The gastrointestinal and feeding issue blog for autism will discuss and focus on the following topics:
Feeding issues
Specialty diets/Restrictive diets
GI issues
Medical and Therapy interventions
Medication and relationship with feeding issues
Feeding challenges and the caregivers
Take Home Strategies
As I started to research this extensive topic, I came across two articles that compared feeding issues/GI complications to a control group of similar age but no diagnosis.
The first article: Incidence of Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Children With Autism: A Population-Based Study by Ibrahim, S. et al discussed previous research that states “children with autism may have an increased prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms, including constipation, chronic loose stools, abdominal pain, and gaseousness/bloating. Some investigators have reported an association between autism and chronic inflammatory intestinal disease, reflux esophagitis, gastritis, and disaccharide malabsorption. These findings have led to a hypothesis that gastrointestinal dysfunction resulting from an autism-specific enterocolitis is the etiology of the neurobehavioral features observed in children with autism, via a "leaky gut" that results in an autoimmune or gut-mediated toxic encephalopathic process.”
The study had found no significant difference in the overall cumulative incidence of gastrointestinal symptoms between case and control subjects, although children with autism had a higher incidence of constipation and feeding issues/food selectivity. We found few subjects with specific diagnoses of gastrointestinal diseases, whereas the majority of both case and control subjects had nonspecific gastrointestinal symptoms.
Another study, Eating Habits and Dietary Status in Young Children with Autism by Johnson et al looked at 19 ASD children age 2-4 year olds with a control group of 15, similar age, no medical diagnosis. They compared the caloric and nutritional intake of the two groups. None of the ASD children were on restrictive diets but had behaviors/food selectivity around eating. Children with autism were not significantly different in their intake of total calories, carbohydrates, protein, or fats. However, children with autism ate fewer vegetables, and, thus had lower Vitamin K. All the children in the autism group consumed adequate amounts of carbohydrates and protein. Over 50% of children in both groups had inadequate fiber intake. Inadequate iron was more frequent in the children with autism (26%) compared to controls (0%). Both of these studies, as many with ASD, are of a very small population.
So in these two studies, it states that children with ASD don’t have any more GI complications than peers without ASD and also don’t have less caloric or significant nutritional intake than peers. Hopefully over the next few weeks, I will be able to explore more in depth and have a better understanding of GI issues and feeding issues that affect ASD (even if it is not statistically significant).
References
Thanks, Audra -- Why do you think the studies have such a small sample size? Amy
ReplyDeleteAudra,
ReplyDeleteI think that is interesting that there was not a significant different in GI issues between children with autism and typically developing children. I am interested to hear more.
Jen
Amy,
ReplyDeleteI often feel research is done with small sample sizes due to time, money and resources. Unless they have a grant to do a large study, the commitment is usually more than researchers can do. The studies were done at the Mayo clinic and University of Pittsburgh so it shouldn't have been due to lack of available children.
Hi Audra,
ReplyDeleteJust from my own professional experience, I disagree with those studies:) Maybe they just got lucky with the small sample size they choose??? I just can't believe there isn't a corralation for some students. Just like children with ASD process sensory information differently, I believe the same is true for the GI system. No 2 children with ASD are exactly alike but generally there is a list of conditions that affect them and sensory processing, GI issues would be two definitetly on that list!
Elaine,
ReplyDeleteThe studies didn't say that there weren't any problems, just not a statistical significance. You are right that there are flaws with every research.