Sickness

Thanks for all the information. I have been looking into food intolerance and ibs as possible issues. He has a good, varied diet and isn't overly fussy though he doesn't like rice. He doesn't tend to get the same foods over and over again or only eat one or two things. I also haven't been able to pin down specific foods being a cause through keeping a food diary and eliminating certain things. Will just need to keep on trying and see how it goes. At the moment he's sick because he's got a cold and the mucous seems to lie in his tummy and cause him problems digesting food. It them all comes back up later! 

Thanks again!

Firstly, young children are often more prone to be sick than adults but you may want to consult a doctor or health visitor to identify what is actually normal.

There is no confirmed link between intestinal problems and autism but...

There are people who may have food intolerance or conditions like Crohn's disease in addition to autism. You can obviously have any other condition in the medical books in addition to autism. Autism can mean that the child is unable to communicate how they are feeling and this can lead to problems rumbling on and then getting worse.

Some people with autism have terrible monotonous diets - parents are responsible for making sure that a balanced diet is eaten by their children. If a child refuses to eat one particular type of food then they may really find it disgusting but there will be alternatives.

People with autism are often stressed or anxious due to their problems with interacting with the world at large. Stress and anxiety are known causes of IBS etc.

Some people have found that using a food intolerance diet can help their child. See http://fedup.com.au/ for details.

Personally, I have found that I have some intolerances and I need to avoid certain fruits (apples, strawberries, baby plum tomatoes). I have also suffered from the stress/anxiety induced issues.

I had wondered about constipation but it's not purely runny just very soft so I wasn't sure. Will mention this to doctor next time though as worth investigating too. 

Thanks!

Hi,

We have had lots of bowel and tummy issues. One of the causes was constipation. This confused as sometimes had very loose bowels but this was classed as overflow poo from the constipation. Our pead gave us movicol and things have improved.

I hadn't seen that in any of the articles I've read. Useful to know as my son is non-verbal so can't tell us what's wrong with him or how he's feeling. He has very loose bowels a lot of the time, I wonder now if this is related to it all too. Surely doctors should be a bit more aware of these things and make these links. Will need to keep an eye on things, as it sounds like it could be something similar!

Thanks for your info!

E

Bilious attacks develops into Migraine stomach develops into Irritable bowel syndrome.   In my case, a lifelong condition, and since the name keeps changing, I imagine the medics have no idea really.   Antispasmodic medication.   :-(