Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Thanks! And question about how to figure out what's triggering things...

Thanks so much for all the helpful comments so far! It's really nice to know I'm not alone and that other people are dealing with this every day.

One question I have is how have people figured out what specific foods are OK and not OK for them, as there seems to be a lot of variation? I've noticed that some people say they can't eat oatmeal, some people say they can eat brown rice, some say they actually eat some fresh vegetables, etc.

When I was first diagnosed with IBS my doctor gave me a list of foods that were OK/NOT OK for people with IBS (he also told me to take lots of Metamucil but that's another story). One of the OK foods listed was dried fruit. So I was eating a lot of raisins and prunes because they help SOOOO much with constipation, but my suspicion now is that maybe they are also causing pain. Do people find that it's OK to mix raisins in with Cheerios or oatmeal in the morning, or is that just too much?

I also stopped drinking soy milk and switched to rice milk, but I can't tell if that is also hurting me (certainly not as much as real milk was before I was diagnosed with lactose intolerance, but...). It just seems really difficult when my belly hurts every day and I'm always bloated to figure out which specific foods are and are not causing the bloating.

And then sometimes it doesn't even seem to be related to food at all, I just wake up with the pain and bloating or it seems to come out of nowhere after I've eaten really careful and bland foods.

Oh, one other thing: I know that Heather recommends mixing soluble and insoluble fiber--does that mean it's OK to eat whole-wheat blend foods (like whole-wheat blend pasta?) or bread that has some whole-wheat flour?

best, and thanks
Mikhaela

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