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aspergers and overeating

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steve is 11 and overweight for his age,he never stops eating. anyway my mum told me that she read somewhere that children with asp dont know when they are full up,has anyone else heard of this?is it a proven thing or has my mum got confused do you think?steves eating worries me sick as he would eat all day if i let him

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My ds (ASD, ADHD....) is just like this too. He will keep on eating until he is looking really uncomfortable and huffing and puffing, and i will say 'you are full up now' and he pushes his tummy and says 'no I'm not there's still room'. He has no idea that he is full and all the signals that we would feel, he doesn't notice/or understand. He is a very big boy and is about 5' 4" and weighs about 8 1/2 stone, maybe more. He's 10 and much bigger than average. We have to be so careful about what we say to him as he takes offence at the slightest comment and telling him that he doesn't need to eat any more as he is full, he interprets as us saying he is fat. Of course I have never said this! I know that children at school call him fat and I'm aware that him being a bit overweight is just something else for other kids to pick on him about, as if he hasn't got enough already :tearful:

 

He also likes routines, so will expect the same amount of food ie 3 pieces of pizza, and heaven forbid anyone that says he can't have 3 pieces! He always expects to have something for dessert, even if he has stuffed himself. We tried to think of ways around this, so now we use a smaller dinner plate (less food on it, but it still looks full) and if we have pizza we cut smaller slices so that he can still have 3. It just took a bit of re-thinking. During the day he doesn't eat much at all as he takes medication for his ADHD, but once this wears off, I have to limit him. I try not to buy too much of the things that he really likes (or I hide them) as if he knows that something is there, he will just get fixated on it and will just keep wanting it, even waking up in the night just because he wants to eat it. If he has eaten lots and still wants more I say he can only have fruit.

 

If we go anywhere we also have to be careful, my husband made the mistake of once letting him have a large popcorn and large drink when they went to the cinema and now he has to have the same everytime they go.....have you seen the size of the large popcorns...they are like buckets! This has been a really hard one to deal with. I went with him last time and told him that he could only have a large if he shared it with me, then i had to stuff as much popcorn down my throat, so that he would have less to eat :sick:

 

At one point we went to the park everyday after school, as he would charge around and the exercise would wear off some of the extra food that he would eat later. He isn't keen on going to the park anymore, but it worked for a while. We also got a big trampoline and he will spend ages on there.

 

On the other hand my 4 yr old ds (ASD,ADHD) is the opposite, he has no idea when he is hungry and at times we have to work really hard to get him to eat anything. He still has obsessions with certain foods and there are certain things that we just don't buy anymore (Partyrings biscuits!) as he wouldn't be happy until he has eaten all of them. Then he will go for days without eating and won't be tempted by anything. I don't know which is worse really :unsure:

Don't know if any of that helps,

Take care

Scatty :D

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Mines the same and at school they would be filling him up because he would come back for seconds and thirds. It only took him two years to actually tell me he felt sick every afternoon. He still eats it though and I too have to tell him when hes had enough.

 

I remember he went to a party once. Against my better judgement I left him there (He was only little) When I got back an hour later people were looking at me funny. It seemed my son had no idea what to do at the party except eat. So he ate everything!

 

I'm sure even now people think I starved him all day so he would eat there. :whistle:

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He doesn't have Prader Willi does he? OTOH since Prader Willi can also cause LDs and social difficulties it makes sense that some kids with autism (who can also have LDs) share some aspects of Prader Willi.

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In the case of our son, I think his overating has two causes, one is a stress response, (kids with ASD's in mainstream schhols have a LOT of stress in theor lives) and the other is that he simply does not realise when he is full until some time after he has eaten, which is a sensory issue. I suspect this sensory issue is shared with many people with ASD's.

 

People with Prader-Will will also tend to be very short in stature for their age, have noticable impaired motor skills, poor muscle development, have experienced language delay, and have learning difficulties (typical intelligence is on the 75-105 IQ range), so overeating in itself is probably unlikely to be indicative of Prader-Willi unless there are other concerns. Plenty of stuff on the web if you are worried though.

 

Simon

Edited by mossgrove

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