I'm so sorry that he's having such a hard time! Start with the most basic foods. When I was diagnosed I ate plain chicken and potatoes for dinner every night. I had bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, and Ensure to help with the lack of nutrients I was eating. I myself am not having any luck with medication, so sadly I don't have any suggestions for that. My cousin sent me an email about Sherry Brescia's "great taste no pain" diet plan. it totally makes sense and all the testimonials make it sound like it works. i ordered the books but have yet to try it. i suggest looking into that. maybe it'll help.

Don't lose hope & stay strong! My thoughts are with you both.

I am reading Breaking the Vicious Cycle.
It is the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.
But there are a lot of different diets, supplements etc out there.
I hope he's feeling better soon.

I am so sorry about your husband. That is awful. I am on Remicade right now and have been for almost a year. Don't give up on it too quickly. I started it last March and did not start to see a difference until about last October. My doctor increased the dosage and the frequency a couple times too. That seemed to help. I am also one of those people that will call my doctor every day if I have to; to get the results I want. I did have very bad Colitis for the past couple years and tried a bunch of stuff. Tell your husband not to give up. It is a crappy disease, no pun intended. There are things that the doctors can do to help him, sometimes you just have to become very annoying to the doctors. I know that it helped for me to eat Cream of Rice for almost every meal when I was really bad. It has some good nutrients in it. Also, Cream of Wheat, if his body will tolerate it. Some other things would be apple sauce, plain chicken (baked or broiled), rice noodles, plan baked potatoes without the skin. Try to have him eat very small meals but more frequently. Also, it helped me to go see a nutritionist at the hospital. She put me on a low fiber low residue diet. I know some people say that he should be eating lots of veggies and not cutting out fiber but it can't hurt to try. It helped me. This website might be a good start for you: http://www.healthcastle.com/low-residue-fiber-diet.shtml. Relaxing also helps and I notice that when I have abdominal pain putting a heating pad on it makes it feel better.
The hospital told me that you don't usually start seeing results from the Remicade until after the 3rd treatment. But sometimes it takes a bit longer.
Give each thing you try a bit of time before discarding it. But if you can try everything before you opt for surgery. Once his intestines are out they can't go back in.
I really hope that he starts to feel better soon. Many thoughts and prayers are with you both.

I am very sorry to hear that your husband is having such a rough time. There are lots of great diets out there. THe Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Gluten Free Diet. Try Googling UC diets, and see what you come up with. I think most diets for UC or Crohn's go along the basis of low/no gluten or certain bad carbs. And a lot of them have no processed sugar. You just stick to 'natural' foods, meats [non processed] fruits, veggies [well cooked], ect. I just started the Gluten Free, Sugar Free diet, I'm on day 1 so it's too soon to tell.
Also if he's really not feeling like eating, he might just try drinking Atkins shakes [or Ensure ect.] for a while. That shouldn't bother his system, and he'll still be getting some nutrients.

Don't lose faith. Just keep trying, eventually something will work. Best of luck to you both. I hope your husband is feeling better soon!!

So sorry to hear that your husband is having such a difficult time. My suggestion for you would be to think gentle. What can he eat that is easy to digest? Chicken broth, rice, foods put through food processor/blender. Make things easy on his stomach and intestines, do some of the work for them.

I would also strongly recommend looking into Jini Patel-Thompson's website. She has Crohn's and has specific protocols for times of flare/inflammation.

Hope he is feeling better in the near future. Don't give up trying.

I am sorry to hear your husband is so sick and not responding to meds. Have you read Self Healing Colitis and Crohns by Dave Klein? After reading the reviews on Amazon.com I was convinced enough to buy the book. It made great sense to me and after applying the principles I was feeling better in one week and symptom free in 4 weeks.

I see a board certified nutritionist. He put me on a medical food shake called UltraInflamx. When I am really bad, it is the only thing I can ingest. I have had to sip all liquids very slowly at times. If you're on a budget, try overcooking everything and mashing,pureeing, or using a food mill. Potatoes, rice, chicken, eggs...I do well w/ these. Every body is different.

You've heard here about a lot of different diets and I have gotten MUCH better on the SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet) but I will say this--if you're husband is very low in strength he may need medical intervention. There is such a thing (I've read) as getting a nutrition tube in a hospital.

If that's too extreme for you then I suggest nutritious chicken broth (homemade is best) or beef broth. At the very least I suggest doing a gluten-free diet (no bread, pasta, etc) This could help a lot.
Eat meat and good fats (olive oil not canola) and eggs for energy.
Low-fiber is good at this time.

The rest of any diet can wait until he gets out of this very low state. I've been there.

Good luck.

Yeah I would say no processed foods, no sugar, nothing acidic, no dairy, no breads grains.
Water, chicken broth, scrambled eggs no more then 2 a day, with as little butter as possible. I would try yogurt but with the least amount of sugar you can find. I use Fage which was the lowest I could find (I think it has 8 grams?) SCD really wants you to make your own.
You could try Dry curd cottage cheese but it's hard to find. I can't remember what else is in the beginning of the SCD diet?
I would definitely ask his GI for a prescription for VSL#3DS.
It's the strongest probiotic you can get. I take mine on an empty stomach with 8 ounces water and wait 20 minutes. This way it's reaching my whole GI tract.
I would also get some georges aloe vera juice and take that on an empty stomach as well. It is soothing. I say Georges because it's the only one that has has the fibrous irritants removed.

Hello and sorry to hear your husband is having such a hard time. There are several diets out there that you could try - the Specific Carbohydrate Diet/Breaking the Vicious Cycle has helped a lot of people. Also Self Healing Colitis and Crohns by Dave Klein has helped a lot of people, personally I found it helped me for than the SCD, the results I got from it were somewhat miraculous, however I was not as sick as your husband at the time I did it. It is worth looking into though. Read the reviews on Amazon. I recently had another flare - long story - and am on Remicade and prednisone. The remicade helped with the first infusion and helped more with the second. Try to make it to the third. My dr basically gave me the option of remicade or surgery. I chose the remicade in the hopes that I will be able to go off it at some point, since I spent 10 years in remission with this disease. Surgery of course is permanent.
As far as food recommendations - read the books, see which makes more sense to you and your husband. Juicing is really, really wonderful. A great way to get nutrients and give the bowel a rest at the same time. I juice at least once a day - apple/kale or carrot/kale. I drink plain (no flavoring) Kefir/banana smoothes. Kefir is a really strong yogurt like drink that can be found at health food stores. Probiotics are good to take, but get a good quality one. Most yogurts that claim to have all the beneficial bacteria really aren't all that great because the sugar in them kills the good bacteria. I eat turkey burger and chicken for protein. Rice is well tolerated. A lot of people can not tolerate wheat/gluten products and dairy is pretty much not tolerated across the board. Avocados are great and well tolerated. It really is individual though, some people can handle certain foods, while others can't. But things like bananas, avocado, rice, poultry, are pretty well tolerated by everyone. I had one dr tell me to avoid anything with "hooves" while in a flare - funny! Also pork should be avoided. I hope things turn around for him. Surgery is an option at least....but I would give the remicade a chance to work and just try hard to get on the right diet, as that will only help the healing process.