# Help!



## smiley (Dec 28, 2004)

I'm kindof new to IBS and I haven't found my triggers yet. Lately (though I'm not stressed) the "spasm attacks" have been getting so bad that the heat that normally helps doesn't. On Christmas Eve I had to go to the ER it was so bad... Does anyone have any suggestions? I hate missing school but I have missed some days because of it


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## JoanneThomas (Jan 17, 2002)

Hi thereI suggest that you try a food diary. This means writing everything that you are eating (including the ingredients!!) and the times and dates of attacks.This is how I found out that I couldn't eat onions or garlic. I unfortunately cannot stay online long to answer this properly for you but I am sure that many others (who can easily be online during this time) will be able to explain it better for you....If you have "C" (constipation) you can also try taking peppermint and magnesium with your meals to aid digestion. You should find a lot of good advice on here but be aware that people have different things that work for them. It's often a case of trial and error. I hope that at least like me you can start getting it under some kind of control....


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## Sarah C (Nov 22, 2004)

I agree completely...was there something you could have eaten Christmas Eve that would have triggered it? Did you drink eggnog? That's pretty lactose packed and a good amount of people with IBS are lactose-intolerant. In your food diary, you may also want to look at how things are cooked and how much of certain nutrients are in them. For example, fat is a common trigger. Even if the ingredients aren't fatty, if it's fried then that adds a lot of fat. A couple very common triggers to look for are fat, lactose and sugar(s). If you think you may have found a trigger, try avoiding it (or eating very little of it, you can't get completely away from some things) for a week or so, and see if your IBS clears up a bit. If it has, then that's probably a trigger. A lot of it is trial and error. You also may have to be creative with it. For example, when I was diagnosed I was only 9 or 10 and wasn't really mature enough to know how to restrict my diet. My gastroenterologist told me to drink a cup of Lactaid skim milk every day for a week, then regular skim milk the next week, then Lactaid whole milk, then whole milk. When the Lactaid skim milk was the only one that didn't make me sick (I refused the ones that made me sick after a few days), they knew that fat and lactose were both likely triggers. That's one example of going a little beyond a food diary to find your triggers, that may help too. Good luck!


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## smiley (Dec 28, 2004)

I ate steak and a tiny bit of salad. I'm going to start a food diary. Thanks everyone


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Salad/raw veggies can be a problem for a lot of IBSers.Depending on the cut of steak it could have been a problem as well. Some cuts are fatty enough they can trigger fat related IBS issues.K.


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## smiley (Dec 28, 2004)

Thanks! On the steak it was really fatty but I thought I had cut it all off..... ohwell


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

It may have also had a fair amount of fat marbled into the meat...especially if it was supposed to be a "good" steak. Usually the "better" cuts are the ones that are more marbled, which is part of what makes them more tender.It really varies from cut to cut how many fat grams remain in the main part of the meat.K.


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## smiley (Dec 28, 2004)

Thanks... I found one thing that I could live on but I think I would get fat from it if that's all I ate. We just moved and like the only lunch food around the house right now is Salami. Thank goodness that doesn't bother my stomach. Hope you had a great New Years Eve!


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## Sarah C (Nov 22, 2004)

If you put dressing on the salad that may have caused a problem because many dressings are high-fat or high-lactose.


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