Gastro-Intestinal Disorders and Autism

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It's no news that GI problems are pretty common in autism. I found this interesting link, for me personally it's interesting because not only have I always suffered with oesophageal reflux but both my children had bad oesophageal reflux as babies, one needed medication in her milk until she was a year old.

http://www.umm.edu/news/releases/autism.htm

I have such bad symptoms at the moment, and I'm worried I will need an operation because having read on the symptoms that I have, I may have developed a stomach hernia as a result of GERD.

Also, Irritable bowel syndrome which is another thing I suffer with:

http://www.nationalautismresources.com/ibs-kids.html

I also think I have food intolerances, although it's hard to know where to draw the divide between IBS and that one. I frequently get agonising diarrhoea from eating out in restaurants (those I dined with were OK so it wasn't food poisoning), and I believe there is at least one unknown ingredient used commercially that gives me a bad reaction.

IBS is also exacerbated by anxiety, which is something a lot of us suffer with (so it's a vicious circle).

Yep, I've had IBS or the symptoms of IBS since my senior year of high school. Honestly, it's more debilitating for me than Asperger's alone, so put those two together and I'm suddenly a fairly incapable person, especially in the workforce. Add the anxiety and I feel like I might as well relocate my few possessions into a bathroom and live there for the rest of my life.

It's awful isn't it. I feel as if virtually everything I eat bloats me out for hours and causes some sort of bad reaction at the other end.

I reckon if I was given a diet for things I was able to eat without reaction, I would be on the most restrictive diet imaginable.

To top it off, I get this thing with my tongue, which I believe is called geographic tongue (http://www.dermnetnz.org/site-age-speci ... ongue.html). I'm unsure if it has anything to do with diet or not, although I certainly get a painful reaction when I eat tomatoes and peppers. Basically, patches of the furry coating on your tongue disappear, you are left with 'bald', shiny, sore spots. It's called geographic tongue because it often looks like a map of countries or something. It's so painful when you eat acidic foods and the bald patches swell up.

I might as well give up with all this!