Your Child's Digestive Health... Childhood Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
By Jo Jordan and Jim Danna, M.A.
Learn more about Puristat's all-natural ingredients >>>
As many as 100,000 American kids under the age of eighteen are believed to have IBD.1
Especially common in older children and adolescents, the onset of IBD – Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are the two most common types – often occurs around fifteen years of age. However, IBD has been diagnosed in children as young as eighteen months of age.2
There is a genetic component to the disease; twenty percent of those with IBD also have a relative who has it.3 The latest research suggests IBD is an abnormal response of the body's immune system to normal bacteria that's always present in the stomach.4
IBD symptoms include,5
- Chronic abdominal pain and crampiness
- Chronic diarrhea (with or without blood)
- Rectal bleeding
- Substantial weight loss over a short period of time
- Fatigue
- Delayed growth and development
Specific Treatment for Childhood Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
IBD treatment is primarily focused on eliminating symptoms, preventing flare-ups, and ensuring quality of life. Treatment is normally medical or surgical, or a combination of both.
Dr. Czinn believes IBD in children ought to be treated more aggressively than it is in adults because of the potential for significant nutritional and developmental complications.6
Because of the negative side effects associated with steroids, Dr. Czinn recommends probiotics and other alternative treatments to help to control childhood IBD.7
Diet can influence inflammatory activity in Crohn's disease, but doesn't in ulcerative colitis; diet can, however, have an affect on ulcerative colitis symptoms.8 Children with IBD may benefit from a diet low in fiber, with restrictions on foods that increase bowel activity such as milk, milk products, and prune juice.
Finding Solutions: Protecting Your Child's Digestive Health
While there are many digestive ailments that can afflict kids from a very early age, there's good news; parents can do a lot to protect their child's digestive health for today…and for the rest of their lives.
Starting kids down the right track early in life with natural, kid-friendly supplements as well as dietary and lifestyle changes is the right thing to do. Under the advice of a health care professional, such as Puristat's Nurse Vickie, supplementing a child's diet with multi-vitamins, digestive enzymes, and probiotics can help alleviate the symptoms of childhood digestive problems, and may even prevent serious digestive problems later in your child's life.
Additional Treatments for Childhood Digestive Disorders
Many childhood digestive problems affect vitamin and nutrient intake. A digestive health-specific multi-vitamin is vital to digestive health. Together, along with digestive enzymes and probiotics, the symptoms of many digestive ailments can be greatly alleviated. Modified dosages of these natural, digestive health products are recommended and considered safe for children by many physicians.
Puristat is here to help. The information contained in this Children's Health section of our website provides specific steps you can take to relieve your child's digestive issues. And as always, our digestive specialists and staff nurse are only a phone call or Live Chat away!
Now, How Can We Help You?
|
Take our Free Colon Health Assessment and gain a
better understanding of your symptoms in 5 minutes. You'll get simple and effective suggestions
to start improving your health... all designed just for you!
|
|
Visit the Puristat line of all–natural products, where
you get the maximum nutritional, protective benefits of our scientifically designed formulas.
Our products are free of gluten, soy, dairy, yeast and other potential allergens and we follow
the highest Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP).
|
|
Hungry for more cutting–edge information? Want to achieve your best health today? Visit our
Article Library, or call 1–800–492–4984 and speak with
one of our Digestive Wellness Specialists now.
|
Comment on this article:
^return to top^
Notes:
1. KidsHealth, "Inflammatory Bowel Disease,"
http://kidshealth.org/kid/health_problems/stomach/IBD.html (accessed August 8, 2011).
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. University of Maryland, "Pediatric Digestive Disorders 2/2: An Interview with Dr. Steven Czinn," http://www.umm.edu/media/video/mht_pediatric_digestive_disorders_czinn_1.htm (accessed August 8, 2011).
5. KidsHealth, "Inflammatory Bowel Disease,"
http://kidshealth.org/kid/health_problems/stomach/IBD.html (accessed August 8, 2011).
6. David Wild, " IBD Upsets Childhood Development," Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News, June 2007 | Volume: 58:06, http://www.gastroendonews.com/ViewArticle.aspx?d=Profiles+in+Pediatrics&d_id=190&i=June+2007&i_id=287&a_id=7728 (accessed August 8, 2011).
7. University of Maryland, "Pediatric Digestive Disorders 2/2: An Interview with Dr. Steven Czinn," http://www.umm.edu/media/video/mht_pediatric_digestive_disorders_czinn_1.htm (accessed August 8, 2011).
8. eMedicineHealth, "Inflammatory Bowel Disease Treatment," http://www.emedicinehealth.com/inflammatory_bowel_disease/page6_em.htmIt (accessed August 10, 2011).
|
|
|