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I'm a thirteen year old girl with IBS, I'm scared

Posted , 4 users are following.

Guest
Guest

So, I've been having serious symptoms of IBS for about two years. I haven't been to the doctor because I've been previously and I know it's not acid reflux. I want to know what it's like once it's been diagnosed because I'm sick of it already, I just want the pain to stop. I also got severe bloating which makes me feel really down about my body...

1 like, 3 replies

3 Replies

  • dana01526
    dana01526 Guest

    Posted

    This is nothing to be ashamed of. More than 200,000 people in the USA get diagnosed every year and there are a lot of ways to deal with this. Ask your parents about seeing a specialist maybe a GI doctor or try over the counter Imodium.
  • pippa58442
    pippa58442 Guest

    Posted

    When I was diagnosed with IBS, my anxiety cleared up and my symptoms really improved.  I occasionally take Buscopan for the pain and that helps a lot.  Try a food diary to see what foods could be causing pain and bloating.  Does your pain move about?  What are your bowel movements like?  Go back to your doctor for diagnosis.  Your doctor can also prescribe you other antispasmodics if Buscopan doesn’t work.  Anxiety makes IBS a lot worse; don’t be frightened and try not to panic.  IBS can be managed.
  • graham9772
    graham9772 Guest

    Posted

    You need a doctor who is willing to do the tests necessary to make sure that you really have ibs and not some other condition...Its not much use treating ibs if you have some other problem.   The other problem might be easy to treat so you can stop suffering quickly.       It is probably best if you can see a specialist in ibs treatment but I don't know what the waiting time or cost will be where you live.

    If the doctor agrees that you have ibs then I understand that the first thing to do is to go on a special diet called a FODMAP diet.   This was invented by the Monash University in Melbourne , Australia and is intended for IBS people.    Its simple in principle but a bit of a chore to do it properly so you should ask for help from a dietician which the doctor should be able to help you with.   I think you can usually get a dietician from a local government health service but you have to ask the dietician if they know about the FODMAP diet.

    The diet is called an exclusion diet because you start out excluding every food except those that are well known not to cause ibs.     You stick absolutely strictly to that diet for a while and in most people the symptoms of ibs go away after a while, a couple of weeks.    This is good so you then start doing what's called "Challenging" your body by eating just one type of food to see if that is the type that upsets you.    Now this might sound like it will take forever to find out a decent range of foods that you can eat comfortably.   Its not that bad because there are only about 5 groups of foods that you have to test so if you test one of each type you should be able to identify a whole group of foods that you can't tolerate.   This is where the dietician can really help.   She will be able to tell you how to test so that you minimise the number of tests you have to do.   The FODMAP diet apparently helps about 70% of ibs people so its a really good starting point, its painless and its cheap.   It might be a bit boring but I'm sure you will be happy to swap a few months of boring food for relief.

    If the FODMAP diet doesn't help then you you can try some extra exclusions like lactose and perhaps gluten but that should be done with the supervision of a doctor.

    If your GP agrees that you have ibs and you can't get a specialist then the GP and a dietician should be able to get you through the FODMAP diet stage.

    Let us know how it works out and if you find a good doctor.

    Cheers

    Graham

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