In your body is a very long tube that runs from your mouth to your bottom. The lower part of the long tube, below the stomach, is called your bowel. It is where your food is broken down and the waste is turned into poo.
IBD means inflammatory bowel disease. IBD can make you have bad pains in your tummy and make you poo a lot. It can also make you very tired.
There are two main types of IBD - Crohn’s disease (CD) and Ulcerative colitis (UC) – they have long names so sometimes doctors use letters for short.
Crohn’s is when any part of the long tube inside your body becomes sore. Crohn’s can also make your lips, mouth or bottom sore.
Colitis is when the last, big bit of the long tube inside your tummy gets sore.
Sometimes IBD will make you feel very poorly. Sometimes you will feel fine. IBD doesn’t get better and go away forever. It comes and then gets better for a while. Then it comes and goes again.
Sometimes doctors may say you have IBD unclassified – this just means they are not sure yet whether your IBD is Crohn’s or if it is colitis.
Doctors don’t know why some children get IBD. It’s not like a cold; your family and friends can’t ‘catch it’.
Children with IBD see a special doctor or nurse at the hospital clinic. Most of the time you will just visit the hospital to see your doctor. Sometimes you will have tests and sometimes you might need to stay the night at hospital.
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