Stomach upsets are among the most frequent and puzzling symptoms of autism. About 70% of children with autism have gastrointestinal problems throughout their lives, including frequent abdominal pain, constipation and vomiting, compared with 28% of typically developing children, according to a 2006 study.
Many parents of these children say that tailored diets ― lacking wheat and gluten, dairy or both ― dramatically improve language skills, or decrease tantrums and hyperactivity, although few studies have borne out that hypothesis.
Still, the anecdotal evidence has led some researchers to ask whether the brain and behavioral abnormalities associated with autism ― and perhaps the dramatic rise in autism diagnoses ― stem from problems in the gut.
“We cannot ignore the fact that these children don’t just have something wrong with their brain. A lot of them have something wrong with their gut,” says Derrick MacFabe, director of the Kilee Patchell-Evans Autism Research Group at the University of Western Ontario.
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