Children with ASDs Taller, Heavier Than Typical Peers

Your forgetting something Connie autistic people are prone to stress related depression and that is one of ghrelin's jobs to deal with stress. If someone is under abnormal amounts of stress then the ghrelin levels are going to make them hungry and you cannot fight biology with will power things just don't work that way. So I really think we need to have research done to see if this hormone is indeed behind the heavier weight at the very least we can eliminate a suspect.

All of these comments are very interesting. My son is 12, 5' 8", and weighs about 190lbs. He weighed 8lbs 1oz at birth and was 21 inches long. He has always been taller than his peers. In the last year or so, he has a few classmates who seem to have joined him in the height range. We knew there was something wrong by the time he was 3. He was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome at 11 years old. He is somewhat clumsy, but was able to tie his shoes at age 3 ride a 2 wheel bike (without training wheels) at age 4. He tried to play t-ball and rookie ball, but his hand eye coordination isn't good. He isn't good at sports and has a funny gait when he runs. He tends to be a loner and prefers to spend time in his room watching TV. It's hard to get him out and moving. His doctor doesn't want him to lose weight, but stop gaining and wait for his height to catch up to his weight. He isn't very picky about food. There are a few things he just won't eat, but eats a variety of meats, fruits, veggies and dairy products. He tends to "graze" all day and would eat constantly if I let him. His dad is a compulsive eater and is extremely overweight. I wonder if my sons eating habits are a reflection of watching his dad eat non stop or if Aspergers has anything to do with it. I believe the most powerful role model for a child is the same sex parent. I too am overweight, but when I'm full, I stop eating. My son and husband will continue to eat. Are my son's habits caused by Aspergers or his dad's habits or a combination of both?
As more research is done, it will be interesting to see what conclusions are reached.

My son is taller and heavier (now just verging on looking slightly overweight although he's still in the normal range) than most of his peers. (But he's almost a full year older than most of his classmates...because of his birthday and developmental issues we didn't want him to be one of the youngest kids in his class so instead he's one of the oldest.)

He also has very low muscle tone and struggles with running and climbing and the kinds of "natural kid exercise" most typical kids like to do. I think he'd be naturally pretty sedentary if we hadn't discovered that he loves swimming and cycling. So he's swimming on a swim team in the winter and routinely goes for long (2-3 hour) bike rides in the summer with his cyclist father. And I think his stamina for those activities comes less from natural athletic ability but more from his tendency to perseverate -- if that makes sense.

Along with presumably managing his weight, the exercise seems to keep him more neurologically organized than when he doesn't exercise.

By continually reinforcing healthy eating and regular exercise, we hope that weight won't be an issue. Luckily he eats a variety of foods and up until recently I didn't feel a need to control portions. Interestingly he was a picky eater until he began taking sertraline to manage his anxiety at about age 5 -- within weeks he ate more foods in a month than he had eaten in years. I describe him upon starting the meds as someone who finally let himself open up and engage with the world and trying new foods fit right in with that new, less rigid (and much happier) child.