Asperger Syndrome - child with no energy

[dmcd11]

Does anyone know of any other child with AS who also has the problem of being below weight/having very little energy/....I am asking for a friend who has a 5 year old with AS. He is eating (tho' restricted diet) but doesn't have the energy to play/wants to sit in the buggy all the time/gets tired walking up stairs etc. Any advice would be appreciated as this is now becoming more of a concern that the AS. He is having food with iron in it and the dietician has looked over his diet and said it is ok. Any idea's

Hi dmcd11 - my ds who is 7 and has AS/ADHD is also underweight but a tall lad. I know 5 year olds who weigh more than him and have bigger feet!

Just lately he has no energy - this is a child who used to have 15 mins daytime sleep because he had so much energy when he was a toddler.

He can get very lethargic and wants to just sit on my lap and hug me. He sometimes looks really tired with pink puffy bags under his eyes and I feel he really tries to push himself to play. Like your friend's ds, he has had his diet checked and apparently it is fine.

Could it be a possibility he is waking in the night and not mentioning it or that he has an allergy to one of his foods? My ds does wake very early, even after a bad night, but sometimes for no good reason, he is very tired and I can't figure out why.

Sorry, that was a rambly way of saying I don't know - but I would be interested in any replies.

My autistic ds is very lethargic and also ver

I would check the sleep pattern first as well. My asd ds is very lethargic. He has melatonin to help settle him at night but is still a very poor sleeper. We are under ENT to check if he has sleep apnoea. However, he does have medical problems which make this more likely.

Has he always been like this? My ds is described as a passive autistic and has a lot of problems with motivation. He also tends to sit down on the floor or shut his eyes when he doesn't want to do something rather than have a meltdown.

If it is a recent change she should see Dr or paed for advice.

Sorry, cat sitting on keyboard

This is very interesting. My observation is that children with ASD (not so sure about AS specifically) are usually either the passive type or the active type and the same child can sometimes switch from being one to being the other but usually stay whichever sort they are. Mine's active People often think their child can't be on the autistic spectrum if they're not wild, running and climbing, having meltdowns. In fact, I would say the passive type is more common.
Anyway, back to the point, I suppose sleep pattern is worth looking at. Even my DS has nights when I think he's had a lovely sleep but he's yawning his head off in the morning and I suspect he's been awake but hasn't made much noise as I have a baby monitor next to my ear.
My sister with AS is extremely passive and inactive (lazy we always thought).

Am I right in thinking that more children with autism have low muscle tone? Quoting from "The Out of Sync child" about low muscle tone -

"The child may often lay her head on the table, or sprawl on the floor, or slouch in her chair. ...She may tire easily, because resisting the pull of gravity requires a great deal of energy."

Just wondered if that might sometimes be a contributing factor in "passive" autistic children. I read on the net that autistic children with low muscle tone are often low in potassium and this can be increased by giving more fruit in the diet (okay, I know that might be easier said than done ). Plus my son eats fruit in enormous quantities and still has lowish muscle tone so it's obviously not a cure!

J swops from being extremely active...lots of stimming which involves forward rolling for hours on end....then in the next minute he crashes and can not move. He has days when all he can do is lie on the sofa and doesnt speak or interact, then days when he is climbing the walls and is a chatterbox.

Today is a lazy day....he is looking at a book on his bed and doesnt want to move....yesterday he was "wild" all day and I had to have eyes everywhere.

I'm pretty sure a lot of it is sensory and we have noticed on bright sunny days he is more likely to be inside and very quiet...Today is claer blue skies and very very bright and sunny!!!!

Ds1 goes through periods of being very lethargic - especially for the 3 or 4 weeks following a virus. Just when he gets to the point where we are seriously considering taking him to the GP to get his iron levels checked he suddenly perks up again. He is tall but very thin.

Ds2 is the opposite. What I consider to be a quiet day for him is what most people consider to be hyperactivity.

Im glad to hear others have a passive/hyper child. People and places are my ds triggers. If we stay in on our own he's much calmer .