bowel disorders

[lindy-lou]

Hello everyone, hope your all well, just want some advice on the link between autism and bowel disorders,my 5 month old son is having tests for chrohn's disease and with India being on the spectrum i have put 2 and 2 together and come up with 6,just wanting to know really if your child has a bowel disorder,did that happen before you were alerted to autistic problems?

[MichelleW]

With J, his bowel condition started about the same time that I observed obvious autistic signs such has hand flapping, which was at about 2 to 2 and a half years. My youngest is 2.5, has delayed speech and showing some possible signs of autism, but nothing obvious as with J. At the moment my youngest has no signs of bowel problems and has shown no intolerence to any foods.

[lindy-lou]

Luca is lactose intolerant and has had problems with his gut since birth,he is on Neocate formula now,he always has either diaorreha or mucousy poo,he has ulcers on his tongue and has been in pain feeding since birth,he was very ill at birth due to a massive infection and was fed by naso gastric tube,the paed thinks his bowel probs should have cleared on the hypoallergenic formula and coupled with the ulcers thinks its possibly chrohn's or ulcerative colitis,i am worried out of my mind about it and now i have thought of the link with autism i have convinced myself he is autistic Indias behaviour is so awful at the moment i dont feel i can cope with it again..

[MichelleW]

J did have a lot of feeding problems from birth - he would vomit constantly and had really bad colic. I put him onto Soya baby formula and he stopped being sick but I can't remember if it helped with the colic. But when I introduced fromage frais and then cows milk, his vomiting didn't return but at some point the constipation began. However my memory isn't very good, and at the time, I didn't think to keep a record of anything. I would also be extremely concerned if my youngest had the same symptoms as a baby. I think the bowel problem is harder for J than his autism.

Edited April 26, 2007 by MichelleW

[jb1964]

Hi Lindylou,

 

It became apparent my daughter had bowel problems really from birth - within a couple of weeks she developed an umbilical hernia from straining (severe constipation) and was given enema's and then at 3mths she was prescribed Lactulose. She struggled to take her milk and was constantly sick (projectile vomiting) she also suffered from Colic (thats what the HV said). At 5mths she was referred to a Paed. for failure to thrive - put on Wysoy and a dairy free diet (until she was 5yrs old). She was prescribed Cissapride for gastric reflux until 18mths and continued taking Lactulose daily with Sodium Picolsulphate (Laxoberol) once a week (eventually this was once per day and she still takes this now - she's 13).

 

From the age of 5mths until 10yrs old she saw her Paed. every 3-6mths (depending on how well she was) and he carried out extensive tests including (ones I can remember) - Cystic Fibrosis, Chrohns, Coeliac and a bowel biopsy at 6yrs for Hirschprungs.

 

I knew something was wrong from the minute she was born but she wasn't diagnosed ASD until 11yrs old.

 

Hope he gets better soon.

Take care,

Jb

[loulou]

Hi,

 

Kai was lactose intolerant from when i started giving him formula at about 5 months old. He was on Wysoy until he was about three. He also has had 2 major bowel ops at age 2 and 4.

 

I'm worried that my new baby (2 months old) will go down the same route so i'm making sure he has no dairy products until at least 1 year (on advice of Paeds). He already has gastric reflux and cries alot when i feed him .

 

It's really scary isn't it? I keep looking at him and trying to see similarities and differences between him and Kai and wondering if he will have ASD or not.

 

Hope your little man is ok <'>

 

Loulou xx

[lindy-lou]

Hi,

 

Kai was lactose intolerant from when i started giving him formula at about 5 months old. He was on Wysoy until he was about three. He also has had 2 major bowel ops at age 2 and 4.

 

I'm worried that my new baby (2 months old) will go down the same route so i'm making sure he has no dairy products until at least 1 year (on advice of Paeds). He already has gastric reflux and cries alot when i feed him .

 

It's really scary isn't it? I keep looking at him and trying to see similarities and differences between him and Kai and wondering if he will have ASD or not.

 

Hope your little man is ok <'>

 

Loulou xx

 

It is realy scary,i feel so frightened,i dont want another of my children to have any form of autism or even a bowel problem,i just seem to lurch from one problem to another,are you exclusively breastfeeding your new baby? (congrats btw) soya milk is not recommended at all now,especially not for girls,something to do with hormones in it my paed was saying yesterday,i did breastfeed but luca had such a hard time with it my milk dried up,luca also has gastro reflux too,can i recommend you use colief?we did have some success with that for a while. I just know i am going to be constantly on the look out for autistic signs now,i have tried not to be in that frame of mind but now with the bowel problem i am fearful.

[LizK]

Daniel DS2 is intolerant to dairy, soya and egg. In retrospect I think Adam was partly intolerant to dairy too as one he was dairy free his sloppy poos and anaemia resolved. Feel guilty as he used to have so much dairy and wonder if as well as aggravating his guts I was also poisoning his brain as he is much better from an ASD perspective too now:( Anyway Daniel is much more intolerant of dairy than Adam was, I was dairy free for over a year whilst bfing him and used neocate as well. I worried about the bowel-autism link especially because he was even more intolerant but he's developing much more neurotypically than his brother. I wouldn't say completely, he has an expressive speech delay and some odd ways but he is sociable and interactive and there are none of the massive concerns like we had with Adam. Maybe the fact Daniel has never had dairy meant he was less likely to run into problems?

 

It sounds like you've had a really difficult time and it's impossible not to worry because they are your children. I'm not aware of a strong link though between ASD and inflammatory bowel disease though. I hope you get some answers soon

 

Lx

[LizK]

I'm worried that my new baby (2 months old) will go down the same route so i'm making sure he has no dairy products until at least 1 year (on advice of Paeds). He already has gastric reflux and cries alot when i feed him .

 

Loulou xx

 

DS1 has severe reflux and it was hellish until we got him on the correct medication. I feel for you. Both boys have been cows milk protein intolerance DS2 especially and I was dairy free whilst I fed him until he self weaned at 18mths. Like you been told if we have anymore not to let any dairy cross their lips for the first year of their life

 

Lx

[Ohforaquietlife]

I know exactly how you feel.

 

My son (ASD) did not have bowel problems as a baby but developed them later along with the ASD. My youngest, now 3.5, had bowel problems right from the word go - green mucusy poo which the doctor tried to convince me wasn't a problem but I knew it wasn't right even though it didn't seem to be affecting her weight. I eventually got her referred to a paed when she was about 8 months old. By then I was sure she had a problem with milk as she got much worse when I started to introduce fromage frais etc to her diet. The paed was lovely and agreed that this was probably her problem. He tested her for coeliac, crohns and antibodies to milk - all came back negative. We decided to switch her to a formula called Nutramigen which is actually derived from cows milk but has been broken down in such a way as to not cause a problem in most cases - avoids the soya as well which carries problems of it's own. She improved no end after that and at 3 is still drinking it - even though to the rest of us it tastes and smells disgusting! Eventually she had skin-prick tests and it turned out that she wasn't just intolerant to milk but allergic - even though the earlier blood tests had not picked this up.

 

The good news is that her bowel is much improved and she shows no sigh of ASD. It is so hard not to worry but not every path leads inevitably to an ASD. My other daughter showed signs as a toddler but it turned out to be dyslexia and she is otherwise fine. Lots of these conditions are linked in some way it seems but are not all as devastating.

 

<'>

 

Ohf!