Georgia is 14 years old and is living with Crohn’s disease. In this video Georgia answers the questions of ‘how does Crohn’s affect what you eat?’, ‘what about stress?’, ‘how do you handle the pain?’, ‘what are the side affects of steroids?’, and ‘how do you just live life?’. Listen and watch as Georgia explains her situation and provides encouragement to others that are dealing with Crohn’s.

View Part 1 of Georgia’s story

What Are the Different Types of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)?

The two most common types of IBD are called Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (say: ul-sur-uh-tiv keh-lye-tis).

Crohn’s disease most often develops where the small and large intestines meet and usually causes all layers of the intestinal wall to become sore, inflamed, and swollen. Crohn’s disease can affect any part of the digestive tract, including the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestines, large intestines, and anus.

Unlike Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis inflames only the inner lining of all or part of the colon and rectum. Sometimes, only the rectum is affected. In both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, inflammation may stick around for many years, flaring up over and over again.

Georgia is 14 years old and has Crohn’s disease. In this video, which is part 1 of 2, Georgia answers the question’s of ‘what is Crohn’s disease?’, ‘how did you learn that you had Crohn’s disease?’, ‘what was it like being in the hospital for so long?’, ‘what helped you cope?’, ‘how do you manage day-to-day?’, and ‘how did kids at school react?’. Watch as Georgia carefully explains how she has overcome great difficulty to live happier and healthier while managing her disease.

View Part 2 of Georgia’s story

What Are the Different Types of IBD?

The two most common types of IBD are called Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (say: ul-sur-uh-tiv keh-lye-tis).

Crohn’s disease most often develops where the small and large intestines meet and usually causes all layers of the intestinal wall to become sore, inflamed, and swollen. Crohn’s disease can affect any part of the digestive tract, including the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestines, large intestines, and anus.

When was the last time you had a stomachache? It’s normal for all kids to get bellyaches once in a while. But some kids get bad stomach pain all the time. They are tired and even feel like they might throw up. Some of these kids may have what’s called inflammatory bowel disease (or IBD).

About 1 million Americans have IBD, and 30,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. IBD, which can be diagnosed at any age, most often affects people between 15 and 35 years old but has even been found in babies as young as 18 months old! In the United States, it’s thought that as many as 100,000 kids younger than 18 years old have IBD.

So, just what is IBD? How do you know if you have it? And what help is available if you do? Learn more

Hannah is 9 years old and is coping with ulcerative colitis. Ulcerative colitis is a type of inflammatory bowel disease.

What Are the Symptoms of IBD?

Inflammatory bowel disease can cause symptoms that range from mild to severe. Symptoms include, but are not limited to diarrhea that occurs again and again, with or without blood in the bowel movements, rectal bleeding (blood coming out of your rear end), large weight loss over a short period of time, fatigue, abdominal pain and crampiness that occurs again and again, delayed growth and development.

The most common symptom of ulcerative colitis is loose (and bloody, if a person has ulcers) stools. Sometimes, going to the bathroom can be crampy and painful.

Learn more