Worried auntie nephew with crohns

by Debbie
(Scotland)

Hi there, my 16 year old nephew has just been diagnosed with Crohns disease. The only symptoms he's had is bleeding from the back passage and anaemia and tiredness which was what led to the diagnosis. None of us are aware of what to expect next. Would appreciate any help/advice

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Worried auntie - nephew with crohns NEW
by: Annette Young

Hello there,

Thank you so much writing in, I can appreciate how concerned you are about your nephew. Being diagnosed with Crohn's is a worrying and confusing time for most people, because unless you already have someone in the family who has Crohn's disease, it is something new to comprehend. It is really hard to know what to do for the best.

Crohn's disease has many typical symptoms:

Nausea
Diarrhoea
Abdominal pains
Rectal bleeding
Constipation

It does seem that no two Crohn's sufferers are the same, this can make it quite hard for the doctors to be able to treat the patient and get it right the first time so, in a way it's very much trial and error. This can make it very frustrating for family and of course for the person who suffers with the disease.

What makes it worse is that the disease is incurable, at this time there is no known cure but I would strongly recommend taking a holistic approach to self-management. Whilst taking the prescribed medication, your nephew needs to be intuitive with his body and to try to ascertain any particular triggers.

Many people do not want to eat at times when their pain is at its most intense and this is understandable. If the intestinal tract is blistered and sore, the last thing anyone wants to do is to eat which can make it worse. It is of course vital that your nephew get all of the relevant nutrients and so might be a good idea if he has very simple foods, even pureed foods, or food such as soup which is much more digestible and puts less pressure on the digestive tract.

He may need extra vitamins and minerals, and if he is bleeding, then hopefully the doctors are doing something about this. Bleeding of course can lead to anemia, so he may need iron tablets.

The doctor should be going through all of this with him once any test results are back but do always feel free to push for answers.

Alcohol, smoking, spicy foods and sometimes dairy products can cause flare-ups, so ideally should be avoided and stress is a known trigger, so it makes sense to him to try to remain as calm as positive as possible as this can really help.

I hope this gives you a starting point but have added a link to a site that you may find useful.

Do please contact us if you have any more questions.

http://www.webmd.com/ibd-crohns-disease/crohns-disease/default.htm

Best wishes,
Annette

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