My daughter is thirty and autistic (also has celiac and possibly lupus). She had severe diarrhea off and on (pretty regularly -- two weeks horrible diarrhea followed by a couple of weeks of more or less normal) until she was about six years old. Since then she's had the same horrible constipation the rest of you are describing. A few years ago I asked her Dr. for a stool softener and he gave her a prescription for docusate sodium (DOS) -- you can get it without a prescription, but her insurance pays for it this way. It works, even if I only give it to her every other day. I don't know if it's suitable for small children, though.

I, like most of you, had tried all the 'usual' remedies for constipation. My daughter has poor muscle tone, and I'm pretty sure that's why she gets constipated. We make sure she gets plenty to drink, and she also gets plenty of fruit and fiber in her diet. Nothing was helping. I don't know if there's any remedy for the poor muscle tone (internally as well as in the limbs); I haven't heard of anything. It is interesting, however, to see that this seems to be a common problem with people with autism.

Kathleen