My son is now 17 and high functioning. If he is not taking his magnesium glycinate form Kirkman labs he is not regular.

He recently was home sick and was not taking his magnesium. He came to me and told me he looked it up on the internet and had a blockage and needed to go to the Dr immediately. Poor kid was uncomfortable. Within one day of being back on his magnesium he had a normal bowel movement.

We have a 6 year old with autism. His diet isn't exactly where we want it, because he has problems with foods, certain tastes, smells and textures. We have to keep trying one by one to introduce a new food into his diet. This leads to constant constipation, and having to give him medicines, and suppositories. Not to mention the pain and discomfort the goes through, he goes so long that he bleeds some when he can finally pass it.. I saw an ad for this product and have a version for children, with no smell and taste, because he will smell everything then take a small taste first. I put this in his drinks, he didn't smell or taste anything, he drank it all. Since starting the kids' Culturelle, he has not had to have any medicine for constipation, and doesn't have to go through those bouts of pain associated with it. This has been a god send. No more going to the doctors, getting prescription drugs, suppositories, chasing him down, holding him to use them, listening to him scram in pain and keeping him home from school. I don't know what I would do now without this. It's powder in a little packet you can mix in with food and drink. We only give him one packet once per week, and it's enough to keep him regular. I hope this will help some of you who have this problem with constipation.

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