About Constipation (Long)

[Guest guest]

Hi Hope,

It certainly doesn't sound like constipation to me, though I'm no expert. My

main question is whether Gibson is heavy or skinny, or somewhere in between. If

he's too skinny, then you definitely have a serious problem and should see a GI.

If he's very heavy, ditto. I just heard an NPR program about obesity where a

doctor mentioned a genetic condition in which people never feel full, no matter

how much they eat. Even tiny kids can weigh up to 100 lbs because they feel

hungry all the time. My experience with doctors has been that if they can blame

something on autism, they will, without further investigation, as if it's

impossible to have more than one disease or disorder at the same time. If he

seems a pretty normal weight for his height, then I don't know what could be the

cause.

Best wishes,

Rosemary

mom to Ned, 4 yo, asd, scd 7 months

>Message: 12

> Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2004 18:40:45 -0000

>

>Subject: About Constipation (Long)

>

>We did not think my son was constipated because he goes regularly and

>a lot but he seems constipated and so we are questioning this. Please

>read his story and let me kknow what you think:

>

>We are trying to figure out Gibson's bowels/eating because they are

>not typical of kids with autism.

>

>Gibson eats tons! Whatever we give him! Tons of meat ie. 4 large

>hamburgers in one sitting and he is asking for more, 4 large zuccini

>with olive oil as a snack, half a 12-pound turkey/week, a 5-pound bag

>of carrots in 1 week, a whole avocado and he is asking for more, a

>whole thing of broccoli (3stalks) at once. He is only a toddler. He

>doesn't really crave any one thing and rarely refuses food. He is

>usually begging for food. He is on the SCDiet with further

>restrictions.

>

>When we first discovered autism we put him on a strict GFCF- diet (no

>fruit as well) and for some reason he stopped drinking water. His

>stools became pellet-like and less frequent. He has been SCD since

>November and around that time we also added limited fruit, magnesium

>and Lauricidin. He started having 3-5 well-formed, large stools per

>day. We were happy because it was a better reflection of what was

>going in him. However, he continues toe-walking, still has a

>distended abdomen, and ASD symptoms (our main concern) have not

>improved. A couple of months ago he started drinking water again and

>we were happy about that.

>

>Although he was initially low in some minerals, supplementation has

>fixed that problem. I don't know why he eats so much - I have been

>told it could be an obsession or it could be to alleviate pain,

>anxiety. I have also wondered about hungry gut bugs, but most ASD

>kids have gut bugs and are picky eaters.

>

>The constipation symptoms also perplex me - toe-walking, distended

>abdomen. Several people have told us they think he is constipated. Why

>would he be constipated with so much coming out of him? 3-5

>medium-large well-formed, not-overly-hard bowel movements/day. Can

>you have that many stools and still be constipated? Does he still

>have to make up for the summer when he only had pellet

>stools? Could there be a mass there that isn't coming out while the

>rest of the stuff does? We would rather solve this without endoscopy etc.

>

>What else should we be doing? He doesn't strain to have a

>bowel movement.

>

>If anyone has insight into these issues, let me know. I think about

>this constantly.

>

>Thanks a lot, Hope, mother of Gibson, SCD since Nov. 2003

>

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