• Mode of onset (abrupt, sub-acute or gradual) and duration of symptoms
• Stool frequency, volume, consistency; watery or containing blood or mucus
• Nocturnal diarrhoea?
• Associated abdominal pain? Relation to defaecation
• Upper GI symptoms? (nausea and vomiting may be due to stricturing small bowel disease in Crohn's)
• Past history
• Drug history

Examination

• Physiological observations
• Nutritional status
• Extra-intestinal manifestations of IBD (erythema nodosum, iritis, arthritis)
• Abdomen (scars, masses)
• Perianal and rectal examination