My daughter M is 10 and she was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease in february 2020
She has been perfectly healthy except a couple of times the two previous years complaining about some pain in the stomach and felt tired without energy.
When receiving the diagnosis she started on a EEN. unexpected this resulted in a very elevated value of fecal calprotectin. More than 2.500. We found out the suggested drinking diet contained a lot of sugar and milk/soya ingredients she was allergic to. We then changed to Elemental and Neocate and calprotein was reduced to app. 450. The same level as before diet.
All the time she has felt healthy. However, EEN is clearly a mental stress for her.
Her diet now is about 60-70% food according to an "Israel diet", consisting of rice, potatoes, fish and chicken++ and the rest of Elemental. The challenge with this diet is limited food selection, furthermore it is demanding to keep up the weight.
We know the diet will probably not give M a endoscopic remission and if not to treat the disease with medicine (just go on with the diet and stay over a longer period with calprotein values app 200-400) will lead to worsening of the situation.
Our doctor suggests Entocort + AZA.
Our dilemma is then:
1. Stay on a demanding diet with uncertain outcome and maybe highest possibility of getting the Crohn`s disease worsening.
2. Start using medicines with all known side effects.
We have also read a lot about biological medicine. We maybe think this represent the best alternative in the present situation.
However our doctor insist in starting with azathioprine according to the traditional medical approximation. As we understand this medicine leads to several adverse side effects we are skeptical to this medical treatment.
We feel really uncertain and don't know what to do. All good advice and comments are appriciated!
She has been perfectly healthy except a couple of times the two previous years complaining about some pain in the stomach and felt tired without energy.
When receiving the diagnosis she started on a EEN. unexpected this resulted in a very elevated value of fecal calprotectin. More than 2.500. We found out the suggested drinking diet contained a lot of sugar and milk/soya ingredients she was allergic to. We then changed to Elemental and Neocate and calprotein was reduced to app. 450. The same level as before diet.
All the time she has felt healthy. However, EEN is clearly a mental stress for her.
Her diet now is about 60-70% food according to an "Israel diet", consisting of rice, potatoes, fish and chicken++ and the rest of Elemental. The challenge with this diet is limited food selection, furthermore it is demanding to keep up the weight.
We know the diet will probably not give M a endoscopic remission and if not to treat the disease with medicine (just go on with the diet and stay over a longer period with calprotein values app 200-400) will lead to worsening of the situation.
Our doctor suggests Entocort + AZA.
Our dilemma is then:
1. Stay on a demanding diet with uncertain outcome and maybe highest possibility of getting the Crohn`s disease worsening.
2. Start using medicines with all known side effects.
We have also read a lot about biological medicine. We maybe think this represent the best alternative in the present situation.
However our doctor insist in starting with azathioprine according to the traditional medical approximation. As we understand this medicine leads to several adverse side effects we are skeptical to this medical treatment.
We feel really uncertain and don't know what to do. All good advice and comments are appriciated!
