My son has Autism and is very constipated and is struggling.... ADVICE NEEDED

[CraigN24]

TMI WARNING!!!!!

My son is 7 and is VERY constipated, he also has autism and because of this he doesn't understand and is getting very upset.

I have lost count at the number of times I have changed his nappies, he isn't going " normally" just little marks here and there and because of that he is also getting incredibly sore even though I change him straight away.

Has anyone got any tips or advice to help us please? Thankyou !

Try and get a prescription for Movicol? DS is on it to help 'loosen it up.'

You need to change or perhaps adapt his diet

Simple things first, no whole wheat bread or cereal, change for porridge, lots of water or very diluted juice, wet fruit - kwiws, oranges. Ideally plums, prunes.

Movicol will give him loose stools & may treat symptoms, but you need the root cause dealt with.

You need to keep him super hydrated as this is the best tool to keeping stools nice and soft, pears are full of soluble fibre too which is great stuff. But, if you have got to this point you might have a big impacted bit of poo and the 'marks' that you get on the nappy are just less solid poo which is making it's way around it (forgive me if you know all this already). You might need to get to the root of the problem and clear this one big poo before you can attempt to restore normality. Do you have a nurse or health visitor you normally talk to? If not it might have to be a GP visit.

Have you tried some pure fruit juice? Pure orange juice is best. My son is nearly 4 and has severe asd and we regularly struggle with him having horrendous constipation - the GP has now prescribed movicol which does help but before we had this we would give him some pure fruit juice by spoon regularly (as he wouldn't drink it normally, we'd offer it sneakily when he was busy doing something else)!

Constipation can be a symptom of gluten intolerance. Unfortunately if you cut it out it can take a long time to resolve but it's worth talking to your dr about.

I'd agree with getting as much fruit and veg into him as you can. Pureed prunes disappear beautifully into homemade cakes, especially chocolate muffins, as do carrots (n fact you can hide most things pureed in cake). Grapes are usually popular with children and are reasonably laxative too.