Cara Care: IBS, FODMAP Tracker Ratings and Reviews

4.8 out of 5
4.1K Ratings

4.1K Ratings

Dragonsun... ,

really liking it so far

I’ve only been using it for a few days but so far I really like the amount of detail you can add about your symptoms and other factors beyond food. One small thing that would be a huge improvement for me would be having a wider range of hours available in the “how much sleep did you get” section, since I suffer from fatigue related to my symptoms I regularly sleep 10+ hours a night and the sleep tracker only goes up to 8+, which make it hard to see if sleeping only 8 or 9 hours has an effect on my symptoms vs 10 or 11 hours. The sleep tracker also has pretty wide chunks of 2 whole hours, which I would think also makes this harder to track. That’s my only comment, otherwise great app!

edit 2023: can’t really complain about a free app and in general cara care is amazing, but I wanted to report a small bug/UI issue that is very frustrating, which is that swiping down cancels a report before you’ve saved it. I’m not sure why this feature exists, since there is a very obvious cancel button, and the amount of times that I’ve wanted to delete an entire report I’ve written before saving it is far surpassed by the number of times I’ve accidentally slightly swiped down while trying to press the Save All button, thus deleting my carefully registered meal, symptoms, etc. and having to start over from zero due to a careless motion. Please please please if you can eliminate this gesture it would be a time saver!!!

KTGriffug36 ,

Sincerely the best app

There are no ads in this free app, and if it weren’t free I would gladly pay for it. I have IBS and GERD, and tracking all of my symptoms can be difficult. I usually use MyFitnessPal for food intake but because I don’t have premium, I can’t see the times I ate so I couldn’t correlate foods with symptoms. But this app, Cara, tracks the minute you enter something. You can retroactively add something as well, but only in 15-minute increments. My phone is basically always on me anyway so that’s not a bother. My only complaint is that it doesn’t count “today” as “today” until after 4 am. Sometimes my symptoms cause me to wake at 3 in the morning and it will track it as if it’s the day before. Honestly this would’ve been perfect when I worked swing shift.... oh well.
I like that you can add your own meds, foods, create favorite meals so if you eat the same food every day you just select it. No worries about calorie/nutrient info either like in MFP, so you just type what you ate and add it. You can add your own tags in the symptoms, plus there is a journal tab too so you can take notes in the same entry as your food/symptoms. Really, can’t ask for better. This is an ideal app for any symptoms for any ailment.

I have been using this for a while and for those who are having crashing issues... I suggest updating your iOS. I haven’t had a single functioning issue with this app yet.

Flayel ,

I dig it

I am a male and I suffer from IBS-D, heartburn and acid reflux. This app is helping me to track and take note of my trigger foods and ultimately avoid or at least be aware of the things that are and are not causing my symptoms . It is fairly easy to use this app in conjunction with the FODMAP diet, but many of the foods are more European than American in regards to the commonality and name. Luckily, you can add as many foods and name them, or mis-name, them however you like and that has worked super well when doing to FODMAP plan as there are many strange concoctions and gluten free varieties of foods to track. I also have had great success snapping pictures of my food and saving them in the “saved or favorite” recipes area making it particularly handy to meal prep for multiple days at a time and not have to try and re-enter everything over and over again for any meal you eat it at. Don’t worry, if you forget to save you can roll back to the day you had something previously, pop it open and save it to your favorites list (I do this several times a week). I also find that I may prep salads for a week but add carrots one day or a different/no dressing on another day, I enjoy that the saved recipes are not locked and you can odd or remove any part of it after selecting it as the meal you’re entering.

Enjoy your results!

Koocheese ,

Excellent Features

I’ve struggled with IBS as well as other unknown chronic illnesses, food intolerances, anxiety, depression, etc. since I was 15 (I’m now 21). A few months ago I saw a nutritionist that simply provided me with a template to track everything that I eat. It really opened my eyes to the content and amount I was eating and how it may have connections to flare-ups of symptoms but as you can imagine, it’s difficult to hand-write notes on every single thing you eat when you’re leading a busy lifestyle. Especially when I snack all day long! I tried other similar apps that only track your calories by scanning barcodes and that actually encouraged me to eat more processed, packaged foods because of the ease of tracking the calories. I love that this app leaves so much room for customization not only with the foods that you put (I personally input the brand and the grams of sugar per meal for my own use) but also symptoms (what some may call “indigestion” I call “sharp epigastric pain”) and you can add these custom symptom tags! Cara support seems very responsive and personable as well. Very happy that I found this app, and I highly recommend it for anyone suffering of anything chronic.

ffisherb ,

Still THE best - ride out the update

(I changed my review from three to five stars since they’ve been so diligent about taking feedback on the latest update)

Absolutely *the* most comprehensive whole body app around. Yes, the new update has some bugs, and yes, they are working on it. (I’ve sent them extensive screenshots and they’ve replied to my annoyingly detailed messages so kindly) This is not just for IBS or gastrointestinal issues, my psychiatrist actually recommended it for my bipolar meds and sleep/meal/exercise tracking. If you’re looking for a calorie/quick weight loss fix, this is not for you. If you’re looking for something that will help you improve your overall wellbeing for a lifetime, download this app. Whole health is comprehensive and involves far more than fat/calories, and this app covers it ALL - sleep, skin, physical pain vs mental pain, so many others that I’ve forgotten! You can adjust the lineup as needed in order of most frequently used. I cannot say enough good about Cara, and now include their team in that praise as well. I would easily pay for this the same I do for my Calm app, and it’s FREE and ad free. Download this! No question.

Developer Response ,

Hi ffisherb,
thank you for your feedback. We are sorry to hear that you were disappointed with the latest update. We would like to resolve the bug issues. Please feel free to contact us at hello@cara.care so we can help you asap:)

Cait's Happy ,

Wonderfully Built and Customizable!!

I have Crohn’s disease, and I’ve been looking for an app that will allow me to track my diet, signs and symptoms, and my mood all in one app. This does an amazing job! It’s so customizable, it can be hooked up to the Apple health app on my phone, and it’s easy to use. It also gives me statistics regarding my health including the foods I eat on my best days and my worst days. This allows me to monitor what foods upset my stomach and which ones don’t in a very accessible and easy-to-understand way. It also allows me to correlate different aspects of my health and see if I notice any patterns that may clue me into things that I can be doing differently to help myself feel better. I was so overwhelmed with the thought of trying to figure everything out on my own, and this app does the overwhelming part for me. It allows me to simply focus on how I feel, and takes away some of the stress from everything else going on. I would recommend this app to any of my friends, family, and strangers; and best of all, it’s free. 10/10 would recommend!

avakwalker ,

Awesome

Cara is a really neat app if you’re looking for a food and symptom tracker! It gives you the foods you ate on your best three days and your worst three days, which is pretty neat as well. It’s also good to track stress levels, hours of sleep, headaches, workouts, and water intake. A lot of that stuff requires manual input, but it’s nice to look back on the day and see I didn’t drink a lot of water, which might be why I have a headache in the evening.

Regarding suggestions: I’d love to see some more in-depth and interactive graphs/data/feedback with all the data we input. There is a way to correlate data, but the graph output is super basic. More information on foods that consistently cause issues and foods that don’t as opposed to only three days would be helpful - like data over time...for example 90% of days you drank milk, you also reported an upset stomach. Just a thought! Being able to alphabetize favorite meals would be nice, too!

Overall, this is a great app! Just hoping to be able to use the data more than what the app currently allows.

reviews dont need nicknames ,

Fantastic

Ok, I’ve only been using it for around a week, but I genuinely think it’s wonderful. I’m currently trying to figure out many different food sensitivities and a generally wacky digestive system and I think this app is going to make a difference for me. The app has a way to log your: food, discomfort/bloating, exercise, water, stool, period, medications, sleep, stress, emotions, skin plus just an option to put notes. (If that’s overwhelming don’t worry none of it’s mandatory to log the rest) Then it graphs out your information in each of the categories. There’s also a feature where it shows some of the food on your best and worst days but like I said I’ve only been using it for about a week so that’s not really helpful yet. Anyways to sum up, I think it’s a well organized app with a way to track pretty much anything you could want. It’s free (obviously) and I haven’t even seen any ads. THANK YOU to the creators for putting this up for free

RachelElliott ,

If you need help tracking symptoms from a chronic illness, look no further!

Cara is my #1 recommendation to any friends or family that need help tracking symptoms due to a chronic illness. You can track anything from what you eat, your bowel movements, stomach pain to headaches and menstruation. For a little over 3 years now I have been extremely ill. Sicker than I’ve ever been in my life. I’m 26, but I feel like I’m 80. In 2016, I began anemic, B-12 deficient, gained more than 50 lbs rapidly, along with an increase in symptoms from an already present GI condition. I’ve been to 2 gastroenterologists, a hematologist, rheumatologist, gynecologist, etc. and we are still unsure what is completely causing my body to remain ill. This app has been a GOD SEND for me because it tracks the number of BMs I have each day, how I feeling physically and mentally, along with what I’m eating and the medications I’m taking. Cara also makes mini graphs so I can see how things are changing week to week and month to month. I recommend this app 110%. - Rachel E.

Muffinmakershakerbaker ,

Perfect, almost

The app covers a LOT of info (food water meds mood etc) but doesn’t go into enough depth. Also, I feel like I have to click a lot to make one entry. The process of recording your food could definitely be easier, like have a suggestion lists of the individual users top breakfast food when it’s around the time they eat breakfast maybe? It’d be awesome if your personal top IMAGES of food was presented when you open the food option, rather than having to type. Also, it says “Meal” and then “Ingredients” when it should say “Meal” then “Dishes” and then “ingredients” for each dish. Also, QUANTITY! One egg or one cookie etc is very different from three when acting as a factor for health. So a quantity option would be very helpful in accuracy. Lastly, the “three best days” didn’t seem to take in account meds, which, for many people, highly effects what days would be the best or worst. I am keeping this app until I find a more thorough one, but hopefully this one is updated :) I’d definitely pay for the app if it was more thorough, but at this stage, I’m glad it’s free.

Developer Response ,

Hello, thank you very much for your feedback. We understand your frustration and are really sorry about that. We would love to hear what you wish from the app, so feel free to shoot your ideas to hello@cara.care 🤗 .