ASD and bowel complaints

[Handywoman]

Looking to mine the depths of MN SN wisdom once more...... is it generally accepted that ASD kids have a higher incidence of bowel issues or is this still speculative? Anyone here with experience of ASD and bowel probs occuring together?

Thanks you lot!

Handywoman x

My Dd1 is undiagnosed but I believe she has aspergers, she also has a dairy intolerance. She was completely dairy free as a child but now as an adult she has an understanding of how much dairy she can eat.

Dd3 has Asd and has never had regular bowels, I kept her on a diary limited diet until 2 but now she eats a fair amount.

She can go 3 or 4 days without pooing but i have always just thought it is just her and have never mentioned it to a HCP as they already think i have munchausens

DS suffers a lot with constipation. I do find having a routine of him sitting on the toilet at the same time each morning after breakfast has really helped. He had lactulose for a while which just made feel ill and stop eating.

Hi, my little one has a diagnosis of AS and was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease when she was 3 yrs although sha had all the symptoms since birth! She would be going to the toilet 10-15 times a day and her no2 would be like water-horrid times!! Since being medicated and on a casin and gluten free diet we got things under control and all is good! I remember on a AS course several years ago they were saying that 70% of children with AS have I diagnosed bowel problems.

undiagnosed bowel problems!!

Mine both have bowel problems.

They are also gluten intolerant - so much so that they get gf food on prescription.

Their bowel problems did lessen significantly when they went gf, but they haven't disappeared totally.

I have had a long running fight with their paed who insists that it's behavioural. In my youngest, yes, I agree. He's mostly fine, but if he's busy, he won't realise he needs to go until it's hanging out of his arse. Then he'll pluck it out and carry it to the loo

but my eldest still soils and he feels so bad about it. There's no way he's choosing to do it. He suffers from awful bloating and bouts of constipation followed by diarrhea (my spell check appears to be american, sorry about that!) which may be seepage round a big block of poo!

We used to use lactalose, which was fairly good but the effects didn't last long, but just got the gp to prescribe something called laxido, so we'll see how we go with that.

I have heard of so many people with children with asd who also report bowel problems that I feel it can't be coincidence.

Ime children with asd eat very carb heavy diets...maybe the whole beige/white food thing?
I know my ds1 (9) did. He used to get terrible constipation and used to get awful stomach pains. So bad that after a few months I took him to the gp who sent him to the paed and for an abdo scan.
We tried movicol and lactulose with no effect.
They put him on the list for hernia surgery (he has a small umbilical hernia).
I did some research and
After changing his diet...more protein, fewer carbs, more veg and fruit and his his bowel movements are now normal. He didn't have unnecessary surgery.
If you want to check out the diet we follow its found in "the brain food plan" by robin pauc. Got mine from amazon.
Hth.

Mine has ASD and has had problems with bowel movements since before she was weaned (but tested negative for milk allergies) She only has half a sachet of Movicol a day but without it doesn't go. Docs think this is fine and have discharged her

There are often reports/studies on the Food Matters e-mails that I receive.
I will try to dig one out and link - then at least you can have a look through their back catalogue.
www.foodsmatter.com/asd_autism/autism_general/articles/autism_gi_disorders.html

Whoops, as you can see, I mean Foodsmatter

DS2 has never been completely clean but his motions are completely normal. I have always believed his bowel issues are sensory, he is hypo sensitive and just doesn't recognise that he needs to use the toilet. DS1, however, has always had very dodgy bowels, 'toddler diarrhea' that has gone on for years. I do sometimes wonder if I put the wrong DC on the GF diet!

My ds (aged 5) probably has AS (undiagnosed as yet) and has a history of bowel problems. As a baby he was windy and colicy, and as a toddler had a really noisy tummy (always gurgling) and diarrhea. We removed milk from his diet which helped a bit but it was only when we took him off gluten at the age of 3 that he had his first solid bowel movements. I think gluten also affects his behaviour - he became less fearful and clingy when we removed it, and tends to become a bit more "absent" if he accidentally has any gluten now. Also he gets a red stripe on his cheek if he has gluten - not sure why.

He had IV antibiotics in his first week of life (and was fed via a tube for a few days) so I think this might have messed with his gut quite a lot.

Hecate, do your dcs have coeliac disease? Or can you get gf foods on prescription without a coeliac diagnosis?

no, they don't (thank goodness). They have a severe intolerance. They were tested and the GP agreed they need a gf diet and they get bread, bread rolls, flour, pasta, spaghetti, pizza bases, etc and now there's cereals and oats too. Used to be biscuits but they don't have those any more.

Thanks for this everyone. Hecate, how did you get them tested for gluten intolerance?

OK, so I will fess up about my dd2's bowel 'issue'. I should point out that she is being assessed for ASD, so no dx. She constantly passes wind, usually without noticing. Literally the whole time. It is so, so, obvious. She is oblivious to the smell(!!!) presumably because it is happening so much. At the moment this is not causing her any problems but I fear that she will ultimately be teased about this in school. Otherwise her bowels are fine.

Do you think it is worth testing her for gluten intolerance? If so, how? She is not particularly restricted in her diet (eats school dinners) but her favorite food is starch/carbs, bread, pasta, potatoes. And more potatoes. Then more pasta. She eats a lot of that stuff.

I have no idea how to go about this, considered mentioning to GP but feared they would laugh at me!!!! What do you think?

Thanks, Handywoman xxxx

University of sunderland were running a study about the link (possible) between autism and gf/cf and were testing children. It cost £60 per child and the results were acceptable to the GP.

you do find that they crave carbs if they're intolerant! It's really odd.

The only way to know is to either test, or put her on a gf diet for a few months and observe her.

You should also consider lactose intolerance as I believe that can cause excessive wind.

And look at how she eats. Does she gulp her food, chew with her mouth open, drink fizzy drinks, take in a lot of air with her food, not chew properly, etc?

Handywoman, www.espa-research.org.uk this is the link for the Sunderland people. They are now independent of the University, but it's still all the same researchers.