Bowelle - The IBS tracker

UPDATED: Click the calendar in the upper left to adjust which date you are on. This allows you to add past records. Also from the main page a tip popped up that if you click on the number of bowel movements you can then edit them there, this includes editing the time. I wish this had been a little more straightforward before but I super appreciate the developer reaching out. I’ve already switched apps but this might be worth switching back to. Also changing from 1 star review to 5 star. Thanks for helping! OLD REVIEW: Maybe I’m missing something obvious but I have yet to figure out how to edit or delete a recorded bowel movement. Seems like a pretty basic tool to incorporate into a data recording app. I did like how easy it was to enter, the layout and little images made it kind of fun even. But I was entering data from the past few days and unfortunately you can’t specify the date. Plus you only get one chance to pick the time. Once the data is in there, I can’t change it, or even delete it! And since I made several attempts to figure out what I was doing and try to learn this app I now have many many inaccurate bowel movements recorded. I have to clear everything and start over so I might as well find an app that works better for my needs anyway.

I never thought I’d be leaving a review for an app that deals with diarrhea, but if you’re reading this then you know how IBS can interrupt your life. That’s how I ended up here; I was looking for something that would make some part of this easier. I’ve been having stress related stomach/gut issues for a few years now. Plus a few obvious food sensitivities that I was able to figure out on my own (when you start having severe cramps and need a bathroom within 20 minutes of eating the same food more than twice it’s not a coincidence). When I began having bouts of diarrhea with no obvious connection to anything, I knew I needed to start keeping a food journal. No matter my good intentions I couldn’t remember to write down everything I ate, IF I remembered to do it at all. I recently decided I would search for a food journaling app, not the diet/calorie type. When I searched, and added IBS in the parameters...bingo! I found Bowelle. I’ve only been using it about a week, but I’ve already found it so helpful. It is so easy to use. I always have my phone with me. I can easily record the time I ate or drank, or had a bowel movement. I can keep track of medications I take for dealing with symptoms. I know that the history and reports portion will be a big help to me in determining my triggers. I now have a way to be objective about my symptoms.

I have tried a lot of digestion apps and this is the only one I am still using after 450+ days. My Gastroenterologist was very impress to see over a year of tracking. It helped him see the current treatment with the low FODMAP diet alone is working better than when we tried to treat it with just medication. So glad this app is available. And for the record I would pay for it if it started charging. One of the features I love is the ability to customer what you want to track and add in custom symptoms. I have mad sugar cravings. So I track that. I have various digestive discomforts all of which I can track. It’s very helpful also to set the alert, mine goes off at 9pm to ask if you forgot to make an update today. I frequently forget during a busy day but I usually make an entry when the alert pops up. There are some improvements I would suggest, like the ability to delete symptoms I added which I no longer track. But all in all this is a simple and easy to use app for tracking bowel frequency and context. Great app. Highly recommend. Love that it’s free but I would pay for it to keep it if that ever changed. I give my best to the developer and thank him for this tracking tool. It has helped me so much to manage IBS symptoms.