Hi, My name is Suzanne, I live in Alberta, Canada. I have had IBS for about 20+ years. Yes, IBS symptoms can and do for me come everyday. These are some of my symptoms that I get daily (or most days) I get severe stomach pain like cramping and it feels like it is going straight through to my lower back, very serious pain. My stomach will bloat out very, very much and make me look like I am about 9mths pregnant. I get alot of nausea also with this illness. I will also have severe constipation alot, and then bouts of diarrhea. My IBS usually flares up from stress. Also, from different foods I eat or drink. Mainly milk products icecream, milk, cream for coffee etc. I do know that many foods also flare me up also. My eldest daughter also has IBS very bad and she is lactose. Her and I also get alot of gas and releasing gas seems to help alot also. I do try and go to the bathroom most days I also take Senokot "S" and just plain Senokot. I have now found that Fibre 1 Cereal with honey clusters does also keep me regular most of the time. As it has 56% fibre. Another thing I do for this illness is take a medication from my Dr. called modulon aka Trimebutine 200mg for when the pain is very serious and making me double over. It is not a very nice illness to have and I am sure that your Dr. will have other ideas also. For myself though I also have Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, IBS, TMJ so another reason that I get constipated up is from my pain meds but all in all drinking alot of water does help alot also. I hope that this does give you some info that maybe you have been looking for but I would also look into it on the computer and see what it says and for sure go and talk to your Dr. I pray that this helps for your daughter and feel free to contact me via my e-mail at susieq0630@shaw.ca or also on Daily Strength as cutesy. Good Luck!!!

i have lived with this for 30 years,now that I am 66, getting worse. Dr. said to give up salads, fruit, nuts, milk products, and the list goes on. I have always loved healthy vegetables and fruit so this is hard for me. I take bentyl, but it just helps a little. It would be different if I had to give up sugar. I just love healthy food. Does anyone else have trouble with raw vegetables, nuts, milk products?

Houston28- Yes absolutely, I deal with my IBS every single day of my life. It is a constant battle throughout the day. I have to eat at certain times of the day and stop eating fairly early in the day (4:00pm), or else the next day I'm in the bathroom all day. It is a struggle, but over time I have found what bothers me and what I can eat, and I'm managing my symtoms pretty well now. Once I realized I was also allergic to dairy, things got a lot more manageable. So I would also have your daughter tested for every food allergy possible, because IBS often goes hand-in-hand with food allergies. I'm sorry about your daughter. I hope you find some answers!

Renny123- I feel your pain! I love healthy food as well, especially fresh fruit. Unfortunately, they don't like me. I can't eat vegetables or nuts at all. I will have a couple of bites of a banana each day with my medication. These foods are just really hard for IBS intestines to digest. And as a mentioned above, I'm just outright allergic to milk. It's tough but we just have to find what we can digest. Sometimes it's trial and error. I try new things on Fridays and Saturdays (mostly things I find at Whole Foods or Sprouts or Trader Joes) so I don't miss work the next day if it ends up bothering me. It's not the most varied menu, but I feel like I have more control over things than I used to. Best of luck!!

I have IBS-D every day. I even changed my diet to a low fat diet which is suppose to help most IBS sufferers but it didn't help me. I suggest you go to your local library and borrow books such as "eating for IBS" and any other book related to diet and IBS. It might help her if she changes what she eats.
She should also avoid eating fatty fried foods, soda, caffeine, alcohol, black beans, dairy (or have only fat free or low fat dairy products, yogurt is ok and helps), and tomato sauce and any other acidic foods.
I suffer every day and my symptoms are IBS-D and it occurs mainly in the AM only for me. I am also going to ask my doctor about Questran drug for IBS-D to see if that helps me. Another person posted on this group that Questran has stopped their IBS symptoms.

http://www.uwhealth.org/healthfacts/B_EXTRANET_HEALTH_INFORMATION-FlexMember-Show_Public_HFFY_1126659195879.html

Thank you all so much for all these words of wisdom. It is all so very helpful!! This IBS is really taking it's toll on her. She is a freshman in college and it has ruined her year...completely breaks my heart. I will try all this advice that has been given and do all the reading. Thank you all and GOOD LUCK!!!

my case is exacly like cutesy , like 6 years with this i even had a hiatal hernia surgery 5 years ago, pain cames and go but this time its been like 3 months without stopping,everyday is a pain so bad, constipation, i do my life cause my husband doesnt get it so i go vacations, work, etc... sometimes i dont feel like doing something but i do it, today went to a new doctor gave me trimebutina 200 mg, let see how works, i had bad thoughts but God is my strenght, keep going, i am waiting for God to heal me completely of this,

Hello all,

I have been reading your posts. I don't post very often, but I had to add my two cents worth this time.
I have had IBS since childhood, however when I was young it was IBS-C. As I aged, it turned into IBS-D. I found like I'm sure most of you know stress triggers bad bouts of it, and certain foods trigger it too. I have seen several doctors for it, and nothing has helped. However, it has been about 30 days, that I have been pretty much symptom free. This is what has been working for me so far:

1. I eat every two hours. I eat small meals because I don't want to gain weight. At first this was not easy, but I decided to eat every even hour (8 am, 10 am, 12 pm, 2 pm, 4 pm. etc.) At night I get up around 3 am and I have a small snack as well.

2. When I absolutely want to eat a dairy product, I take a lactaid pill half hour before I eat the milk product.

3. Since I'm eating all day long, I have divided my medications, so that I take them all separately now, and always with food. I used to take them with food, but only 3 times a day with each meal (I am a diabetic and I have high blood pressure).

4. I don't eat fried foods, or fatty foods. I buy frozen vegetables and I cook them well before eating them. I can have bananas and applesauce. If I want to eat any raw fruit, I eat only 1/8 of the fruit. I seem to tolerate small portions of raw fruit.

5. I don't tolerate peanut butter, lettuce or tomatoes at all. However I can have small portions of pistachios, almonds, pecans and walnuts (2 or 3 times a week).

I hope this helps someone. I am 59 years old, and I have been soooo very tired of living with IBS, until now. God bless you all.

Rosie

May I ask, what is IBS-D? Does that indicate daily or something else? I am currently going through a rough time with my IBS which comes and goes.

I have dealt with ibs everyday for the last 8years, I've had everytest possible and they couldn't find anything. The pain is worse in the evening. I wish your daughter luck, with time hopefully she wil be able to adjust to it.

Many people with IBS at first focus on the physical symptoms and physical solutions to the problem. If you consider that we all have a weakness in some part of our body, and when things start to go wrong in other areas of our life that part of the body is the one that suffers. For example, for some people when they get stressed, they break out in hives or some other condition of the skin. It seems to me that people with IBS, that the weak spot in their body is the gut. It makes sense to take notice of which foods cause problems and to remove those foods from your diet. And because the gut is the weak spot; the part that suffers when we get worked up about other aspects of our life, we also need to develop means and techniques by which we can manage the other aspects of life anxiety and stress levels. Mindfulness training in hypnosis is probably the best way to take care of that. mind-body visualizations and also the use to make the gut less sensitive.
When people seek my help for IBS in my clinic, I usually incorporate the use of the dietitians advice as an adjunct to the treatment I offer my patients.
So you need to take care of the body through diet and medications; and just as all perhaps even more importantly, take care of your thoughts and emotions also.
IBS is not something to adjust to. It is something you can overcome.
I hope this has been helpful.
http://www.ibs-program.com.au

IBS-D is IBS with diarrhea predominate.

I have had IBS since high school (I am now 31), and I would say, yes, my stomach hurts most days. This is a miserable condition but I have learned to live with it. My friends, family, and even some people at work know about my stomachaches. I view it the same as people who have chronic migraines. I am trying a new diet and I am hopeful.

i used to have it every day in the first 10 years. Mine is IBS-D and I was afraid to eat in the morning because I never knew when or what time it would flare up. I pretty much have it stable with Citrucell fiber tablets and lomotil, but with lomotil I get the opposite problem, constipation. I cant eat fruits other than bananas. I am wondering about the dairy products though. I have an addiction to cheeze and cottage cheese. Wouldn't I have other symtoms if I was lactose intolerant, like a rash? I can't very often eat any legume beans and then there are times I eat it doesnt affect it. i cant tolerate stewed or cooked tomatos but I can tolerate them raw. i squeeze out the seeds and acidic juices if I want to eat any tomatos in something and raw veggies dont aggree with me, especially onions, cooked or raw. I get the gas too no matter what I eat.

Hi!

I'm very sorry to hear about the trouble your daughter is going through. I am 25, but like your daughter, everything started when I was 19. As much as I would LOVE to say that IBS is not everyday, for me and many others it most definitely is. There are lots of people who have flare ups, I would even say that I have flare ups where my normal dysfunctional stomach becomes an even more dysfunctional stomach.

I get a stomach ache every single time I eat. Been through a battery of test, had my gallbladder removed, and try watch my diet. Nothing changes it. It sounds terrible but as much as I would've hated to hear this back then, it sort of just becomes your new normal. They don't hurt so bad over time because you learn how to ignore them. There are tons of options out there to help though. Probiotics are my lifesavers and I literally carry them in my purse all the time. With much work she might be able to find safe foods and the right combination of things to ease her pains.

Just try and educate yourselves as much as possible on the subject. You will find so many conflicting views and words of advice. Go with what works for you. Also keep in mind that MANY things can mimic IBS. For example, I found out 5 years after being diagnosed that I'm also lactose intolerant. I found that on my own by doing an elimination diet and it definitely has calmed things down a little bit....at least I don't swing so rapidly back and forth between the C and D side of things. So consider potentially doing an elimination diet with doctor supervision, it may just uncover something! I wish you both the best of luck.

I am sorry that your daughter suffers with IBS too. Could some of the members in this group friend me on DS so I dont feel so alone in this disease? I wonder if it is hereditary? My sister has it too.