Autism and sloppy poos

[ecomum]

Hello

My DS (aged 3) has autism and also has several food allergies. His poo is nearly always sloppy!

I only realised this wasn't normal when I started weaning my DD on solids, who at 8 months already does formed poos!

Has anyone else had a similar experience?
My paediatrician does not buy leaky gut theory - but I am sure there must be a link!

Thanks x

[staryeyed]

Have you removed the offending foods?

[TinySocks]

My DS does not have autism (developmental delay,he is also 3), but he had sloppy poos for over a year. I was convinced it was parasites (he puts everything in his mouth!), had 2 tests done and all came negative.
A friend told me that all he needs is more fiber in his diet. I stopped giving him porridge everyday for breakfast and started giving him weetabix, and other cereals, and the problem was solved within 2 days!
I don't know if this might help you but just thought I should share what happened to us.

[Saker]

I think these type of problems can be quite a big thing in autism there are quite a few people on here who have experience of special diets for autism who might be able to help you. However I thought I would share my experience also because it might be something you can rule out.

Ds2 who has autistic tendencies / dyspraxia etc always had very loose poos and often went several times a day. He ate lots of fruit & veg and so I tended to put it down to this. Then a couple of years ago I discovered quite by accident that he was lactose intolerant, I won't bore you with all the ins and outs of how. But you can buy fresh semi-skimmed milk called "Lactofree" in green and white cartons from most supermarkets. Once I started giving this to my son he started doing much more solid poos and generally only one a day or even less which was amazing to us at first! So you could rule out lactose intolerance by giving your son lactofree milk for a day or two and seeing if it makes any difference. If you do find out that this is the problem then let me know because I can give you other information that might be useful about stuff you can get etc, but I won't bother now in case I'm barking up the wrong tree entirely.

[ancientmiddleagedmum]

My DS was just the same, with the sloppy poos, and I only realised it wasn't right by comparison with my DD (who has pretty much never had a sloppy poo!). We tried wheat free but it did not too much good. Then I found a probiotic on the internet called Threelac, and after putting it in his juice every day he is now way way better and quite often does formed poos (which give me an absurd thrill as they were so uncommon!). They say it's a probiotic for candida in the gut, so maybe he had that. Not sure, but I would definitely recommend them. I took them myself just as a test, and they basically just bind you up a bit - which is all that he needed. I'm sure they won't work for everyone but just wanted to let you know about them.

[TotalChaos]

similarly to saker - DS used to do the most awful poos - when I restricted the amount of milk he drank/yoghurt he ate, the problem was mostly resolved.

[castlesintheair]

My friend's son has autism and he has had terrible gastro/poo issues since birth. He saw a gatroenterologist (sorry, can't spell!) as soon as he turned 5 (the earliest apparently) who told them to cut out apple juice and give him one of those little bottles of Actimel a day. He's had no other treatment or medication and from day one everything has been 'normal'.

[ecomum]

Very interesting thanks!

As DS is very allergic to milk he doesn't have any at all - so that can't be it.

But he does have porridge oats every day so will experiment with wheat. He also has quite a lot of fruit and veg in his diet.

I also think he may have a problem with candida

I was giving him probiotics but a type with another supplement added which I don't think was suitable for him - so will investigate other brands including Threelac.

I'm going to ask my paediatricain about it again - perhaps he needs to see a gastroenterologist as well!

Cheers everybody.