Insatiable appetites

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Insatiable appetites
6
Wed, 10-18-2006 - 2:45pm

I know not everyone's AS children are overweight, but is it possible that having an insatiable appetite is a symptom of AS? From sun-up to sun-down, 8yo ds asks "what's to eat?" Sometimes it's just 'cus he can't find anything he's willing to eat, but often he amazes me at how much he can pack away and still think he's hungry (he can eat a couple of FULL plates of spaghetti, a serving of veggies, a sandwich, several pieces of fruit, and a quart of water and still think he's hungry). We were at the doctor's today and discovered 12yo dd has also put on ten pounds in the last three months. I really think that both kids just don't ever register that they're full. Is there a way to combat this?

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-12-2005
Wed, 10-18-2006 - 3:24pm
The first thing that popped into my head when I read your post was I remember seeing a show on CNN about a girl with Prader-Willi Syndrome - she had an insatiable appetite, retardation, it was very serious in her case. They said Prader-Willi is sometimes associated with autism -or they can occur along with? can't remember the whole show. There are a lot of behaviors common to both syndromes. Defintely not saying this is the case with your kids- maybe they are just going through a growth spurt- my 9 yr. old can sometimes put away as much food as his father! Have they always been this way? did it just recently start? is it the start of puberty?
I don't know if I helped at all but just wanted to chime in.
Jane
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Wed, 10-18-2006 - 4:38pm
Josh can be like that and you would think with his over focus on food he should be well over 100 pounds and almost 5 feet tall. But he isn't. At 11 years old he is just hitting the 70ponud mark and is about 51 inches tall. Last month he gained 5 pounds in a month. He just started Focalin which I think has curbed some of the appteite but i spoke to his Guidance counselr who does the Social skills group with him and she see Josh eat everything. But I think what the Focalin did was take away some of the well repetativness, somewhat. More on the Focalin later after I do the mommy taxi thing. But lets just say It has been the best thing in our lives since sliced bread at the moment.
Rina
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-25-2003
Wed, 10-18-2006 - 5:03pm

Hmm. I had the opposite problem. My kids never registered when they were hungry. Especially Peter!

-Paula

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iVillage Member
Registered: 06-30-2003
Wed, 10-18-2006 - 6:10pm
My 8 yo has weird eating patterns. He's a string bean, very picky eater. He eats very little food somedays and then will make up for it later. I thought being thin and a picky eater was a symptom of AS until I saw an overweight classic autistic boy. I guess everyone is different.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-11-2003
Thu, 10-19-2006 - 9:03am

My ds is that way. I think its related to eating foods they don't tolerate and getting that opiate high they talk about with the GF/CF diet. When we were doing the SCD diet strickly that went away for ds. It was amazing to see. He went from being hungry all the time and way over eating to not being hungry for after school snacks or bed time snacks and not eating half as much at meals. Since we went off of SCD he's back to looking for food again.

Samantha

Samantha
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 10-19-2006 - 9:18am

Has this always been the case or is it recent? Are they on any meds? Certain meds will do this and cause a weight gain due to the increased appetite.

If not it could be sensory or even diet related. My kids are all big eaters, and fortunately quite thin. Dave is the biggest eater. That kid can put away a scary amount of food but his body is in constant motion and he has a high metabolism.

The diet thing. This was a big problem for us with Mike. It was near obsession and almost like an addict or diabetic. If he didn't eat regularly his moods went out of control and he would become quite angry. We switched to a low/no sugar diet and organic and it has helped with him tons. I think he is much more sensitive to refined, processed and sugar added foods than your average bear. Actually now that I think about it, we have been cheating an awful lot lately. I wonder if that is part of his current problem.

Renee

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