Bowel habits question

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Bowel habits question
5
Wed, 05-03-2006 - 4:58pm

My 11yo dd has had bowel problems (chronic constipation or worse) her whole life. We occasionally had people ask us whether she had Asperger's because of the bowel trouble. Now that dd has a diagnosis similar to Asperger's, I assumed that that explained the bowel troubles. We went to pediatric GI today. In the past, they've been somewhat patronizing, assuming I was an idiot mom who didn't know my kid or understand why she was having bowel troubles. I figured that when I explained today that dd has Asperger's that they'd say "aha! that explains the bowel trouble!" but instead they said they doubted it was related. Of course, the doc also said she didn't know much about Asperger's and would have to look into it. When I came home, I wanted to look up the association between Asperger's and bowel problems, but I'm finding nothing. Am I mistaken that this is a common problem? Is there something in writing you can refer me to? Is this supposed to be a correctable problem, or is this a lifelong battle? Any info would be appreciated!

Avatar for nutmegspice
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Registered: 03-27-2003
Wed, 05-03-2006 - 5:45pm

I'm not sure I'll be of much help, but I will try...

There are lots of parents of kids dx with Autism Spectrum Disorders that have found a link between behavior and gut issues. Some parents choose to follow special diets that remove certain foods that seem to exacerbate the problem. Some use enzymes to aide digestion and probiotics to get a better balance of bacteria in the gut. Some parents have found these interventions helpful in the treatment of their childs ASD and some have claimed that their child has been cured following certain diets in conjunction with therapy...etc.

It's not really a symptom of Asperger's or any other ASD, but some of these kids can be picky eaters which could cause bowel trouble. Or have sensory issues which can cause witholding or other behavior issues around the toilet. Plus these kids tend to be really sensitive so food allergies and sensitivities could be messing with the brain and the rest of the body.

My personal experience - we started out with dietary interventions before we had any dx because noone could tell us what was up with our DS and no amount of behavior interventions that we tried seemed to be helping mcuh. What I discovered was that our DS was sensitive to lactose and limiting that cured his horrbile constipation. We do still make sure that he gets a good balance of food and stay away from preservatives and dyes. He probably eats less sugar than most kids, but is definately not a sugar-free kid. His constipation caused some anxiety over BMs in the toilet though and we have worked really hard during his regressions when he starts holding again. He's almost 7 and is really just recently potty trained for BMs.

If your concerned that your child may have some gut issues, check out these websites about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. It's a tough one to do, we did it for about a year, but it really did help us figure out what was going on with Sam food-wise and is really great for people with celiac, chronic diarrea(sp?) constipation, Crohns or other gut issues. It is a grain-free, lactose-free, sugar-free diet. I did it with my DS and lost 20 lbs without even trying or feeling hungry....but it's not really meant for that. It did help balance out my blood sugar though and sped up my metabolism. There are families following the diet for ASD kids with gut issues too....check out the pecanbread website.

www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info
www.pecanbread.com

Good luck!

Chrystee

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Registered: 01-19-2005
Wed, 05-03-2006 - 6:31pm

Chrystee's explanation is very similar to what I would say too. I also wanted you to know that you are definitely not alone.

We did the dietary changes on our own in stages too, first eliminating dairy because in our case it caused our son diarrhea (go figure! It's supposed to be constipating!). But we noticed when he was dairy free, his autistic behavior got better too. Our OT suggested we look into the "gluten free casein free" diet and after reading about it, we decided to try that too. We saw increased improvement after eliminating the wheat products especially. We have also tried just to be healthier by eating organic whenever possible, low sugar, dye-free as much as we can, etc. We give Eric O'soy yogurt as a kind of probiotic. We started all this between the ages of 2-3 and things were fine, digestion-wise for about a year.

But even after doing that, we found once we started potty training that Eric became constipated due to witholding bm's. We tried a variety of "home remedies" dried fruits, prune juice, etc. and none worked. Potty-training was a struggle but after a year he is mostly trained.

Still, he often had only about 1 bm a week. And diet was not the issue as he drinks tons and eats lots of fruit, but not as much fiber as he should. We decided to try digestive enzymes. These had a very interesting side effect of making him "happy" and more calm, but didn't really stop the constipation.

So like you, this week we had our first visit to a pediatric gastroenterologist. He suggests that due to his autism, our son could not "feel" the urge to do a bm until he was very full, which has stretched his colon, making more room to "fill up" and creating a vicious cycle. So now he is taking a mild prescription laxative to make him go every day. In addition, the doctor feels Eric may indeed have celiac disease and we will test for that in a few months.

I recommend the SCD websites too. Another good one for information, even if you are not using enzymes is www.enzymestuff.com This site has a lot of information of various digestive problems and good links.

Also, there is a gastroenterologist from Harvard who has written about the links between ASD children and digestive problems. His name is Tim Buie. I don't know any specific articles, but maybe you could google him. He had spoken at DAN! conferences and there might be some of his articles on their website.

Hope this helps. We're still struggling with the same problems, but we finally found a gastroenterologist we like a lot whom we can work with and who does seem sensitive to the "brain-gut" connection that occurs often in our children.

Katherine

Avatar for littleroses
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Registered: 03-28-2003
Wed, 05-03-2006 - 7:06pm

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Registered: 08-26-2005
Thu, 05-04-2006 - 9:28pm
I can't believe this topic was brought up because this is something that I have been dealing with for almost 2 years now. After a bout of ear infections and mass of anti-biotics Jake got some intestinal infection( I forget the name of it but basically anti-biotics take good bacteria as well as bad). Ever since then he has had terrible loose bowel movements. It's comes in stages and I do notice it gets worse if he's stressed or anxious which is common for most people I think.It's making potty training very difficult. Anyone got any ideas about what I can do to help it? I'm actually thinking about starting the GFCF diet again(gave up pretty quickly last time). Any supplements etc. that are helpful?
Teresa
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Registered: 01-19-2005
Thu, 05-04-2006 - 10:08pm

Hi Teresa,

Whenever Eric has to take antibiotics, our ped has him on probiotics too. We use an over the counter version, "Culturelle" but it is kind of expensive ($20 for a box). But it seems to help the "good" bacteria colonize while the antibiotic is fighting the "bad" bactiera.

On a regular basis, yogurt is a good natural probiotic, either regular of the O'Soy.

But talk to your doc about probiotics tell them what has happened and that you think the antibiotics wiped out the good stuff. When Eric is on meds for ear infections etc., this works. Lots of people use the probiotics all the time.

Always something, isn't if?!!

Katherine