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severe feeding difficulty in early infancy

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Eloa
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12 Jun 2016, 8:02 am

can be early sign of autism.
In Leo Kanner's original paper 6 (Donald T., Paul G., Barbara K., Herbert B., Alfred l., John F.) out of the 10 studied cases report disturbances of food intake in early infancy from birth up onto 3 month to a year.
Kanner describes it as:

Quote:
Food is the earliest intrusion that is brought to the child from the outside. David Levy observed that affect-hungry children when placed in foster homes where they are well treated, at first demand excessive quantities of food. Hilde Bruch, in herstudies of obese children, found that overeating often resulted when affectionate offerings from the parents were lacking or considered unsatisfactory. Our patients, reversly, anxious to keep the outside world away, indicated this by the refusal of food. Donald, Paul ("vomited a great deal during the first year"), Barbara ("had to be tube-fed until 1 year of age"), Herbert, Alfred, and John presented severe feeding difficulty from the beginning of life. Most of them, after an unsuccessful struggle, constantly interfered with, finally gave up the struggle and of a sudden began to eat satisfactorily.


I also presented severe feeding difficulty from birth on up until about 1 year of age.
I was withdrawn, unresponsive to feeding attemps or plain crying (reported by my parents as I cannot remeber).
Age 1 I was underweighted.

I have not yet read Asperger's original paper and wonder if he also takes notice of it.


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SocOfAutism
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12 Jun 2016, 9:33 am

I found Kanner's original work surprisingly sensitive.

I think that maybe people from that era put a little too much interpretation into their observations, though. Maybe some autistic babies don't like the taste or texture of their food, or they're being held wrong or too often while they're trying to eat. There could be a lot of reasons for why they're having problems. They can't communicate so it's hard for people to tell, especially if the parents don't know the kid is autistic or what autism is.



Eloa
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12 Jun 2016, 10:15 am

Hans Asperger does not report feeding abnormalities.
So I don't know if they were existing or just not mentioned.
The mean age of Asperger's cases being studied was 8 years and 3 month.
The mean age of Kanner's cases being studied was 5 years (the two girls in the study were the olderst being 11 respectively 8 years and 3 month old).

SocOfAutism wrote:
I found Kanner's original work surprisingly sensitive.

I think that maybe people from that era put a little too much interpretation into their observations, though. Maybe some autistic babies don't like the taste or texture of their food, or they're being held wrong or too often while they're trying to eat. There could be a lot of reasons for why they're having problems. They can't communicate so it's hard for people to tell, especially if the parents don't know the kid is autistic or what autism is.


I don't know if it is too much interpretation or not, but also food texture or touch are intrusions from the outside.
Thank you!


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SharkSandwich211
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12 Jun 2016, 10:53 pm

Out of curiosity, do you currently have any food related allergies? The reason I ask is that my youngest son has FPIES...Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome. In babies it is often thought to be colic because of the crying and not eating etc. The symptoms do not present in the form of a rash, hives,etc. but they present in the GI track. It is believed that most children will grow out of by age 7 or so but given the GI issues associated with AS, I am wondering if there is any connection. Kind Regards

p.s. www.fpies.org if you would like to look into more.



Eloa
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13 Jun 2016, 12:52 pm

SharkSandwich211 wrote:
Out of curiosity, do you currently have any food related allergies? The reason I ask is that my youngest son has FPIES...Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome. In babies it is often thought to be colic because of the crying and not eating etc. The symptoms do not present in the form of a rash, hives,etc. but they present in the GI track. It is believed that most children will grow out of by age 7 or so but given the GI issues associated with AS, I am wondering if there is any connection. Kind Regards

p.s. http://www.fpies.org if you would like to look into more.


No, I don't have food related allergies that I know of.
But it was an interesting read.
I hope your son is getting well soon.


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SocOfAutism
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13 Jun 2016, 2:12 pm

Eloa wrote:
Hans Asperger does not report feeding abnormalities.
So I don't know if they were existing or just not mentioned.
The mean age of Asperger's cases being studied was 8 years and 3 month.
The mean age of Kanner's cases being studied was 5 years (the two girls in the study were the olderst being 11 respectively 8 years and 3 month old).

SocOfAutism wrote:
I found Kanner's original work surprisingly sensitive.

I think that maybe people from that era put a little too much interpretation into their observations, though. Maybe some autistic babies don't like the taste or texture of their food, or they're being held wrong or too often while they're trying to eat. There could be a lot of reasons for why they're having problems. They can't communicate so it's hard for people to tell, especially if the parents don't know the kid is autistic or what autism is.


I don't know if it is too much interpretation or not, but also food texture or touch are intrusions from the outside.
Thank you!


Oh yeah, absolutely. There are a lot of things to consider and you would just have to do trial and error to figure out what was happening with the baby. We thought our (NT) son had colic, but it turned out that the US formulas made him gassy and he was also bored and frustrated from being a little too smart. We switched to European formula and we got books and toys for older children. Those things helped a lot. I actually feel sorry for babies. It seems like a frustrating state to be in-so dependent on other people and unable to tell them what you need.