onion cream cheese). Eggs in all forms are great - boil 'em, scramble 'em, cut a little hole in some white bread toast and make Egg-in-a-Basket. Like donuts? They're low rez. Hey, ever heard of Pop-Tarts? Delicious, and also low rez.

Other meals? Hot dogs. Hillshire Farms sausages of your favorite variety (I like chedderwurst). The more processed the meat is, the better! Pasta? Sure! Any variety! I've found spinich-stuffed tortellini from the frozen section of the supermarket to be the most tasty. Put some alfredo sauce on there and it's delectable. And it's all low rez!

Screw Atkins and his low-carb diet. That's for people who are already healthy. We have Crohn's. Think outside the box, eat all those delicious unhealthy things people have always told you to avoid - most likely they fit the low rez diet. Don't limit yourself!

 

[Jessica]

I had a secret to handling my Low Res diet... Homemade Rice Crispy Treats! Mmm... might have to go to the store after work.

 

[crunch]

I too had a colonoscopy recently, about a month before you - on prednisolone which is helping but was not advised to do anything with diet, which seemed odd to me, so did a bit of googling and found LOFFLEX which is low fat, low residue and am now working my way through that..

breakkie is the hardest part, one cos pills seem to mean mouth takes yuk in the morning and everything on the no list, but bagels and black tea seems ok... also trying some lactose free milk - available in sainsburys - with rice crispies and frosties.

Prob with low residue is you do feel bunged up.. I like chicken/turkey and rice, but even the people at work are fed up with me having it every day for lunch for about 3 weeks it seems. Coat the chicken in something - herbs, sweet and sour, paprika - bake in bag so cooks in own juices and ends up like boil in the bag fish, got some chicken stock paste from M&S and add white rice (started adding a little bit of brown for some roughage) plus some fine beans and it goes down really well and no problems.

evenings same, or roast dinner, or cottage pie or chicken with boiled/lightly sauteed potatoes..

rice cakes look like polystyrene, but once you get used to that they are not bad and crisps in moderation seem ok, plus some processed cheese...

the problem now is days out and how to re-introduce things, always want to re-introduce multiple things at once - pasta means pasta plus tomato or cheesy sauce, sandwich means bread plus mayo or something...

got four more weeks of pills then going back and we'll see, but tinkering with diet and the pills seems to be working for me... )