Constipation and Autism
 

Is constipation common for kids with Autism?

My 4 yo has never had a "normal" bowel movement in his life! He will go for days w/o anything or just a "smear" in his diaper. Then the sever cramping hits followed by screaming and clenching of his butt cheeks. needless to say this doesnt help.

Our doctor put him on miralax which makes it like pudding/fudge consistency but still no where near a normal amt. This is really hindering potty training.

The doctor suggested trying the metamucil wafers. He had 2/3 in 3 days. nothing. I also have IBS so I tried them 6/day for 2 days. OMG!!!!! Its like cement in my colon. No wonder he is so bad off. he continually screamed help me last night. we tried all the tricks, warm bath, lots of fruit, his special juice, gatorade, including a suppository ...nothing!!!!

Calling Dr. this am.

any suggestions appreciated. Ty: confused:

My dd is the same way, she's 8.
She will get so backed up that when she finally does go she will bleed.

So ped put her on lansoyl, you can get it here in Canada, not sure about the U.S. It's like a jelly and she loves the taste.

Her poops are huge, i'm surprised she doesn't tear.
I'm getting so more for her since ped wants to up her dosage.

I hope this helps.

We are seeing a DAN! doctor. My son is not technically autistic, but he has some quirks and has responded very well to the "autism diet," so we're trying to see what other things are available to help us. Anyway, when things got very bad constipation-wise for Tom, I called our DAN! doc. He had us use magnesium citrate (for Tom, it was 6 oz because he was 6 years old. For your son, maybe 4 oz because he's 4?). You also give the same amount of water. Once it's all gone, you wait 1/2 hour and then give an enema. Mag citrate brings liquid to the colon and it will help dissolve the stool in there. Then, the enema comes from the other end to encourage everything to flush out. We were told to repeat this as many times as needed until all we got was liquid stool. That first time, we did it 4 times until things were "clear." (We actually got liquid stool the first time, but I knew he was still backed up, so I repeated it until the blockage came out and everything was clear after that.)

Once you get him clear, you need to track things. Do not let him get backed up so much. Part of what happens is that it hurts to go, they try to avoid it, the colon gets bigger and bigger, because the colon is bigger they don't feel the urge as often, it hurts to go... a bad cycle. Anyway, we were told to repeat the mag citrate / enema at the first sign of trouble. Don't wait for it to get bad. It takes time for the colon to shrink to a more normal size.

A few other things...
*We found that some of the artificial sweeteners (manitol, sorbitol) that were in some of his supplements contributed to the constipation.
*Fruit (and fruit juice) does not help Tom's constipation. While it does seem to soften the stool, it also feeds the yeast in his intestinal tract, and the yeast make it harder to push the stool out. Tom seems to do better the less fruit he consumes.

Last, I'm not sure what kind of diet you're feeding him, but dairy is known to be constipating. We've gone pretty Paleo (caveman) in our diet, and Tom is doing much better, in more ways than poop.

Good luck.

How about some mineral oil in some juice. Put in a couple of teaspoons.
I used it when my 3 year old was potty training and was withholding
because I had taken his diapers off. Worked like a charm.:)

Sox

I hope one of these would be helpful:
http://www.fruit-eze.com/

Enemeez may have age recommendations, not sure about young children:

http://www.enemeez.com/

Our 41 year old son (non-verbal autism) had the same problem all of his life.
The enemeez really helped.

I found out that consistently drinking enough is crucial and that children tend to go as soon as you put them in a hot bath.

Have you tried cutting out milk and all dairy products? You might also want to check out osteopathy......................

1-2X a day I have Benefiber in a beverage, Fiber One (51% of day's fiber)with Cranberries every other day, Eat my apricots every so often. I have MS constipation but wow, have gotten improvement. Drinking water and fluids always good for everything
If he's impacted, pooping hard big balls, maybe see a colonologist or whatever they call them.

My 4 yo dd does this, miralax has worked for us. I think it is common in autism.

My 5 year old is the same way. He was put on the miralax a couple years ago. It was way too strong for him. He was having accidents all the time. The thing that works best for us is the glycerine suppositories. They usually work within 10-15 minutes. It doesn't make it any softer, but it gets it out. I recently tried the pedia-lax fiber gummies, but no sucess with those yet. He only goes about once a week, and usually needs the help of the suppositories. It's awful!

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.

This is what we do and it works.
 

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