Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease

UNC Children’s Center for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases offers multidisciplinary team with expertise caring for kids with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Every year, we help about 500 children and young adults reduce their physical symptoms and cope with emotional challenges, so they can live active, healthy lives.

What’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease?

Inflammatory bowel disease refers to a group of chronic conditions that cause inflammation and sores in the digestive system. The two main types are:

Crohn’s disease – May occur anywhere in the digestive tract, from the mouth to the anus, but most commonly affects the lower part of the small intestine
Ulcerative colitis – Affects the colon and rectum

Symptoms of Crohn’s & Colitis

IBD can develop at any age but is most commonly diagnosed in children during early adolescence, at around 12 or 13 years old. The most common symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease in kids include:

Abdominal pain or cramping
Diarrhea, sometimes with blood
Failure to gain weight or grow
Fatigue
Fever
Rectal bleeding
Relapsing gastrointestinal illness over several months
Weight loss

Symptoms can range from mild to severe, and they come and go. During periods of time when your child has no symptoms, the condition is “in remission.” When symptoms are present, it’s called having “a relapse” or “a flare-up.”

IBD Treatments for Children & Teens

Your child’s IBD care team will create an individualized treatment plan based on his or her diagnosis and the severity of symptoms. We also consider your child’s age and manage symptoms in ways that won’t negatively affect growth and development. Your child’s treatment plan may include:

Nutrition therapy
Medications, such as antibiotics, mesalamine, steroids, immunomodulators or biologics
Surgery to repair or remove parts of the intestine
Specialized psychological support to help children and families cope with emotional challenges and manage stress

If your child is eligible for a clinical research trial, s/he may benefit from new treatments not yet widely available.

Preparing for Your Visit

Most children diagnosed with IBD visit us at least twice a year, so we can monitor nutrition and growth. We’ll want to see your child more often if s/he is experiencing frequent flare-ups. Get the most out of your clinic visits by bringing:

A diary of symptoms for one week before the visit. Include information on abdominal pain, general wellbeing, energy level, number and consistency of bowel movements and other symptoms
A list of all current medications, vitamins and supplements
A list of any medications that need to be refilled
Any questions you or family has for the doctor

Between appointments, call 919-966-2435 to speak with a nurse about non-urgent questions or concerns. If you call between 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, we’ll call back the same day. If you call after 3:30 p.m. or on the weekend, we’ll return your call on the next business day.

Research Network Leading to Better Patient Outcomes

In 2007, UNC Children's was one of the founding members of ImproveCareNow network, a research collaborative focused on pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

While there haven't been any new medications brought to marketing in recent years, patient outcomes have improved dramatically across the network, including at UNC Children's, where remission rates for pediatric IBD patients climbed from about 60 percent in 2007 to more than 80 percent currently. Learn more about how this partnership is improving our patient outcomes.

COVID-19 & IBD

Below, you will find a great deal of information regarding COVID-19 and IBD compiled by our IBD clinicians. This information continues to change rapidly, but we hope these facts will address many questions being raised. Please continue to check back for updates. As always, please feel free to contact your IBD provider with questions or concern.