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Many autistic children have extremely limited diets. For example, a geneticist friend of mine saw a case where an autistic child had been referred for genetic t
by directevolve 4mo ago
Many autistic children have extremely limited diets. For example, a geneticist friend of mine saw a case where an autistic child had been referred for genetic testing because of horrific, chronic, spontaneous wounds on gums and skin. Turned out to be scurvy, because he had exclusively eaten Wheat Thins for the last 3-4 years, which aren’t fortified with vitamin C.
I would fully expect that a monotonous diet leads to a heavy skew in the gut microbiome as specific bacterial species that thrive on that diet are selected for, others against. It makes some sense that a fecal transplant could repair the damage. If the diet has shifted or expanded, the transplant could lead to long term benefits by restoring newly-viable bacterial species, perhaps by facilitating digestion of the new types of food.
I’d be curious to see a factoring out of the diet composition, gut microbiome, genetics, and severity of autism symptoms.
- smallnix 4mo agoImagine the factor overlooked is the nasty but nutritional hospital food they got when receiving the transplant (assuming they got hospitalized).
- SoftTalker 4mo agoDoesn't seem like something that would require an inpatient stay.
- mrgoldenbrown 4mo agoIn my experience (instant cure for recurrent c. diff) a fecal transplant is easier and simpler than a colonoscopy, which themselves are easy enough to be outpatient.
- delecti 4mo ago> [...] the treatment, which involved a bowel cleanse and daily transplants of fecal microbiota over a period of seven to eight weeks Maybe I'm misinterpreting what the process of that daily transplant looked like, but I expect they ate a not insignificant amount of hospital food if there were 7-8 weeks of daily treatments.
- SoftTalker 4mo agoI didn't realize it was such a protracted process, but even if it's a long series of daily treatment, they aren't going to admit you for that if it can be done outpatient. You will be admitted if it's a risky enough procedure that it requires extended/overnight observation. If you can safely go home and come back the next day that is what they will ask you to do.
- bodiekane 4mo agoYa, the word "transplants" here seems to mean something very different than you're interpreting it as. This isn't a hospital procedure like an organ transplant. It's material placed into the recipients colon through an enema, nasogastric tube or possibly even just taking some pills. So it might range from done at home to done during a 30 minute visit to a clinic.
- delecti 4mo agoI know it's nothing on the scale of an organ transplant, but (other than pills) those things would still lead to the patients being at the hospital. And with frequent enough visits to a hospital, you would probably eat at least some meals there. That's all I meant (and said).
- LorenPechtel 4mo agoI would expect any of those to be possible in a doctor's office.
- dimes 4mo agoJust to play devil’s advocate, isn’t it also possible that the preference for a monotonous diet is driven by gut makeup?
- stephenitis 4mo agoYou seed the gut with nutrients. having lots of fiber and a varied diet increases the number of species that an adult has which is between a couple hundred to a thousand or so. Our guts are generally dominated by a bunch of beneficial bacteria. which for many is not the case for a variety of social economic or behavioral reasons. Add in with explosions of bacterial populations due to alcohol or sugar and you can see how we can change our gut biome drastically from week to week.
- therobots927 4mo agoI’ve noticed I really need to keep alcohol and sugar consumption in check. Sometimes it seems like one drink is enough to kick off a gut ecosystem collapse, and other times my gut is more resistant to the effects. Definitely trying to increase fiber consumption significantly.
- swores 4mo agoHow are you judging the impact of things on your gut/microbiome?
- hapidjus 4mo agoToilet visits?
- jodrellblank 4mo agoHow is one judging a "gut ecosystem collapse" from toilet visits?
- 4mo ago
- drzaiusx11 4mo agoWe usually call these our "safe foods" and yes, it is a very real problem for many of us in the autistic community, specifically around nutritional deficiencies. In a similar vein, as a child I went several years just eating plain Cheerios. For a close friend it was chicken nuggets.
- nlitened 4mo ago> as a child I went several years just eating plain Cheerios. You mean your parents were letting you eat just plain Cheerios? Otherwise I don’t understand what you mean at all.
- drzaiusx11 4mo ago"letting me" is hardly how I'd put it. More like I would refuse to eat any and all food unless committed to a hospital stay. Eating Cheerios and taking supplements was a compromise for my exhausted parents and they were more at a loss of what else to do. I don't think you understand what living with someone with moderate to severe autism is like. It's not being a "willful child" it's an entirely different experience than what most parents are exposed to.
- DANmode 4mo agoCheerios test high for Glyphosate, that’s not going to help any.
- drzaiusx11 4mo agoGlyphosate use didn't really explode in use until the genetic modification of "round up ready" crops in 1996. The real danger was the havoc it'd play on my gut biome.
- user_7832 4mo agoGiven how many kids are told to just "shut up and eat it" - and/or didn't have extreme pickiness but got DX'ed perhaps as an adult - I'd say there's a ton of research required to even suggest this as a plausible cause (even for a limited number of cases). It might make things worse, but I highly doubt it's causative.
- NooneAtAll3 4mo agoDX?
- mbessette 4mo agoDiagnosed
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- Dwedit 4mo agoYeah, I see the word "DX'ed" and immediately think of getting clotheslined by Triple H.
- ninalanyon 4mo agoNow I'm even more confused. I can read every word in that sentence but I have no idea what it means.
- opan 4mo agoI believe they're talking about wrestling, the WWE type of wrestling with characters and story lines and flashy moves.
- Fantosism 4mo agoThere is a very popular wrestler who works for WWE who goes by the stage name Triple H. Triple H was part of a group called D Generation X, or DX for short. A clothesline is one of the most basic wrestling moves. This is not sport wrestling, but entertainment wrestling.
- munificent 4mo agoA little factoid that lodged permanently in my brain the first time I stumbled onto it on Wikipedia: > About two-thirds of all scurvy is found in autistic people.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]