# 10 year old living on B.R.A.T. diet



## wendybrem (Apr 30, 2003)

Hi there







New-to-the-group mom here.My daughter was diagnosed with IBS 10 days ago. Prior to finally getting in to see the gastroenterologyst (it took weeks and several phonecalls to get them to move her appointment up) she lived on the B.R.A.T. diet (Broth, Rice, Applesauce & Toast)The Dr. prescribed meds for her to take twice a day. She said to stay on the BRAT diet for a week and then start reg food.The first week was great, and she was finally pain-free. But, once she started eating real food again, the pain, diarrhea & vomiting eventually returned.I have been sitting here for hours reading thru posts, and signed up for the Leap test thingy. Does anyone have any suggestions on pain relief for her right now? She describes it as: "someone cut me open and is pouring saltwater in my gut." OUCH!!Thanks in advance~Wendy


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## JackieGian (Mar 23, 2002)

Maybe she should have eased into the "real" food. Go back to BRAT for a few days and then introduce one new bland-type food at a time and see how she reacts. Kind of like when you first introduced her to solids. I'd also stay away from anything processed.


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## Tlyon (Feb 20, 2001)

Wendy, I just was browsing and stumbled on your post. How awful for a 10 year old. I agree with Jackie about the diet thing. As for the pain, didn't the doctor give her something for it? I take Levbid, helps with spams, you may also want to try Probiotica (it is made by Imodium) it helps me a lot. It helps maintain "friendly bacteria" in the digestive tract. You chew one a day, doesn't taste bad, (lemony). It takes awhile to kick in but it helped me.


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## wendybrem (Apr 30, 2003)

Hi again.You were both right. Going back to the bland diet has calmed things down, finally! It took until this afternoon, however. We were up all night last night. I had to work with a doctor covering for her reg. gastro dr. today and they thought that she should stop taking the levsin and take Zantac. ???? This made no sense to me since her pain & trouble is below the belly button, not acid stomach. Any clues on this one?I spoke to the dietician at the "leap" site and she asked if my daughter had been tested for celiac disease yet. A call to the Dr. confirmed that it hadn't been done yet, so I'll be contacting her gastro. Dr. monday to set that up.So, we wait and see. I'm trying to keep her spirits up, so that her nerves don't add too much to the IBS. Unfortunately she knows how important some 4th grade testing and work she needs to complete is to graduate to the 5th grade. Her teacher has been helpful, but I feel like I'm walking uphill in the sand.Ok, enough for today







Thanks for the support guys!Wendy


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## Vicky19 (Mar 17, 2003)

i'm so sorry to hear about your child. i'm only 19 but i think ive been suffering from bouts of this since i was about 6 or 7 yrs of age, although it's really surfaced itself in the past few months where ive had constant stomach pain all day every day - i really sympathise with your child. all i did for a few weeks was eat bread and toast as friends and family told me this is light and should settle on the stomach. in fact, it made things worse. have you read any posts about eliminating wheat from the diet? a friend of mine on here advised me to try it and it has helped. i was finding that i was getting painful spasms and D after eating things with wheat in. has the doctor prescribed anything like anti spasmodics to take away some of the pain?I hope things work out. xox


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## JackieGian (Mar 23, 2002)

I think you're correct about the Zantac. If your daughter's pain is in her belly or lower back, it seems like an anti-spasmodic would be more helpful. If the levsin isn't helping, there are various other anti-spasmodics that you can try. My son's gastro initially prescribed pepcid, but it didn't help a bit. My son went through levsin, bentyl and donnatol. The donnatol is the strongest anti-spasmidoc and is what helped initially. After his symptoms were under control, he switched to bentyl. The levsin didn't help him at all.I'm also quite sure the stress of school is making her symptoms worse. If you can, try working on ways to get her to relax. I sounds like she's in the middle of a vicious cycle -- stomach ache, nervous about having a stomach ache, makes stomach ache worse, etc. You also might want to think about some short-term therapy to help her through the stress.


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## Bearhnter2 (May 11, 2003)

Is the stress from ibs making her life difficultt? I have been diagonosed with IBS here recently also. I yet and is not understanding it. I think I need from pointers also.


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