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lunarose

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Loved one DX
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Colorado
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Westcliffe
I am new to the forum. My dad was diagnosed with ALS in January. My mom is his caregiver.

He is supposed to drink 6 Glucerna or Ensure a day.

He has very bad gas every time he drinks one. He was having diarrhea, and was able to solve that with Imodium. He has tried Gas-X and it helps some, but not nearly enough.

This problem is draining all of their energy. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
Sorry to hear about this.

I would have said that these are classic lactose intolerance symptoms but I believe that both glucerna and ensure are lactose free.

First- are you sure it is the ensure that is causing the reaction? What else is he eating?

If you are sure it is the ensure you should try replacing it with something else to see if it makes a difference

Can your dad tolerate ground up soups or stew? Does he have a feeding tube?
 
He does not have a feeding tube.

He gets all of his nutrition from the drinks. He was drinking only Glucerna, but switched to Ensure to see if that would help with the gas.

He has a couple bites of apple sauce 2 or 3 times a day with his meds mixed in.

No, we are not sure that it is the nutritional drinks. It may be more like a reflex in response to ingesting something.

Up until about a month ago he was constantly battling constipation. Then, I think when he switched to the liquid diet, he started having diarhea immediately after each "meal."

Taking Immodium keeps the diarrhea under control, but he still has gas.

He has had digestive issues all of my life, but this is worse and, of course, his limited mobility makes it very taxing.
 
When we got the feeding tube, it alleviated most of my pals gas problems. We just take the cap off and it lets out bubbles, etc. Sometimes metamucil is used to give firmness to the bowel movement. Can you use bananas in a blender with the liquid meals?
 
Sometimes gas is a result of lack of physical activity...no solution for this.

Can he lie on the floor and do simple breathing exercises. Simple yoga exercises might be helpful.
 
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