Surviving Disney with Crohn's Disease

[Lil ole moi]

It will be my boyfriends first time to Disney this year. He's worried about going because of his Crohns. We've only been together for about a year so I don't know a lot about it yet (but I'm learning). Does anybody else suffer from this (or maybe family members that do) and have any tips for Disney travellers with Crohns?

Thank you so much for any and all replies

 

[PIXARFREAK]

Hi! I suffer from Colitis, a family relation to Crohn's.
I have been following a diet from this book www.breakingtheviciouscycle.org

If your BF chooses to follow this strict diet, eating anywhere will be fairly easy.

I am a huge veggie person and plan to take veggies with me. I will skip out on any starch and ask for green veggies. When making ressies for restaurants on property, let them know about his disease and specify fruit and veggies, hold the starch.

The diet as laid out in the book requires homemade yogurt which I make. We are driving to Disney with a fridge, so I will have this in the hotel room.

Feel free to email me with question about the diet and how I manage eating out!

This is possible!!

 

[thewishfire]

I was just about to respond, and say the same thing as the poster above me did!

I don't have Crohn's Disease myself, but one of my good friends does. Just let anywhere you're going to eat know about his condition and what he can and can't eat, and if he's not feeling too well, just take it easy or go back to your hotel and relax for a bit. He should be fine and I'm sure the two of you will have a great time!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

My dad has Crohn's and had to have 2 ft. of his intestines removed a few years ago. He's lucky because he doesn't have very many restrictions (in regards to food). When he was first diagnosed he wasn't supposed to have any dairy, but now he is allowed. The only drawback is all of the medication he has to take around but even that isn't a big deal because he just puts it in my purse. One of the medications he takes is a powder that has to be mixed with whatever you're drinking to be taken after you eat. It tends to mess up whatever you're drinking it out of (it made a lot of our glasses at home cloudy and looks like they're scratched). So I take a cup in my purse so that he can mix it in that so we won't mess up the restaurants' glasses. Other than that we didn't have any problems. A few times he did have to go back to the room for "digestive" reasons , but that didn't bother any of us.

Good luck! And I'm hoping to get my DBF to the doctor because he has a lot of the same symptoms my Dad had but of course he swears nothing's wrong with him.

 

[Todd&Copper]

My MIL has Chron's and my only real bits of advice are: (1) let BF know where all fo the bathrooms are - look at maps before you go and point them out to him as you pass them [MIL alwyas makes herself very aware of restrooms when we go out], and (2) make sure he brings some snacks that will not aggrevate his digestive system. MIL is also lactose intolerant and allergic to wheat (or at least that is what she thinks is the case), so she brings little packets of yogurt snacks in a soft-sided cooler bag in the car whenever we go somewhere in case she gets hungry. Restaurnats should be able to accomodate BF's restrictions, but CS places might not be able to make things "special order" for him.

Hope y'all have a great time!

 

[poppinspal]

I don't have much more to add then what the other posters have said but I thought I'd share my story. My family left for Disney on December 27, my brother found out about a week before that he had Crohns disease. He was actually doing pretty poorly and had dropped a ton of weight. So not only was eating a worry but energy wise we were worried.

He talked to his doctor right before he went and the doctor gave him a different type of pill to take if he got really bad. When we'd go to restaurants he'd tell the servers exactly what he couldn't eat if he wanted a meal that contained dairy. He is always really good about what he eats but it stuck to it more because he didn't want to be in pain while on the trip. There was only one day where his energy level was so low that he decided to pack it in earlier then the rest of us. (Dad went back and they just watched football. The girls of the family went out and cause trouble in MK.) He carried his pills in his pocket in a little case he got from CVS. He was worried he'd spend the whole trip in the bathroom(as he had been doing for months) but it the end I needed the bathroom more then he did and my stomach is fine!

So it's really very managable to do Disney with it. There are different degrees of seriousness when it comes to the disease but none should keep him from having a blast. But feel free to pm if you have any questions about Crohns. I can't promise I have all the answers but I'm happy to help.