5 Struggles Every Parent With IBD Can Understand

I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when I was just 8 years old, practically a baby. Here I am today, having endured five surgeries, countless hospitalizations and the full gamut of Crohn’s medications, and I have a child of my own. I feel so blessed to be able to parent our sweet 1-year-old, but it has certainly had its challenges, especially in dealing with my Crohn’s in addition to parenting! Here are some of my struggles:

1. You hear a crash while sitting on the toilet.

I don’t know about you, but my bathroom visits are lengthy affairs. I am equipped with books and magazines in the bathroom as well as my phone. I mean what inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patient doesn’t bring their phone with them to the bathroom?! I’ll be sitting in the bathroom with the door open while my daughter plays and then hear a crash, or a rustle of the dog’s food bowl or trash being taken out of the trash can. Never have I been so quick to get off the toilet!

2. You feel the urge to poop while driving.

This happens to me all the time. Before I had my daughter, getting to a bathroom was usually simple enough. I’m usually familiar with the area and can quickly pull off somewhere and dart in a public restroom (though I don’t always get that lucky, but that’s an article for another time!). Now when I feel the need to find a restroom I have to consider my daughter. She’s in the backseat in her car seat, which now no longer comes out of the car. Will I have enough time to pull off somewhere, get out, grab my daughter and run inside? And that leads to the next checklist item.

3. Holding your kid while using the toilet.

This has happened too many times to count! I’ll have to grab my daughter out of her car seat and run to a restroom without time to put her in a stroller. So I just hold on to her while I’m pooping. No big deal, until I hear someone come into the restroom and try to wait them out so I don’t have to walk out of a restroom holding my baby, with no other explanation than I was holding her while popping a squat.

4. Feeding your kid in the bathroom.

This happened more so when my daughter was a tiny baby and I was afraid to take the bottle away mid-feed. I would feel the urge to poop without warning and knew I had to book it. If my husband wasn’t home to hand her off to, then I’d trot carefully to the restroom and with much difficulty find my way to the toilet while still feeding the baby. I got skills, man.

5. Feeling pain during play.

This one isn’t funny, but I’m sure very relatable. I used to worry about having children and not being able to play with them and take care of them if my Crohn’s flared up. But we knew we wanted kids and we were blessed with the sweetest baby girl in June of 2015. Then I had a flare. I was in pain much of the day and in the bathroom frequently. I had to give myself a lot of grace because I felt guilt about not being able to play with our daughter as much as I would have liked. But we made it through the first year and she is such an incredible blessing.

I know that I had good days and bad but I feel so blessed that I get to be a mommy to our sweet baby girl.

Follow this journey on Growing Up Expat.