Hi...and intro

[Guest guest]

I apologize in advance for the length of this email! We have lots of

questions.

Anya (3 year old) was just diagnosed with UC. We found SCD on the

web and decided to try it right away. With the starter diet, in four

days Anya's D had stopped! She had had D for 7 months, about 5 times

a day. Although she had just been potty trained, she had had to go

back to wearing diapers as she had no control over her bowel

movements. Now, she's gone back to letting us know when she needs to

go to the toilet and is having about 2 BMs a day, a lot more formed

though perhaps not yet ideal. Yara, Anya's mother, says they look

like how they did before she had the D. We have some questions, so

if any of you have any insights please let us know!

Anya's doctor put her on prednisolone and mercaptopurine, and both

were started on the same day as the diet. We are now starting to

taper the prednisolone. It seemed to us that the sudden, almost

miraculous improvement had to do with the diet, not the meds, but we

can't find anywhere information on how quickly prednisolone works--if

perhaps the success is a combination of both. We are looking forward

to Anya being off the steroids and hopefully being OK with just the

diet, but in the meantime, we're wondering if perhaps the steroids

may mask how the diet is working. For example, could it be that we

are adding foods too quickly, but that Anya is not reacting

negatively to them only because she is on the prednisolone? We're

wondering if anyone has any experience with being on the diet and

taking steroids at the same time, and what happens when you stop

taking steroids. Is there a bit of a transitional period where you

need to restabilize?

Also, last night and this morning we had a bit of a setback in BM

consistency. Anya had a lot of bloating and although she doesn't

have D, she had more and looser BMs. We're trying to figure out what

this could be a result of. Factors:

1. 2 1/2 hours before the first looser BM Anya had 20 raw, peeled,

deseeded and mashed grapes, thinking it would be all right since she

had had fresh pressed grape juice made at home a couple of days

before with no problems.

2. We started her on baked, pureed apples yesterday as well.

3. Yesterday was the 4th day of the prednisolone taper (original

dose in the morning, reduced dose at night).

Today we've gone back to the basic diet to see if we can get back on

" solid ground. " Any advice on how long we should do this for? So

far she has tolerated:

broiled chicken, fish, and ground meat

diluted apple and grape juice

homemade yoghurt

DCCC

chicken broth

mashed carrots (cooked with broth)

zucchini (cooked with broth)

raw ripe banana

The zucchini and the apples were the latest additions.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Nayeli (aunt), Araceli & Julio (grandparents), and Yara (mother)

Anya, 3 y.o.

UC diagnosed 5/24/06, symptoms started 12/06

SCD started 5/28/06

Meds: Prednisolone, Mercaptopurine