Reflux (sicking up) - behavioural or biological? (ASD) Son ASD

[LunarRose]

Hi

Have 3 yr old son with ASD - month or so ago he started bringing up stomach acid into his throat swishing it around and swallowing it again. Today while he was doing it he projectile vomited as well.

This has sent me into tail spin cos he spent the 1st 8 months of his life being sick. Diagnosed as probable reflux. If you believe the medical pros he grew out of it. But at the same time I was seeing an osteopath, personally I think it was her who sorted it out.

So now I don't know what to do. DS still sees the osteo and she is trying to sort it out, but this projectile vomiting is a whole new BAD development. She also is suggesting trying cutting out wheat or gluten - which I don't know where to start on.

Doctor has given us Gaviscon - but as he brings that up as well doesn't seem to being doing much goosd either. Doctor has offered referral back for another barium meal as the one when he was a baby was clear doesn't seem useful.

Can it be behavaioural - has anyone else encountered a child doing it as some kind of sensory thing in the throat? (not using fingers).

So now I don't know where to start. Gluten or wheart free diet, osteo, pead or behavioural?

Help! Any thoughts?

(sorry so long

Hi

My ds1 is quite a bit older than yours (he's 8) and has a dx of AS.

He has struggled with reflux for the past couple of years, although he didn't have it as a baby.

Initially we thought it was anxiety related, as he was going through a particularly tough time at school, but the GP referred us back to ds's Paed, as apparently reflux in older children (as opposed to babies) can sometimes be an indicator that the child has a hernia.

His paed, who suggested that due to this and some other digestive issues (pretty much permanent diarrhoea since weaning) he should have a coeliac test.

The test was negative, but we were advised to try him gluten free anyway and it certainly seemed to work for him. He went from having repeated throat infections, crying in pain every time he lay down and throwing up part of every meal to no discernable reflux symptoms at all and his other digestive problems drastically improved as well. An additional bonus was that he seemed a lot calmer as well and his behaviour improved. Both the paed and his dietician have advised us to keep him GF, but he's not going to be tested again.

The only thing that muddied the waters a little was that over the period he initially went GF, his anxiety levels relating to school were also drastically reduced. However, remains GF and has since had episodes of pretty bad anxiety that haven't resulted in reflux.

Does he bring back the whole meal, or just mouthfuls? Ds would bring up mouthfuls at a time rather than the whole meal, but they were always ejected with real force, iyswim. He also screamed in pain when he had to lie down in bed at night and had to sleep propped up on several pillows due to the pain.

I'm afraid I don't have any experience of whether or not it could be sensory. I'm not sure how easy it would be to actually do it without stimulating the gat reflex with his fingers in his throat, but I suppose it might be possible.

Thanks Moosemama - really useful reply.

Think I just want to rule out the behavioural thing in my mind, but thats kinda what I thought too.

I had wondered what prompts people to go GF, (despite my osteo recommending it for a while i hadn;t seen the point). Up to today had just been bringing mouthful back into mouth - but today had quite some force behind it, upsetting cos it bought back memories of when he was a baby. Think I'm going to keep a food diary for a week til I see osteo on friday.

Can I ask did you request the coeliac test or was it something suggested by the paed? Was it invasive?

Might tackle it from all angles

DS did this starting around age 3. I think it started when he was unwell and genuinely being sick and then became behavioural and sensory. We did't go gf or cf as there were no indicators that we should (and we were seeing Simon Murch at the time). It was so awful, on our hands and knees during nighttimes and every morning dealing with a room awash with sick as we couldn't prevent it at night. After a couple of years (argh!) he grew out of it. But he's always gone for sensory behaviours that involved bodily fluids, from spitting to smearing and everything inbetween. Not that it has been constant, there have been breaks now and then and i rather feel that smearing is the least bad believe it or not!

Lunar, the Paed suggested the coeliac test. Its just a blood test in the first instance, but if that's positive they would want to do an intestinal biopsy to check for flattening of the villi.

I'm don't know whether they would have recommended the coeliac screen without the other digestive issues, or if it was the combination of both the reflux and diarrhoea that made their minds up.

The GP that referred us said bringing back mouthfuls is often seen in hernias, which is why he wanted to refer.

If he's currently under a paediatrician, it can't hurt to have a chat with him about it.

My DS had the reflux since he was a baby and started projectile vomitting from day 1. He had problem with lumpy foods and would bring up everything he had if he cried or if he was overfed even if it was only a spoonful.He grew out of it by the age of three and half and has not been sick much unless ill. Now if he does not want to eat (he is 5), he pretends to be sick and sometimes makes himself sick if the food goes down the wrong way.