Tuesday, April 01, 2008

April is Autism Awareness Month

And I'm adding this little gem to my blog in honor of that!


Of course, around here, every day and every month I'm more than aware of Autism. My life practically revolves around it. It influences what I read, what I eat, what I watch (that's the only reason I can think of for watching a 2006 conference on Pediatric Bioethics regarding vaccines on cable earlier this evening!), what I spend way too much time researching online....

On the Autism front, I got a call on my cell phone this morning when I was watching Harrison's soccer practice (I'll be blogging about that later!). It was the school nurse. Hutton was complaining about his tummy hurting and he wasn't getting on well in class. So, I went to pick him up. I figured his "tummy" issues were related to...any of you Autism parents have a guess? That's right, CONSTIPATION!

This starts some real "Autism Awareness" for those of you not in the know about some of the ways Autism plays in the bodies of some of those affected. If you're not really interested in reading about poop and gut issues, here's a great place to stop! Wait, one more thing: watch Larry King Live tomorrow. It's an Autism show, since April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day.

Now, where was I? Oh yeah. Constipation. Everyone's favorite in the gut issues game. Diarrhea gets all the good jokes, but constipation really is so much easier if you're going for gut issues. Well, maybe not "easy."

I have to get Hutton's stool and urine tested before his next doctor appointment anyway, and we need to go back before May so I can get a new script for B-12 shots, so I was ready for poop. I had been putting off the testing forever, but I knew Hutton was constipated, and needed to poop, and I needed the poop to send to the lab. I had the little poop containment device (just a cardboard box, really), the 4 vials to be filled with poop, the oh-so-important latex gloves...but no poop. I told Hutton to relax and we'd try again later. His tummy would feel better soon.

We ate lunch. I gave Hutton a laxative. We went to the bathroom for round 2. No poop. I told Hutton to try some grunting noises. That always does the trick, right? Nope.

Let's see. Found some suppositories. Read on the stool sample instructions NOT to give suppositories. Ahh, screw it. I told Hutton what was going to happen and did the deed. About five minutes later, back to the bathroom. And finally...poop. Ahh, relief for constipated boy and mother. Well, not really relief for me. I had to don the rubber glove and start taking samples of the poop. (I avoided the "sample area" touched by suppository so as not to mess up the lab test. And really, I never thought I'd be writing those words. Ever.) But then, I realized I am supposed to fill two vials from today's poop, and two more from tomorrow's poop. So, I have to make sure Hutton poops again tomorrow, and that I'm there to catch it in the other cardboard box. Wow! Is this sounding fun or what?! See, if he doesn't poop tomorrow, I'll have to get another test kit from the lab, because you have to FedEx your poop samples Monday through Wednesday, only. No poop from Thursday on. I really, really, really don't want to waste my, and Hutton's, hard work on today's sample. He must poop tomorrow. Oh yeah, and I have to get a morning urine sample, too. Sigh.

Many with Autism also have intestinal dysbiosis. Bacteria and yeast out of whack, poor digestion, food allergies, and the dreaded "leaky gut", or alternating constipation and diarrhea. Did you know that? I didn't, until I had a child with Autism. Now I know. I'm very, how you say, oh yeah, AWARE!

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Hutton is on a gluten, casein, corn, and egg free diet to help heal his gut, and he takes many supplements to help as well. However, he still has yeast overgrowth, I'm sure (one of the things we're testing for in the above mentioned sample), as it's a side effect of oral chelation. In the past, he had yeast from use of antibiotics to heal ear infections, before I learned the trick of using warm garlic oil drops or grapefruit seed extract (which is also helpful for killing yeast in the gut, go figure!) in the ear to help heal ear infections. Hutton's ears and "tummy" are the cause of the two times he's had to be picked up from school at the nurse's office, in his four years of school. (He's had to be picked up early from "normal" daycare places, a few times over the years, too, but that's always been for behavioral issues. We rarely use daycare anymore. He used to go the gym daycare a lot, pre-diagnosis, but now I just go to the gym when he's in school. I managed to get almost an hour of free daycare at Ikea this past winter before they paged me because Hutton was "ignoring them" and not following directions. I know, almost an hour! Wow! I didn't tell them he had Autism. A little experimental and it could have really blown up in my face, but still. I needed my almost hour of power.

3 comments:

Genevieve Hinson said...

Hi there! Thanks so much for participating in blogging for autism awareness.

I've added your link to the blogroll :)

~genevieve

me said...

Whenever I read about autism gut issues, I think of my son, who does not have autism, but has all of the other physical signs that parents talk about. I truly think that he doesn't have autism because he wasn't vaccinated after he turned 1. He had the constipation and we struggled with it for years. Mirilax pretty much saved us. But I did what we called the butt bulb many many times. Thank goodness that has not been an issue for a long time but I feel like with the asthma and the gut things, they are all signs of an autoimmune issue. I think that Owen would be on the spectrum too if it would have been triggered, like it was in Avery. Hm. Just a thought. Great post...I love your writing.

Laura said...

me - that's very interesting! I have seen some digestive issues in my younger, NT son, too, and he's on a modified diet -- I limit his wheat consumption, but he doesn't seem to have a problem with dairy. I stopped Harrison's (my younger son's) vaccines at 2 months, when I started reading up and decided I was not willing to take a chance with Autism, and his vaccines could wait until he was older. He didn't have lots of the little signs of immune issues that Hutton did as a baby, though -- colic, multiple ear infections, eczema -- that looking back on, I wish I'd known were signs of a struggling immune system, and that adding more challenges to the immunity in the form of vaccines was not a good idea. Hutton had an ear infection and eczema on his face when he received a bunch of shots at 15 months. I'm still kicking myself for that, but am also a bit annoyed that my ex-pediatrician didn't think anything of giving a child in such a state many vaccines at once. I don't know how Harrison would have reacted if I kept vaxxing him, as he seemed a healthier baby overall -- no problems at birth, 2 pounds heavier than Hutton was, no colic, no ear infections, really no illnesses other than brief sniffles here and there. I'm glad I didn't take the chance, though!

Yes, I think asthma and gut issues are definitely autoimmune related, too, as are the many allergies, ADHD, etc. "Healing the New Childhood Epidemics" was a great read if you haven't read it yet!

Thanks for the compliment! I'll be better about visiting your blog in the future, as I love your writing, as well! I'm a "cyclical" blogger, and seem to be at a lowpoint in terms of writing and reading others' blogs!

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