Specific Carbohydrate Diet

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We tried but it was too hard for us Charleigh's son I think was and may still be on it and Amy2's son. Jack just wouldn't eat enough of anything "legal" to keep up his calories. We managed it for about 3 weeks, switched to a Paleo which was a little easier but he still wasn't getting enough nutrition/calories on that so we went gluten free which lasted about 6 months and did seem to help at the time but when we added gluten back in it didn't make any difference given when we added gluten back in he was in remission so maybe that's why.
 
We tried many different things for DS free you name - didn't seem to make any difference for him. Even when we add things back in one at a time . He was free of most allergens for about 2 months . He just needed time for the remicade to work and heal things .

Hope you find something that works
 
I tried it before I knew anything about crohn's disease. I had issues like Jacqui mentions, I could not get enough calories from the diet. The diet forbids you to eat polysaccharide, A normal diet is 60% carbs, 20% fat, 20% protein, not being allowed to eat polysaccharides cuts out the bigger part of that 60%, and it resulted in weight loss and loss of energy for me, you need carbs for protein synthesis also, it is really hard to maintain weight and energy on that diet I personally feel. No one knows if it affects crohn's disease in any way.

Reducing polysaccharide intake can much better be achieved with EN, EN provides carbs in the form of bioavailable dried glucose that more than makes up for the calories you would lose by avoiding polysaccharid foods. I never lost weight on EN or felt that I lacked energy. If you drink EN or spill EN, you'll notice how sugary and sticky it is, EN removes much of the polysaccharides too, but they add a lot of "sugars" that are easily turned into blood glucose, so you don't get the calorie loss on EN. The SCD diet sort of suggests adding monosaccharides in the form of honey in many recipes, but this doesn't make up for the huge loss of carbs in the diet, and just eating honey with everything isn't healthy either I think, EN adds glucose together with protein and very bioavailable fat, which means you get your calories, and you don't get the unhealthy effects of isolated sugars which can cause insulin and other issues. I am not a fan of SCD really.
 
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We have also done EEN with peptamen jr and addeden just peptamen jr to humira and remicade since that is suppose to help .
 
EN and SCD achieve the same thing, they're just two different paths.

Our daughter started SCD 10 days ago and by the second day was vastly improved. We were astonished. I must add that although her main Crohn's symptoms were fever and stomach ache, she was fully diagnosed as having Crohns, through colonoscopy and endoscopy, biopsy, MRI, and blood work. She is taking pentasa and prednisone (we are tapering) and some herbal supplements including wormwood and cat's claw, and some vitamins.

Today we reintroduced shrimp, a food that set her off violently only a month ago (fever spike and stomach ache), and she has had no bad results. Clearly her intestinal biota have changed quickly. We found a SCD-legal bacon made by Gwaltney that is very good, and that was another favorite food she couldn't tolerate before.

We are spending kind of a lot of money on out-of-season fruits and seafood, but we are trying hard not to make the diet seem like deprivation. You can buy an awful lot of shrimp and strawberries for what a hospital stay costs.

Snacks are the biggest challenge. I am keeping lots of cut-up fruit in the refrigerator. Pistachio nuts have been a hit in brown-bag lunch at school. My husband is making SCD-legal beef jerky.

Our biggest success has been with macaroons which are absolutely delicious. They don't keep well because of the honey, but they are very easy to make, so I've been making a half batch every day and we all love them! Just unsweetened coconut flakes, honey, vanilla, and egg whites. Our recipe said to whip the egg whites, which I did for the first few batches, but actually they are just as good without bothering with that step.

Good luck!
 
Lately, my son has been having a hard time putting on weight, so we decided to add white rice to his diet, something that he loved before getting ill. He's eaten it twice and so far, no problems.
 
Thank you for all the imput! I'm trying so hard to control her diet since being diagnosed, but she makes it very hard. I bought a juicer last week and made her a few different juices this weekend. She turned her nose at anything with a hit of green, but its the best way I can think of to get her nutrients that will quickly absorb in her system. We just battle when it comes to food. She calls me a health freak LOL

I'm going to look at these recipes. I love any and all feedback regarding food ideas. You ladies are awesome. Thank you!
 
My daughter enjoys looking for recipes online, and sending them to me. It probably makes her feel more in control of her diet, and she can filter out the things that sound yucky to her. She also is highly motivated not to feel so sick again, not to mention, she doesn't want to have surgery to remove part of her intestines....
 
My daughter enjoys looking for recipes online, and sending them to me. It probably makes her feel more in control of her diet, and she can filter out the things that sound yucky to her. She also is highly motivated not to feel so sick again, not to mention, she doesn't want to have surgery to remove part of her intestines....

That's brilliant. What a great idea.

Can you tell Makena to do her own research on healthy foods she would like?

I see it's the same no matter where you live. If it has green in it my kids and hubby think it's poison.:yfaint:
 
The first SCD-friendly recipe my daughter found was for macaroons, which are made with unsweetened coconut, egg whites, and honey. They are so delicious that we all eat them and I have to make a new half-batch every day.

The Paleo diet sites have a lot of recipes, but some are not SCD-legal, for example they often include that staple of the paleolithic diet, chocolate.
 
I think you have to remember even though they have crohn's most are still little kids.
It's one thing to do scd with older teens or adults but weight loss and peer isolation are very high in kids .
Not being able to eat like everyone else can take a real psychological toll.
My son had to avoid many food due to life threatening food allergies for many years - not eating what the other kids have can be devestating when it's done over and over again.

As an adult try to eat scd or paleo etc... For a week when you know there are planned events.

Also make sure to discuss the diet plAns with your child's GI.

Not against diet provided all parties are willing participants .
DS still dislikes his peptamen jr but he drinks it twice a day everyday willingly.

Just thoughts
 
My older dd was on scd for five years and it was a total miracle diet for her. Eventually, it even got to the point where she said it didn't feel weird to eat scd, it was just how she ate :). Honestly, you can eat a burger and veggies and, even if you're out with friends, that's pretty "normal".

Our GI doctor strongly suggests SCD to all his IBD patients and even has a nutritionist who helps families get started on SCD. He says "it's like EN but with food. Because it's inhumane to ask a child to give up food".....

I would strongly suggest that you join the BTVC Yahoo group. You will be hanging with so many, many people who support the choice you have made to start your dd on SCD. Here you will get many opinions and many people telling you it's "too hard". My feeling is that this whole darn disease is "too hard" and we have to make the best choices possible.

Good luck to you and I hope your daughter feels well soon.
 
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