Mother seems to have diarrhea often. Her internist says that, as people age, their digestive system don't work properly for this or that reason. He suggested giving Imodium every night, the liquid form, which was a lower dosage than the pill form, as a sort of maintenance. I tried it, but then I found myself trying to fine tune it, because aside from diarrhea, she will sometimes be constipated. Myself, I might disagree with the constipation, because she tends to expect that it must happen every day. Even if she's going, if it's not but a little here and a little there, she's not happy. This ends with her wanting an enema, which I will delay as long as possible. We even cut out dairy, and it seemed to help some, although not entirely, but she just keeps trying to get the dairy back in her diet. It seems with her, it is a very fine balance, and very hard to maintain. Anybody else have issues with this sort of thing, is this common among the elderly and, if so, what are you doing, that is working? Many outings have been cut short, due to bouts of this, I have given her imodium before an outting or lately, pepto bismol.
More recently, when she was taking the wrong antibiotic, she had pretty severe diarrhea. Searching online, I came up with some suggestions. First off, the article said that if she has the diarrhea due to the antibiotic, that her body is trying to get rid of it, so it should not be stopped. It advised against imodium, in this case, and suggested pepto bismol. It said that the pepto bismol would slow it down, but not totally shut her bowels down, like imodium, so that she would continue getting rid of whatever she needed to be rid of. Then I found something called BRAT ... Bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast, which are suggested to help stop the diarrhea and sooth the intestines I suppose. I wonder if eating those foods on a regular basis would help forestall it? It would be difficult working that in, let me tell you, she's so danged picky and often obstinate when it comes to what she eats. We've been trying new recipes, lately, since her favorite is southern and I'm not good at southern, and luckily she's liked each one.
When I took Judy off soy, it took over a month before she started gaining weight again even after I increased her calories.
Haroldine, I also understand your issue. It took me several years to get Judy's diet balanced before the C-Diff. I just hope I am smart enough now to figure it out quicker than that.
Whatever you do, be sure to give her 30 days or so to get used to the diet before making a judgement on the success.
Good luck, and kudos to eyerlass for her preparative thinking for outings. Consider a plastic drop cloth or shower curtain to keep handy and an extra pair of sweatpants.
June 25, 2013 at 1:00 am
To Your Health
C. diff infection can be difficult, expensive to treat
Dear Dr. Roach: I was hospitalized this year with ulcerative colitis. While there, I was tested three times for C. diff, and all tests were negative. About a week or so later, my doctor suggested that I be tested again and the result was positive. I have been treated twice with Flagyl.
To my dismay, I tested positive again last week, and was prescribed 500 mg vancomycin every six hours. This medication is very expensive, and my copay was $1,400 for the course of pills.
I am 62 and on a fixed income. Do you think this will kick the C. diff out of my system? It is thought that it was contracted during my hospital stay. Please give me some insight on C. diff and what can be done to get rid of it.
D.M.K.
Dear D.M.K.: Clostridium difficile (“C. diff”) infection is caused when normal colonic bacteria is overtaken by this abnormal one, whose name underscores how difficult it is to get rid of.
It is most common after a hospital stay or after a course of antibiotics. Having inflammatory bowel disease such as ulcerative colitis is particularly bad, since the infection can exacerbate the disease.
The first step in treatment is stopping the antibiotic causing it, if there is one. Flagyl (metronidazole) is considered first-line treatment, largely because of the high cost of oral vancomycin.
About half of people will get a recurrence, but if the symptoms are mild, then it may not be necessary to give further antibiotics. If there are no symptoms after treatment, it isn’t necessary to do another test. However, if the symptoms are more than mild, another trial of metronidazole is appropriate.
Unfortunately, if it recurs, oral vancomycin is the right treatment, despite its expense. A medical system where a person has to pay for an infection acquired in the hospital seems ridiculous to me.
There are two other options worth discussing. Adding in more healthy bacteria, such as lactobacillus, has shown some promise. And as yucky as it sounds, fecal transplant has been an effective treatment for some people with recurrent or resistant infection, and it may be particularly helpful in someone with an inflammatory bowel disease such as ulcerative colitis.
From The Detroit News
The best ways to stop it are to remove the foods that irritate most:
dairy, and grains are at the most common top of the list for most.
Also, make sure a good multiple probiotic and good fiber are consumed daily.
That would be preventative maintenance.
Also, make sure they are not getting sudden intake of a higher-fat meal:
fats in a sudden intake, when person usually gets lower fat meals, can cause almost immediate diarrhea! Gma decided to have a couple tiny cups of real egg nog one holiday, and barely got as far as the bathroom before everything cut loose.
A High-fat meal, when one is not used to them, begets rapid evacuations!
Emergency gastrointestinal solutions might include:
===Probiotics: a product with a longer list of types.
For instance: Acidophilus can stop diarrhea, but Bifido-bacteria help keep stools loose in someone who is prone to constipation. Acidophilus is in the PDR, so it can be prescribed and covered by some insurances.
All the Probiotics help better nutrition, help stabilize moods, help overall health. Probiotics help prevent bad bacteria and other bad germs from being problems.
Having a broad-spectrum, high-count Probiotic product [capsules], that stores in the refrigerator, helps most.
For emergency episodes of diarrhea, one must use enough to do the job.
If there's an active problem with the Trots, one needs to use far more--sometimes 2 capsules several times a day to get diarrhea under control, then drop the amount to maybe 2 capsules daily for maintenance.
===FIBER is needed for probiotics to grow on--both soluble and insoluble, to grow on, to help provide bulk to keep the colon healthy--FIBER helps motility issues, both fast and slow kinds.
---PECTIN is a canning product, it's cheap, comes as a liquid or a powder, most grocery stores that have canning supplies carry it, it tastes a bit fruity, because it comes from fruit.
---CHIA SEEDS provide both types of fiber, along with protein and other nutrients. It comes as dried seeds, which you can blenderize to powder it, and either mix it into foods that need thickened, or mix it into juices, or bake it into a goodie someone likes to eat. We simply put the whole seeds--about a tablespoon, into a glass of juice, or into a smoothie, and let them "develop" their gel-coats as they soak up fluid. Mom used to put them into liquid jello.
---CAROB POWDER: has helped regulate and keep the bowels healthy and operational, for thousands of years. It is both food source, and herbal health aid.
Biblically known as "St. John's Bread".
IF an adult has flagrant diarrhea that happens several times a day, 4 Tablespoons a few times a day should bring it under control.
A small child with diarrhea episodes several times a day, might only need one Tablespoon once or twice a day.
ALSO, Carob helps regulate constipation, since it is a fiber.
Carob comes raw [tastes sweet], or toasted [tastes nutty], and is usually found at health food stores, CoOp Grocery stores, or online.
I usually buy a pound or two of the powder [we like raw carob powder], and keep it in the freezer for long-term storage.
It has a great, long shelf life, even on a kitchen shelf.
When my daughter was very little and had diarrhea, I bought the original Tiger's Milk Bar for her; she thought she was getting a real treat...and it got rid of the diarrhea immediately---those things had a chocolate-like coating on them made of carob, as well as the centers had peanut butter in them [though these days, peanuts are more of a hazard than a help, since those crops have been GMO'd, so can be far more irritant for many more people].
IF there is an infective agent causing diarrhea, and you have no way of knowing,
GSE might be the trick: could try using a 20 drop serving of Grapefruit Seed Extract [GSE], in water or juice, daily for a day or few.
GSE is a broad-spectrum germicidal, safe internally and externally, and can be used in solution to kill germs on surfaces.
It is non-toxic.
It usually stops all forms of food poisoning with one serving, or at most, a few servings.
It has a VERY long shelf life--I had occasion to use some stored for over 12 years at a remote cabin, and it worked very well--it only turns a darker amber color.
It tastes extremely bitter though: usually best camouflaged using citrus juice, or a packet of EmergenC tangerine flavor, in the water...
I usually use about 1/2 cup water to put the GSE and a packet of EmergenC into.
One alternative medicine office I worked in, recommend all our patients who traveled, take along a little bottle of this stuff, to prevent traveler's diarrhea--NONE of them ever caught Montezuma's Revenge; they simply used a daily serving of about 3 to 8 drops in their morning juice.
NOTE: If someone is taking meds that conflict with grapefruit, USUALLY it is still OK to use this to get rid of bad diarrhea, as it is only being used once, or at most, a few times, to stop the diarrhea. Then return to avoiding grapefruit, once the person is OK.
Usually, only ONE of the above methods is needed [not counting removing irritating foods].
There has only been one event in over 60 years, when I had to resort to using ALL of these methods, to control diarrhea [Carob, GSE and Probiotics], as well as removing dairy, sugars, grains totally from diet.
There are so many decent alternatives to dairy products, these days!
Various brands taste different and have various consistencies--it's kind of a matter of taste preference.
Many elders no longer have good taste buds, so getting them to try one might sneak right under their radar fine, as long as they do not know they are getting it...once they seem to like it fine, it becomes regular.
Soy milk, nut milks, rice milks, hemp milks, etc., could all supply a reasonable replacement for dairy. Soy milk has most protein.
OR...it might be, as so many are and just ignore it, there is intolerance to certain types of cow milk products.
Commercial dairies use the kind of cows that produce a type 1 protein, that humans were not evolved to digest. It is irritant, forms larger curds, and has more allergenic elements. UNfortunately, those cows are the largest producers, so they are profitable for huge dairy operations.
Older types of cows [heirloom herds], produce milk with a type 2 protein, which ARE what humans evolved to tolerate....but those are small producers, not found at most stores.
Goat milk is also that same type 2 protein, which humans can easily digest.
NOTE: Anyone who hates goat milk because what they tasted , tasted like a nasty billy goat, got the bad stuff...Meyenberg brand, for instance, is a collective of small producers; not all of them separate their male goats from the milking does...which causes the milk to take on that nasty flavor and smell...
REAL, fresh, PROPERLY produced goat milk, is indistinguishable from flavor of cow milk, and digests so much easier!
Modern pediatricians could give advice to those caring for elders, too...
For kids with diarrhea, Docs recommend the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, apple sauce and toast. You can look that up online:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRAT_diet
Hope this helps!
You might begin to see a pattern and then you can eliminate the cause. I do not think taking immodium regularly is going to benefit her in any way at all...especially considering her, and most all elderly folk's, tendency toward constipation. There is an underlying cause for the diarrhea and it might be exacerbated because of her age but her age is not the cause.
I went through this very same thing with my own mom and what the cause turned out to be, for her, was fatigue! When she overdid it and was too tired, she had loose stools! And she has always been constipated ever since I can remember, so I hesitated to give her immodium even just once in a while. Many older people have what I think of as 'bowel obsession' and the less articificial interference, the better.
As far as constipation, if she likes Raisin Bran. it truly works wonders! My mom is now bed-bound but eats it 2 or 3 times a week and has never been more regular in her life! Which is crazy, really...but true. You might try that for the other extreme. And if she doesn't like raisins, then I'm sure that other bran cereals might work just as well.