Sootha. for interstitial cystitis

Learns your triggers from your own logs

Find out which foods actually flare your bladder.

Coffee, citrus, tomatoes, anything fizzy — the standard IC lists warn you off dozens of foods at once, but your triggers aren't the next person's. Sootha tracks what you eat and how you feel, then shows the foods that keep turning up before your flares — and nudges you to try one again when your logs stay quiet.

Free. One email when the beta opens — nothing else, and you can leave anytime.

Logging stays free forever · your first insight is free · no subscription to keep your data.

Prefer to help build it? A one-time founding spot is open — first 100, no card to reserve.

Grilled salmon, rice & carrots Usually gentle

Nothing on this plate lands on the common-trigger lists — a dinner most people with IC do fine with. Your own logs get the final say.

High confidence · your tolerance may differ · not medical advice

The lists never fit you

If you have IC, you know the drill: a printout that reds-out half the menu, and a lot of trial and error to find the few things that actually set you off. Coffee wrecks some people and barely touches others. A cooked tomato isn't a fresh one. A sip isn't a mug.

And it wears on you. You start turning down dinners out, and foods you used to love — not because you know they'll hurt, but because you can't be sure they won't.

So most people end up as their own researcher — a notes app, a spreadsheet, a mental tally that never quite adds up. Sootha does that part for you.

How it works

Log in a few taps

Note what you ate and how your bladder felt. It's quick enough to keep up with on a rough day.

Check before you order

Type in a food, point your camera at a restaurant menu, or paste a recipe. You get a straight read on what to watch for, plus how sure Sootha is — the same kind of read you see up top. When it isn't confident, it says so instead of guessing.

See your own patterns

After a couple of weeks of logging, Sootha connects your meals to your symptoms and shows the foods that keep showing up before a flare — and the ones that seem safe for you specifically. And when your logs stay quiet on a food you'd sworn off, it nudges you to try it again — your call, always.

See it for yourself

Real screens from the private build — the same calm, specific reads you'd get on your phone.

A personal list of foods marked safe for you, each with a green dot and marked as your own call. — Your safe listThe short list of foods you can stop second-guessing.

An Insights pattern card showing how often urgency followed brewed coffee across the days it was logged. — Your own patternsHow often a symptom followed a food — counted straight from the days you logged it.

A gentle prompt offering a long-avoided food back to try again, framed as entirely the user's call. — Worth trying againWhen a food has stayed quiet in your logs, it says: maybe try it again.

Sootha rating brewed coffee as a common trigger, with a plain-language reason and a confidence note. — Check a foodA plain reason for every read — and when it's not sure, it says so.

The symptom logger: pick a symptom, set severity, mark a flare — kept on your phone. — Log in secondsA meal or a flare — and it stays on your phone.

A pasted recipe read ingredient by ingredient, each rated with a plain reason. — Check a recipeEvery ingredient, read one by one.

A restaurant menu read from a photo, its dishes sorted into usually gentle, worth watching, and common triggers. — Menu from a photoRead the menu before you order.

What makes it different

A food list — or a chatbot

Gives everyone the same read — and forgets it the moment you close the tab
No help with a real restaurant dish or a recipe
Treats a fresh tomato and a jar of sauce the same
Never gets to know you

Sootha

Learns the triggers and safe foods that are yours
Reads real meals, menus, and recipes
Weighs how something's cooked and how much you're having
Gets sharper the longer you use it

Where it's going

Sootha is real software today, built by one person. Here's honestly where it stands and where it's headed — a projected plan, so it'll shift as I learn from testers. These are targets, not dates.

Now — the betaWorking today

The real, private app you'd be testing.

Check a food, a meal, or a menu photo
Check a recipe for common triggers
Log meals & symptoms — offline
Patterns from your own logs, after ~2 weeks
Your safe list — your call overrides ours
Export or delete everything, anytime

Next — opening the beta upIn progress

The gates between the private build and the first testers.

Clinical review of the safety copy
TestFlight invites — small, concierge groups
Reserve a founding spot — open now, first 100

Later — v1.0, out in publicAfter the beta

What it takes to open Sootha to everyone.

Final name, icon & the legal basics
Food-database source review
Quick-add, widget, Apple Health & sync
Premium goes live — logging stays free

On the horizonSomeday, maybe

Directions I'm interested in — not commitments.

More conditions, same engine — gastroparesis first
A clean summary to share with a clinician
Maybe Android, barcode lookup, hydration notes

Everything past Now is shaped by the beta. As a tester, what you hit and ask for is the list I build from next.

Who's building this

Sootha is one person — me. No studio, no growth team, no investors deciding when it's done. I'm a builder who couldn't let this one go: the standard IC advice is a printed list that says no to half of everything and never gets more specific than that, and the people stuck with it deserve better than guesswork. The version that actually learns which foods are yours didn't exist — so I'm building it, slowly and in the open, with the people who live this.

Here's the honest trade of an app built this way. You don't get a support department; you get me, directly. And the beta isn't a marketing phase — it's genuinely how Sootha gets finished. The people in it are closer to co-founders than customers:

Every beta member has a direct line to me — what you hit, what confuses you, what you wish it did. I read all of it, and I answer.
What gets built next comes from that list, and I'll show the work: beta members see the changelog with their asks on it.
If you want it, your name goes in the app's credits as a founding member. This gets built with you or it doesn't get built right.

And the part that doesn't depend on trusting me: your logs live on your phone. If I get hit by a bus, your history is still yours.

— Leo

Founding members

Help build it, and keep it for good

Sootha is built by one person, working directly with a small group of people who deal with IC every day. Founding members get into the first beta, shape what gets built next (how that works), and keep every version of Sootha — including future condition packs — for one payment. No subscription, ever.

$99 once · first 100 spots

Why 100? Because that's how many people one person can genuinely talk with during a beta. The founding tier retires when the spots fill or the app launches publicly — whichever comes first. After that, the full engine becomes a subscription. Founding is one payment for every future version — including new condition packs — no renewals, ever.

Reserving costs nothing today — just your email. You're charged only when your beta invite goes out, refunds are self-serve for 60 days after that, and if the beta hasn't opened by March 31, 2027, every reservation dissolves automatically and nobody is charged.

One more thing, because it matters if you've been burned before: your logs live on your phone, not on a server. There is no service that can shut down and take your history with it.

Reserve a founding spot

Rather just wait and watch? The free waitlist up top is fine too.

Questions

Is this medical advice?

No. Sootha helps you track your food and symptoms and notice your own patterns. It doesn't diagnose or treat anything, and it isn't a substitute for your doctor or dietitian. Anything that looks serious, take to them.

How is it different from a food list I can find for free?

A list gives everyone the same answer. Sootha works out which foods affect you from your own logs, and it can weigh in on a real dish or recipe — including how it's prepared and how big the portion is.

Can't I just ask a chatbot?

You can, and for a general read it'll do fine — the same general read it gives everyone, forgotten the moment you close the tab. Sootha's answer is different because it's built on your own logged weeks: it knows coffee cleared you but champagne didn't, it tells you how sure it is instead of sounding confident either way, and your history stays on your phone rather than in a chat log.

Is it iPhone only?

Yes, to start — Sootha is a native iPhone app, built for iOS first so it can be genuinely good there. Whether Android follows depends on how the beta goes; the waitlist hears first either way.

Will it cover conditions other than IC?

I'm starting with IC and getting it right before I look at anything else.

What happens to my data?

Your meals and symptoms live on your phone — there's no account and no server holding your history. When you ask for an AI read on a novel food, only the food words you asked about are sent, never your logs. You can export or delete everything whenever you want.

When does it open?

I'm checking with the IC community first, then opening a small beta. Waitlist and founding members get in first.

Not medical advice. Sootha is a tool for tracking and understanding your own patterns. It's not a medical device and doesn't diagnose, treat, or cure anything. Interstitial cystitis is best managed with a qualified healthcare professional.