Aspies For Freedom

Hi,

Your son seems very young to be under stress, why is that?

I have AS and I'm 31, stress causes me headaches and stomach aches and has done since I was maybe 19, when I started work.

I have not yet found a cure and I doubt there is one. You can mess about with pills and diet, etc. but it's unlikely to help.

Headaches and stomach aches are signs the body wants to slow down. Let him.

I used to get headaches and stomach aches from stress from about age 9 onwards. Mum sometimes thought I was bringing them on to avoid confrontations and make her feel guilty for telling me off. It wasn't quite so simple as much of the stress was related to having difficulties at school with a couple of the teachers.

Once I had teachers I got on with better, the stomach aches went but the headaches hung on for much longer and even now, I get an occasional migraine.

Mum used to find putting a hot water bottle on my tummy used to help, or a cool washer on my forehead for the headaches. Kind words also helped the pains go away.

That's interesting Belinda because I suspect most children are stressed by their first day back at school. However few children would suffer stress from having to go to a party, etc. and I can relate to both from my own experience. I rarely enjoyed parties when I was your son's age and in my teen's I avoided such occasions. Even now social occasions cause me headaches and stomach aches. In a way it's good you know your son has AS as you can help him cope better with these situations. When I was his age and pretty much until about mid 2006 I just assumed having headaches and stomach aches was normal! I would not focus too much on diet as that might increase anxiety.

Interesting thread, guys. My 5 year old son (6 in January) has AS and regularly complains about stomach aches.

For awhile I was worried about it being his diet, because he is a very fussy eater and won't touch vegetables. But after reading up about AS and seeing this thread it seems it's quite common. I like the idea of putting a wheat bag on his tummy. Sometimes my boy will ask for a pillow to put on his tummy and then he hugs it; I guess the soft pressure helps him to feel better.

However, after reading this, I think next time he has a stomach ache I'll try and work out if there are any contributing factors to his anxiety and if there is I'll do my best to remove them or minimize them.

I used to get a lot of stomach aches and headaches as a child.
For headaches, I found that only resting in a darkened room made them go. Painkillers didn't work for me, and are not really ideal for a child anyway.

Things that helped were putting some cold water on my forehead and temples and / or having a damp flannel on my forehead.

I also found that sipping hot water with a slice of lemon or lime in it helped.

For the stomach aches, gently rubbing my abdomen helps. Also, ginger tea is really helpful.
In my case, I had undiagnosed food allergies which exacerbated the problem. Once I cut out the foods which I was allergic to, although I still was in pain from stress, the pain was not as bad and also I no longer had accompanying symptoms such as nausea and upset stomach.

A lot of the descriptions here sound like migraine. I have been reading about it recently, and the books I have read suggest that migraine is often triggered by stress and usually manifests as stomach pain rather than head pain in children, gradually involving the head as the child grows.

It could be worth seeing a doctor who specialises in migraine.

I seem to get bad headaches from over stimulated activities (parties, clubs and family do's) I still have to attend these things but feel drained and tired once home. I now use a black face mask to block out everything for a short while so I can regain function.

Stomach pains are quite bad at times, but I am learning that some foods do trigger stomach pains (orange juice, apple juice, white bread, pasta etc etc...) so I tend to stay away from them as much as possible. I do get anxious when it comes to anything to do with 'time', someone not arriving on time or not getting somewhere on time and it causes sever stomach aches.

I love to relax with my hot water bottle and a blanket lol...

This thread has been an interesting read for me.  My son has never had a problem with headaches, but he has quite a few digestion issues.  About a year ago his stomach cramps were so bad we went to the doctor, and an X ray determined that my son was constipated even though he had been pooping regularly.  We put him on a medicine for that, and it helped.

But recently he has been complaining of both an itchy bottom (inside his body) and pain (also on the inside).  We are assuming that these are related to the constipation issue, and have restarted the medicine.  But could it also be stress?  What about diet?

My husband was interested in the diet many parents use for their autistic children, until he found out how difficult it would be to implement.  Unless we know those two items are culprits for our child, it seems too extreme.  It does seem, however, that those on the spectrum do have an unusual amount of stomach issues.  Could it be a combination?  Diet, stress?  Any ideas on how to go about finding the best long-term solutions?

When I was being bullied in school (kindergarten through 8th grade) I frequently came down with illnesses due to all the stress. I did fake illness a few times when I thought the day ahead would be particularly bad, but mostly it was genuine (especially since I hated throwing up and my parents didn't want me to read when sick, both because they thought it would take too much energy and because it would be a good deterrent to me faking illness just to stay home from school).

There are also some situations that kids should NOT be left to cope with on their own eg. bullying and ostracism. They should not have to simply adjust to toxic situations.

An itchy bottom on the inside could be threadworms or even piles (especially from chronic constipation).

My GP has put my Aspie son on a gluten-free diet. I'm on it already. I don't know whether it is helping already but he has been very strict with himself about sticking with it which is amazing behaviour for him, especially given his age (nearly fifteen) and the fact that his twin brother gets to carry on eating all his favourite foods.

I fought a bit with my GP about the diet, he wanted to go the full GF-CF route - I pointed out that one of my older boys ceased having major problems with milk once he went over to gluten-free, and that GF-CF foods are amazingly difficult to find. That particular son is now vegan, but at 25 he is entitled to do what ever suits.

Yeah, threadworms are very common amongst young children. They are easily spread through nose-picking, scratching the bottom, and not washing the hands after going to the toilet, and these are all things that small children often do. The itching can be almost unbearable. Piles can be itchy too.

I find this thread and others, in which people suggest that diet may be a cause or solution interesting because changes to diet have never been mentioned to me at all by GP's, etc. at any time.

Yeah, some kids can get teased or left out because they are on special diet so if it is tried and it doesn't work, better to give it a miss.

I get migraines on occasion, though I think it is more of a horomonal issue with me. They used to be more frequent when I was on birth control.