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Hello, I am the mom of a 13 yr old boy with fructose malabsorption. He was finally diagnosed at Mayo 1st week of June 2018. He finally became pain free once we eliminated fructans, although I did not realize there are fructans in potato skins! Regarding L-alanine, how much do you take per body weight? do you need to take it on an empty stomach before you eat food? We have had no help in re-introducing foods. Dieticians repeatedy tell us "everyone is different, you just have to try." When my son has even 3 bites of a food, he reacts 6 hrs later and is laid up with abdominal pain, weakness and severe constipation for 5-6 days. As a mom, it is very sad to see my son curled up for so long and he is missing school. Do you have any suggestions on how to choose foods to re-introduce and how to decrease the likelihood of a reaction? Thank you!!
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Hello. I know how difficult it is to solve these issues on your own. We went through a similar thing when our child was diagnosed at age 8. We did an incredible amount of research and found some companies in Europe that distribute xylose isomerase. We first taught her to swallow these large capsules. After reading the information, we found that most capsules help with approximately 6 grams of fructose. We started with 6 per meal and now we are down to 2 capsules per meal. It helps beyond belief.
To further assist with this, you should also consider giving him probiotics to build up the good bacteria in the gut and when giving fats in diet make sure to give ginger infused water to keep everything moving in the gut.
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I am so sorry to hear about your son's problem. Regarding fructans, they are in lots of "skins", I think, whether potato skins, grain hulls (e.g. brown rice), nut "skins" (like almonds with the brown coating still on them). I have not found the L-alanine to be that helpful for fructans, but it is with fructose (but not a cure-all by any means). I still can't eat any sugar to speak of, but it helps with potato chips (which I eat a lot of for energy), an occasional baby carrot, etc. I take probably 6 - 8 tsp per day, after I eat the food or drug. I weigh 108 pounds, if that helps. Don't know if you can get too much of it; it is naturally used in the body. I dissolve it in hot water first; otherwise it is gritty and can feel irritating to the stomach. I put the 8 tsp in a canning jar with about 1" of water and microwave it as long as a hot beverage. When done, I take it out, stir it well, and then add the rest of the water, basically 2 c. I drink 2-3 swallows after eating the possibly problematic thing, more if I think necessary. Regarding dietitians, I haven't had much luck. Forget the FODMAP stuff; too much sugar. Plain food should be ok. Watch the spices. I posted a lot on these FM discussion pages about what to eat and not eat, sugars in drugs, etc. If you take a look at that you'd have a good place to start. If you want to try something questionable, just do one thing at a time. Good luck, and if you have any more questions, just ask.