Hight Fat Diet

[anonymous]

Just wondering if anyone stays away from the high fat diet. Our daughter is 4 and does not do well on a high fat diet (can't get the malabsorption under control). She is small for her age but not skinny, and she does not come from a tall family.Until recently the dr's agreed that it was best to keep her on the same diet as the rest of the family because she does well. At her last visit she grew but did not gain weight so we will see how it goes at the next clinic. We have never given her any supplements (shakes) and they have said not to start at this point.Has anyone else had this type of experience?

 

[anonymous]

I 37 w/cf & it really surprises me at the diet some Dr's suggest for their CF patients. I guess I'm from the "old school". As a child, my parents always drained the grease from foods, then used paper towels to further blot out all the grease. They tried to cook foods that were not full of grease and/or butter too.If I'm not mistaken, now days, Dr's suggest a lot of butter, greasy fast food, etc. I'm not sure if this is what you're talking about when you say high fat or not?I never had any problems gaining weight & my (non-medical) logic tells me, why eat greasy food when I'm not going to get any use out of it anyway, it's just going to go thru me & come out in the same form (grease) & cause stomach aches anyway? Is this what you meant? I don't mean to suggest that everyone do this, I'm sure the Dr's have a good reason for the diet that they suggest and I'm sure their way of thinking has changed over the years, but I know it worked for me when I was a child.

 

[anonymous]

My doctor actually told me that I should eat McDonalds more often.Dave 29 w/cf

 

[Mockingbird]

Ewwww! McDonalds! Gross. =-) I can understand why they would say to keep your daughter off a high fat diet because our systems can't handle it, anyway. Keeping her off shakes, though? I do not think shakes are high in fat, are they? I guess I never looked... Anyway, yes, i stay away from the high fat diet as well. Though, that does not mean I am not on a high calorie diet. I just had a thought; some people on this site have talked about some of the medications they are taking making them overweight. Maybe your daughter is on one of those medications? I think it was some kind of steroids, but I'm not sure. Anyway, That would kind of make a little more sense why the doctors would reccomend no shakes. I'm only guessing.Jarod22 with cf

 

[anonymous]

Interesting....yes we were told to put her on a high fat, high protein, high salt diet (with McDonald's once a week if we could stomach it). We did try it originally but it didn't work and that is why we took her off of it. I always thought every hospital recommended this but now I see that it is not the case. I was just concerned because her growth, in terms of weight, had stopped but maybe it is because she grew in height. We will see what happens at her next clinic visit.Thanks for your replies.

 

[anonymous]

37 here again. High salt is fine. I've always known us CFers should eat plenty of salt & that's good, because I LOVE my salt!I think the high protein is fine too & there's nothing wrong w/ high fat either, I just try to get it through cottage cheese, regular cheese, nuts, milk shakes or desserts (if she's not diabetic), and other foods high in fat, but not necessarily high in grease. I hope this helps and/or makes sense. See what works for you.I'm certainly not trying to get you to go against your Dr, like I said, times have changed & what I did is probably not the protocol now. I was just sharing my experience<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">Good luck & God Bless

 

[kybert]

i have to stay away from the high fat diet. i had violent stomach painsd recently and a dietician discovered that it was from fat. she made me do a diary of what i ate etc and everytime i ate kfc, maccas breakfast or fermented meats i had pain. when im sick and stop eating i have to go back on the hgih fat diet and just take painkillers.once upon a time i think dieticians went overboard with the high fat thing. telling people to add chunks of butter, cream, milk, anything they can get their hands on onto their foods. this has created another problem altogether. normal people cant even handle this amount of fat. dieiticans are a bit more informed around here now.

 

[anonymous]

My son is 3 and we are having a hard time getting his malabsorption under control too. He takes the "max" enzyme dosage with each meal. He always looks bloated (except in the morning before he eats) and the malabsorption is obvious. He loves milk, but I only allow skim milk (which the doctors frown upon). But whole, even 1% milk tear his system up. I am going to try to make some changes to his diet and see if there is any improvement. Increase the protein and lower the fat intake a bit. He was just diagnosed in November, maybe it will just take us some time to figure this whole diet thing out. Are there any good cookbooks out there that anyone has tried?Thanks!Darlason, 3 w/cf

 

[kybert]

if your son is an eating machine then its good to feed him lots of the healthy stuff instead of 3 meals of fatty food. that way he will keep his weight up and have the benefits of the healthy foods. but if he loses weight then its back to the fatty foods.

 

[anonymous]

Just an FYI. I, too had skim milk as a kid, actually it was powdered milk<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif" border="0"> they didn't have skim milk in a jug back then that I know of! The reason I used skim (powdered) milk is because my sister had CF too & she was allergic to whole milk. As an adult, I tried 2% or whole milk & noticed that it makes me cough, as does ice cream, etc, so it must be the cream. Anyway, I switched back to skim milk (NOT powdered=) quite a long time ago & am doing well w/ it. I hope your son does too and won't have to switch back to regular milk or me either for that matter<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">

 

[anonymous]

Milk can definitely cause mucus to thicken, as does most dairy.

 

[anonymous]

The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is conducting an educational webcast on Friday June 25, 2004 titled: CF Nutrition: News you can use. Click on to www.cff.org and sign up for the webcast, submit your questions and hopefully receive the latest information needed.