Oh, Jill! Cape Cod potato chips! I'll have to get her some! She'll just love that. I got her some pretzels today and some tomato juice...figured that would replace some sodium. Am I right there?

Luckily, Mom drinks decaf coffee and I've told her not to have any more of her Sunkist orange sodas since they have caffeine...not to mention a ton of corn syrup.

Looked for apple butter today ... one without sugar but didn't have any luck. Am thinking I can surely make some, can't I?

You guys have been sooooo helpful! Both Mom and I are grateful beyond words.

As I said, she's doing better...balance is better, nausea is gone, appetite is back, etc but she's having to drink so much just to keep up!! She drinks at least 48 ounces per day but it's just keeping her head above water...so to speak.

Thanks again.

~Melissa

Not sure if her needs are different at her age, but I drink closer to 80-100oz a day (when I'm being good that is). I find if I drink one bottle of water first thing in the morning (16 oz), then my juice with breakfast (usually 6-8oz), then another bottle of water through the morning, then milk with lunch (8-12oz), a third bottle in the afternoon, milk or juice (8-12oz) with dinner and a final bottle from dinner to about 8 or 9 at night I can get it all in.

I agree with Shell about the Gookinaid Hydrolyte. That should really help. I sometimes mix it with sparkling water instead of still and it's great. Another thing she could try is Metamucil wafers. They help bulk things up. Start out with 1 wafer (there are two in each package).

Since you're trying several things to try to get things under control, you might want to try them one at a time so you can determine if each new item is working or not. You just don't want to try all the bulking things at once and end up at the opposite end of the bowel scale - a blockage. (Isn't this fun? Trying to figure this all out?)

One other thing - for some of us, tomato products can be an irritant. This may be more prevalent with a j-pouch, but you might want to just watch to see if the tomato juice causes any distress.

The other foods I use are rice, bagels, potatoes, pasta, bread. The white foods. And here's that individual thing again.... for many people, applesauce and peanut butter work well. But for me, I experience the opposite effect. So this is all trial and error. You might want to start keeping a food diary for a while and noting what things work and what things don't. And finally, I don't know what those ingredients in Splenda do, but as Jill mentioned, sorbitol will make her think she has a fire hose attached to her belly. I'm not sure if the ingredients in Splenda are somewhat the same. Try eliminating it and see if she notices an improvement.

kathy

Jill...thanks. Yeah, she's slowly working up from the 48 ounces but I can reliably get that much into her on a daily basis. But I need to remind her....a lot.

Kathy...this is like a giant jigsaw puzzle that I have all the pieces to but don't know what it's supposed to look like, you know? Thank you for the help. I've not really noticed much difference with the applesauce but pasta really helps! And so do bananas and potatoes. Splenda doensn't have any sorbitol in it, thank goodness! She seems to have leveled off for now. Thankfully!

Again, thanks to all of y'all for your help.

~M