That's the outcome of the GI appointment this week. We're meeting with a nutritionist on Wednesday to determine how many shakes to drink each day and how to proceed with getting insurance coverage for them (if possible). After 8+ months of the SCD, I think he can handle 8 weeks of nothing but shakes. In many ways, the EN will be much simpler: if he is hungry, I know exactly what to feed him! Actually, the EleCare tastes a lot like cake batter and our son sucks it down and says it tastes great. We bought some of the Absorb Plus (based on a commenter's suggestions) and that stuff tastes decent too (the chocolate is much better than the vanilla or berry).
Our boy jumped a growth curve, and not in the positive direction. He has tracked along the 75/50 percentile for height/weight B.C. (before Crohn's), and now seems to be closer to 40/30. It's time to try something different for a change and we hope the EN diet will boost his growth.
Here's a picture of Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde in his best outfit:
Our boy jumped a growth curve, and not in the positive direction. He has tracked along the 75/50 percentile for height/weight B.C. (before Crohn's), and now seems to be closer to 40/30. It's time to try something different for a change and we hope the EN diet will boost his growth.
Here's a picture of Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde in his best outfit:
He broke our hearts this week (well, not really) and *finally* declared that he had taken himself to go poop and cleaned himself up without any help. His sister, who is a little over 2 years old, has been wearing underwear to bed for the last couple of months and this seems to have made an impression on our boy... fueled a little competitiveness that we haven't seen before!
What a cute boy, I am praying this works for you!
Yup, he's cute. My two year old has the same outfit! I hope this is your "magic bullet". The odds are with you. Good luck.
Sherry
You might want to read "Beat Crohn's!" by Margaret Oppenheimer; it's all on enteral nutrition for Crohn's disease.
I'd also recommend Dr. Wolfgang Lutz's "Life Without Bread." One simple rule- no more than 72 grams/day of carbohydrates; not sure how that'd work in terms of the number of carbs for a child, but it's an interesting book with a great chart showing how this one rule puts >90% (!) of Crohnies into remission for up to three years. I find that the Lutz diet, in conjunction with a grain-free diet, works very, very well for me.
Hi -- thanks for the recommendations. We checked out "Beat Crohn's" from the library a few months ago and it seemed to convince us that EN was worth a shot, but not for the faint of heart. As I said, I think our boy can pull it off. He's very self-regimented.
We haven't managed to pick up a copy of Lutz's book. 72 grams/day seems challenging, and I don't know what the impact would be on a "growing" (in quotes!) kid. My hunch is that, even on the SCD, he's getting more than 72/day...
At this point we'll try most anything, even conventional meds to get the inflammation in check and growth headed in the right direction.