Autism Speaks, Community, Autism Response Team

Gastrointestinal, or stomach and digestive problems, are a major concern for many families of children affected by autism. The children's struggles to communicate their needs often make it difficult for doctors, particularly those without much experience with autism, to identify and diagnose these problems in ASD children.

To help increase the ability of pediatricians and other doctors to treat the GI conditions that often trouble children with autism, the GI committee has been drafting algorithms for Constipation, Chronic Diarrhea and Food Allergies.

The Constipation algorithm consist of two components. The first assists pediatricians in diagnosing and treating this condition, common in children with autism. It helps the doctors determine how serious the symptoms are and how to treat them. The second part guides GI specialists in choosing the right treatment approaches depending on how persistent the problem is. The Constipation guideline will be the first of the algorithms to be pilot testing in the summer of 2009, in preparation for wider testing across the network in the fall.

The Chronic Diarrhea algorithm also has two parts. One assists pediatricians in diagnosing, providing initial therapies and deciding when to refer a child to a pediatric GI specialist. The second helps the pediatric GI specialist in the accurate diagnosis and categorization of specific conditions, and the respective treatments or other intervention options that should be considered.

The Food Allergies algorithm is aimed at helping pediatricians recognize GI symptoms commonly associated with food allergy and to distinguish between food allergies and symptoms of other GI conditions. Another aim is to develop a tool that will help physicians answer parents' questions. Currently the draft algorithm proposes a set of symptoms that should be investigated and suggests allergy screens, allergic food diagnostic panels and treatment approaches based on the results of the allergy tests.