Are autistic children more prone to chest infections?

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My daughter has a history of getting chest infections from what seem to start off as ordinary colds.

Is this common in autism? I have read that autism and the immune system are linked somehow.

With me, as a child it was tonsillitis, I had many, many bad throats. Obviously everyone is an individual, but she does seem more prone than what seems normal.

One book I read did tie together immune deficiencies and sensitivity to gluten and or casein in kids with autism. That has not been our experience but I believe it is true for others.

I don't think there's any peer-reviewed research on it.

Has she been checked out for asthma? Because I know asthmatic kids are more prone to chest infections. Essentially what happens is that many infections affect the chest, but you don't notice it in most kids. In asthmatic kids, the irritation in their lungs sets off a reaction that makes their symptoms a lot worse, so the chest infections get noticed.

Also, frequent infections can sometimes be a sign of stress, because stress suppresses the immune system. I used to get a lot more colds and flus when I was in a bad school setting. I sometimes wonder if this is the reason behind the apparent link between autism and the immune system, because autistic kids are often under a lot more stress than NT kids just dealing with our society.

There does seem to be some correlation between Autism and Immune Issues

My brother is at least a shadow Aspie. He has a documented immune deficiency (I think it is IgG). As a kid it seemed he always had a cold. Everyone even thought he had asthma. But really it was just his immune deficiency. I know it happens in people who are not on the spectrum, too, so I don't know if it is necessarily related to being somewhere on the spectrum. I think it is easy to test for...maybe you can ask about it?

I had terrible respiratory problems as a child. In the hospital a lot because of them.

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For a kid who has a very limited diet and is pretty skinny, my son is remarkably healthy and is hardly ever sick - so in his case I would say no

My HFA child is extremely healthy, and has been since he was about 15 months old. Before that he had a lot of chest infections from aspiration related to his low muscle tone. My youngest, not diagnosed who I suspect to be Asperger's has asthma.

I wouldn't necessarily rule out asthma just because doctor's didn't catch it when she was in for a chest infection. His wasn't diagnosed until he had a massive asthma attack, and I took him to the ER. He had been in for chest infections before that. Knowing what I do now, I think knowing what an asthma attack looks like should be required education for all parents, because I really didn't know what to look for. (Not trying to imply this is you, just saying what happened to me.)

That's interesting. When she was younger and we had to take her to outpatients, they found she had a chest infection and the doctor said he couldn't believe she hadn't been coughing, as there had been no sign of anything chesty, such as that. I wonder if that's to do with low muscle tone.

Having said that, she loves running and has never had any breathing issues whilst of after running or exercising, so surely that would show up if it was asthma?