What is Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)?

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is when your tummy gets a bit grumpy and causes trouble inside.

Imagine your digestive system is like a team of workers passing along a message. In IBD, some of the workers get too excited and start arguing or shouting, making the message messy and hard to understand. This makes your belly feel uncomfortable, sometimes even sore or bloated.

When this happens, you might feel pain in your tummy, have diarrhea, or maybe even feel like you want to throw up. Sometimes it’s like having a constant stomach ache that doesn’t go away, kind of like when you’ve been playing too much and your legs are tired.

Scientists think this grumpiness happens because the body gets confused about what is good and what is bad. It starts fighting things that shouldn't be fought, like food or even parts of your own body. This causes the inflammation, which is just a fancy word for redness and swelling in your tummy.

It’s not magic, it's just your body working hard but getting confused along the way!