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tobyjoemum

Aspergers and digestion

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Hi

I am new to the site and have spent the last few weeks reading lots of posts. Today I have been to the peads clinic about my sons bowel habits and feel that maybe I am not being listened to.

 

In brief my son was diagnosed with AS in Jan and at the time we mentioned that he had always had toddler diarrhoea and went to the toilet a lot opening his bowels up to 5 times a day. He kind of said that often there is a stress connection especially if they soiled there underwear too, which he does.

 

I told a different consultant today his whole history and he said that because his height and weight were good that there is nothing wrong with his bowels, no possible food intolerance but he had constipation and the frequency of bowel movement was due to the constipation?!?!?! Well, constipation is the last word I would use. He said that the soiling was a symptom of it.

 

He asked me to make sure his fibre intake goes up (he already eats very well) and have wheatabix everyday even though I said this made him worse, and eat more fruit (I have to limit him to 5/6 a day otherwise he would eat all in sight). He also said he needed meds to make the stools loose - they couldn't get any more loose. We go back in 4 weeks to see how things have changed.

 

I have seen on other posts people using different diets to help. Has anyone started with the same symptoms as my son or is there always a loss of weight to show food intolerence first?

 

Sorry for long post - it feels good to vent!!!

 

Many thanks for reading

 

Vikki

 

:D

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I haven't started a diet change yet, but the symptoms sound the same as my sons. He had severe constipation at about 2-3 years of age. He is on Movical to make his stools "looser" and picosulfate to move the bowels. However J only goes about once a week, but he soils at least once or twice a day. This is known as "seepage" and I believe it is due to build up - causing excess to be pushed out. J Isn't aware that it is happening, and to other people (i.e. teachers at school) it is misinterpreted as diarrhea. However the consistency of diarrhea is usually liquid and not solid. I was about to start a gluten and casein free diet, but paed has decided to test for cealiacs (after 5 years!). However, I'm not sure whether the testing is just for food allergies as opposed to food intolerences. So I'm waiting for the blood tests to be done before sending off for urinary analysis at Sunderland University for intolerances.

 

Oh, and J has never had weight loss - he looks thin, but is average weight as he is tall. I also went through the "increasing roughage and fluids " stage - made no difference.

 

J was on soya baby formula as a baby as he was sick, but didn't start being sick when I reintroduced cows milk at 1. I tried a dairy free diet for 9 months when he was 3, but it didn't make any difference, but he could have a combination of dairy and gluten intolerences. I think it is worth attempting to change the diet, but I want to see if there is anything obvious in his urine analysis before I change his diet.

 

Not sure if this helps!

Edited by MichelleW

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Hi Vikki -

If you look through this area of the forum you'll find loads of similar stories to your own...

The 'second opinion' sounds the most likely one (seepage) - think of it as a 'melting lolly' but every time your son eats he's 'topping up' the core.

In my son's case, all the medication to loosen or increase fibre would just get caught up in the whole process, and he'd have a few days where he leaked constantly getting more and more sore/uncomfortable and then when the situation demanded we had no option but to stop the cycle would start again...

Add to that the fact that when he DID get one of the 'monsters' out it would hurt like hell and it's easy to understand that he eventually reached a point where 'retaining' added to the problem...

For him there was a VERY direct link... his constipation was 'cured' within days of eradicating dairy...

Do you get the vomiting as well? The two are often connected...

Urine tests via Suderland Uni's Autism Research Unit is a good place to start if you're looking for intolerances... if you've a sympathetic GP who make the referral this costs nothing, but if necessary it's a good investment to pay privately for the tests (�60.00 last time i looked)

Hope that helps

L&P

BD :D

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