anyone got any thoughts on the use of probiotics to help autistic kids behaviour?

[gigglinggoblin]

article here says problem behaviour in autistic kids could be partially due to excess clostridium in the gut, which can be cut down by using pro biotics.

ds1 is waiting for diagnosis of AS, article didnt say if this would be helped or if it is just severely autistic children who can benefit, but i think it may be worth a try.

just wondered if anyone else has heard any more or tried this

Probiotics is just one of a whole host of things we use for our child's gut/immmunity. 60 percent of your whole immunity is in the gut, so if that is out of whack you wont be at your best.

More to it than just clostridium though. There is yeast, parasites, leaky gut, metabolism, amino acids, absorbtion, the list goes on and on. Probiotics on their own are not the whole picture in terms of treating autism, though they are an essential part.

The regime at The Royal Free in the days of Andrew Wakefield & Simon Murch was

• check for constipation with x-ray which often manifests itself as diarrohea (sp?) as that is the stuff dribbling round the blockage (lovely!)
• if constipation found and possible tendency to bowel problems, clear out with Parafin Oil (can't remember how many days/regime)
• after clear out help rebuild healthy gut with probiotics (not Yakult and all that muck but pure form added to normal food)
• consider whether child fits profile of one likely to benefit from diet intervention/restriction AFAIK the advice from the RFH hasn't changed, but it is focused on a child having bowel problems more than ASD but did take into account in long term planning whether ASD is affected by diet etc.

We used saccromyces- which is commonly used these days to clear out clostridium and candida- it;s a non-colonising yeast. It did sort out ds1's constipation.

Simon Murch's regime is still very similar to that from what I hear Davros, - although I think they use something more pleasant than paraffin oil now, but I don't know what!

not exactly news then is it! sorry, the article makes it sound like it isnt already widespread knowledge.

i suppose they are probably useful for anyone, but is it just severley autistic kids benefit or would kids like my ds with aspergers see a difference too?

They are not supposed to be good for everyone as "normal" people with a good diet shouldn't need them at all (apparently!)

I think its the presence of gut problems rather than autism that's the deciding factor. A lot of autistic children do have gut problems, but not all....