How to Track Your Crohn’s Symptoms
Crohn's DiseaseTaking Control of Crohn’s

Your Guide to Tracking Crohn’s Symptoms

Your Guide to Tracking Crohn’s Symptoms
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Updated on January 21, 2026
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If you have Crohn’s disease, a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), your gastroenterologist will likely want you to track your symptoms. Whether you use a smartphone app or an old-fashioned pen and paper diary, the benefits of doing so are far-reaching, says Arun Swaminath, MD, director of the inflammatory bowel diseases program and chief of the division of gastroenterology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Journaling can identify patterns that help you match your Crohn’s disease symptoms — diarrhea, rectal bleeding, cramps, weight loss, fever, flatulence — with triggers and exacerbating factors.

 It may also provide information that can help indicate how well a treatment is working, among other things.

The more details you can provide to your doctor about the onset, severity, and duration of your Crohn’s disease symptoms, the better they can determine the right treatment plan for you, says Jenny Sauk, MD, a gastroenterologist and the director of clinical care for the center for inflammatory bowel diseases at the University of California in Los Angeles.

Tracking the symptoms of Crohn’s disease can also warn of an oncoming flare, Dr. Sauk says.

 For instance, if your doctor sees a trend in your symptoms, such as more episodes of diarrhea, they may decide to perform blood and stool tests, or imaging using an intestinal ultrasound or a colonoscopy to check for active inflammation.

How to Track Crohn’s Disease Symptoms

You can use a smartphone app to track your Crohn’s symptoms, and the collected information can be shared directly with your doctor, says James Marion, MD, a professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine and a gastroenterologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

For example, the free smartphone apps My IBD Care and mySymptoms allow you to input information about diet, symptoms, and activities that can be sent to your doctor. “Symptom tracker apps are more efficient, because notes taken with paper and pen have to be transcribed and can’t be transmitted,” Dr. Marion says. The apps also organize your data for you.

But tracking symptoms by writing them down can still work, Sauk says. Make sure to remember to periodically share them with your doctor via the practice’s messaging system — by typing them out, or by sending photos or scanned images of your handwritten notes — so your doctor can look them over before your appointment. You can also bring them with you, though it’s much harder for your provider to draw conclusions from months of journal entries during a brief visit.

The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation has a chart you can use to track symptoms without a smartphone. Sauk suggests starting a written journal with the following information about your Crohn’s disease symptoms:

  • Date and time of symptom onset
  • Type of symptom
  • Intensity of the symptom (on a scale of 1 to 10)
  • Detailed description of the symptom

It’s also helpful to note any steps you took to alleviate the symptom, she says.

Lastly, consider keeping the chart in one place, such as in the bathroom, to remind yourself to document your most relevant symptoms.

Illustrative graphic titled How Crohn’s Disease Affects the Body shows fatigue, eye inflammation, nausea, diarrhea, rectal bleeding, skin issues, joint pain, defecation issues, abdominal pain, weight loss and fever. Everyday Health logo
Any or all of these can be symptoms of Crohn’s disease.Everyday Health

Crohn’s Disease Symptoms: What to Track

No matter which method you choose, it’s important to track the following Crohn’s disease symptoms and triggers, so that you and your healthcare team are aware when changes occur.

Dietary Triggers There’s no universal set of diet-related triggers for Crohn’s disease symptoms. “Each person seems to have something different that sets symptoms off, but if it can be determined that a person has the same negative response with repeated exposure to fatty or spicy foods, for example, steps can be taken to eliminate the triggers,” Dr. Swaminath says.

Bowel Movements The number and consistency of bowel movements — and whether you experience urgency — are important to record, Marion says. “Your doctor needs to know if you get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, because that’s a sign that the bowel is significantly inflamed,” he says. This information can help guide treatment decisions.

Other Gastrointestinal Symptoms Nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain or cramping, rectal pain, bloating, and constipation can all be signs of active inflammation; make sure to note these signs as well.

Symptoms Outside the Gut Sometimes called extra-intestinal manifestations, symptoms like joint pain and stiffness, eye irritation, and rashes on the skin can also indicate you’re experiencing inflammation.

Medications “When people feel well, they aren’t [necessarily] as good about taking their medications, so a journal could show that noncompliance caused a flare,” Swaminath says. He points out that a flare might happen months later, however, as opposed to soon after missing or stopping the medication.

Some medications, including over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, may also set off a flare, and a journal can help make this connection, too, he says. It’s important to keep track of all the medications you take, including over-the-counter drugs and vitamins, minerals, and other supplements.

Sleep, Stress, and Other Factors Sleep patterns and stress levels should also be noted, Marion says. “If these triggers are identified, you and your doctor can work on managing your stress or improving your sleep,” he says. Women should also note when they have their period to see if it worsens or causes Crohn’s symptoms, he says.

Keeping track of symptoms and triggers can help you better manage your Crohn’s disease by clarifying which triggers you might be able to avoid. It’ll also give your doctor valuable information they need to help you achieve remission. If tracking things closely adds stress to your life, however, it’s okay to modify how you go about it — being aware is important; keeping a perfect record isn’t.

The Takeaway

  • Keeping track of Crohn’s disease symptoms with a smartphone app or a paper journal can be helpful for identifying patterns, matching symptoms with specific triggers, and giving your doctor critical information to help manage your illness.
  • You should record the date, time, type, intensity (on a 1 to 10 scale), and a detailed description of the symptom, along with any methods that helped achieve relief, in your symptom log.
  • It’s important to track a variety of factors, including dietary triggers, details of bowel movements, other gastrointestinal symptoms (like pain and bloating), extra-intestinal manifestations (such as joint pain or rashes), and other signs of active inflammation.

Resources We Trust

EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
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Ira Daniel Breite, MD

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Castle Connolly Top Doctor

Ira Daniel Breite, MD, is a board-certified internist and gastroenterologist. He is an associate professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he also sees patients and helps run an ambulatory surgery center.

Dr. Breite divides his time between technical procedures, reading about new topics, and helping patients with some of their most intimate problems. He finds the deepest fulfillment in the long-term relationships he develops and is thrilled when a patient with irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease improves on the regimen he worked with them to create.

Breite went to Albert Einstein College of Medicine for medical school, followed by a residency at NYU and Bellevue Hospital and a gastroenterology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Working in city hospitals helped him become resourceful and taught him how to interact with people from different backgrounds.

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Denise Mann is an award-winning health journalist in New York. Her articles regularly appear in Healthday, Wall Street Journal, Health.com, Newsday, American Profile, and other consumer health portals. She is the chief editor of Plastic Surgery Practice and a feature writer for WebMD. She writes about women's health, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, diet and fitness.

Her first foray into health reporting was with the Medical Tribune News Service where her articles appeared regularly in such newspapers as the Detroit Free Press, Chicago Sun-Times, Dallas Morning News, and the Los Angeles Daily News. She received the Journalistic Achievement Award from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery in 2004 and 2011.

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