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Autism/Digestion in my 4 yr old

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Expert: - 7/28/2007


Question
My child has always had difficulties understanding when he is full during and after eating. He sometimes eats too much and throws up (power puking when he was a baby), also happens when he gets upset or has a cold.Do we have to wait it out or should he be seen by a specialist ? Thanks

Answer
Hi,

I have this problem too (and I'm a 30 year old adult). I'm not throwing up, but will eat up everything in my reach if not stopped from doing it. I've probably never really felt "full" in my life. I've tried teaching myself to eat smaller portions (and my parents keep on trying, but they're not here very often), but without much success. I'm never really hungry either (or always hungry, depending on how you'd like to see it), meaning I could literally eat all the time or not at all. If there is food, I eat it (all of it), if not, I don't (until I feel really bad and dizzy from low blood sugar). I also can't feel thirst, and can go without drinking much more than a cup of coffee for several days, which is very bad, too.

This is probably very common among autistics. I know several others who have this problem.
You could try seeing a specialist to make sure it's not a medical problem, and maybe get him tested for food allergies (these are also very common among autistics), but other than that you could only try to teach him, what size of portion is okay for a boy his age and monitor closely how much he eats, also what he eats outside of the meals (like have to be strict and not allow him to have more if you think he had enough. It sounds cruel, but it's for his own good.
If you're unsure how much would that be you could maybe also ask your doctor or other mums with kids his age).

hope this helped !
C.

Autism

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*DISCLAIMER*

Please note I am not a healthcare professional or a doctor.
I cannot provide a diagnosis or give any medical advice.
Therefore I cannot answer questions like "is my child autistic ?" other than by telling you to go and see a specialist
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Please be aware that if you are in the US it will usually take at least 24 hours until I can answer your question, as I'm in Europe and don't have access to my email during the day. I also cannot answer questions concerning the US educational or law system (other than by looking up things on google, but that's probably not the expertise you need), as I'm not in the US.
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Please also be aware that I'm a person with autism. My answers may sometimes be very blunt and direct and I may tell you things you won't like to hear. Diplomacy is certainly not among my talents. I'm never being rude on purpose, and I always try not to hurt or offend people, but it has happened before and may happen again. It's NEVER on purpose. I just want to help.
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What I *can* do for you is gather information on any aspect of autism and therapy of autism you're interested in and give you my personal oppinion about it (if you want to hear it) or, if it applies, tell you about my personal experience. I can answer all questions about what life is like for an autistic person.

I can also answer questions asked in German or French (but will have to answer in English to questions asked in French as my French is a bit rusty).

Ich beantworte gerne auch Fragen auf Deutsch.

Vous pouvez poser des questions en Francais, si cela ne vous dérange pas que je responds en anglais.

Experience


As I'm not doing well right now and am not in the shape of answering questions well - I recieved a few low ratings lately - I'll take a break from AllExperts for the next few weeks/until I'm doing better

I am an adult diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome/High Functioning Autism and ADD.

In the past years I have also read a lot about autism and its comorbid conditions and related subjects (as I am experiencing symptoms of most of these or know others who do) , so I have accumulated a lot of layman knowledge in this area (AD(H)D, Tourette's Syndrome, OCD, sleep disorders, allergies, sensory integration dysfunction, learning difficulties, left/right-brain, giftedness, Irlen Syndrome, prism glasses, executive dysfunction (aka. "inertia"), "special" diets).

Education/Credentials
None in the field of autism, apart from being autistic myself !

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