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Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Behaviour/development

16 M/O not talking/walking not hitting milestones

15 replies

Lesleyann24 · 26/01/2015 12:22

Hi, my 16 month old daughter has been very delayed in all her milestones. She only started crawling at 15 months old. She does not speak or babble at all really, she only really says raa raaa sometimes. She is very social and loving. I also have a 3 m/o daughter and i have noticed extreme differences between them already, my 3 m/o babbles and smiles all the time, she kicks her legs holds toys follows you around the room with her eyes ext however when my eldest was the same age she rarely made eye contact whenever she looked at you it seemed more like she was looking through you, she never smiled until around 5 months, she has never babbled, she never kicked her legs about. She doesnt try to get my attention or show me things. She never cried as a baby, and even know she very rarely gets upset and when she does there is hardly ever tears.
We are due to see a paediatrician at the end of febuary but i am very concerned. Any help or advice would be appreciated

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Lesleyann24 · 26/01/2015 18:11

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elliefant · 26/01/2015 22:48

Hi it is good that you have been referred to a paeditrician he or she will be able to arrange all sorts of tests to hopefully find a cause. My daughter has a chromosome disorder which was discovered after she had an mri and blood tests done due to her muscle tone and being delayed. Did your health visitor not pick up on anything during routine check ups etc? Xx

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milkyway1304 · 26/01/2015 22:52

Lesleyann I don't have a lot of advice but I appreciate how worried you must be. Seeing paeds is definitely the right step, early intervention is really important. There may be physiotherapists/OTs and speech therapists here who have advice. Have you spoken to your HV and GP?

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Lesleyann24 · 27/01/2015 08:07

When we took DD for her last review the health visitor was very concerned as DD scored very low on a lot of the skills whoch is why we have been referred to see a paediatrician and physio, there was a lot of talk about Autism however i dont think this is what she has as she is so social she loves kisses and hugs, changes of routine dont affect her neither does going new places or meeting new people. Ellifant what age did your daughter get the diagnoses?

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Lesleyann24 · 27/01/2015 08:17

I should also add, i had been taking DD to the HV and GP a lot as i was concerned about her delvelopment, but everytime i took her they told me that she was so young every child is different and develops differently, and i do understand that, however i knew that something was not right. Im frustrated it took until she turned 1 to get a referral and know i just want to know whats wrong and what i can do to help her :-(

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Lesleyann24 · 27/01/2015 16:06

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elliefant · 29/01/2015 22:46

Hi Lesleyann my daughter was diagnosed at 15months - i too was fobbed of by my hv everytime i raised concerns. It was our gp who noticed something was quite right and did all the referals. .It may be nothing more than just delays but it could be something more serious and as her mother you know her better than any one. Write down all your concerns and things you have noticed like lack of crying etc and take to paediatric appointment. Xx

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CaminanteNoHayCamino · 29/01/2015 23:30

Hi Lesleyann. Whilst I'm very wary of doing an internet diagnosis as a wholly unqualified person, your dd's symptoms sound something like both my nephew and my friend's DD. they have global developmental delay (the cause of which is unknown in both their cases although my nephew stopped growing in the womb and was delivered at 33 wks) and in both cases, whilst being social and loving etc, had and have delayed and then irregular movement, low muscle tone, and severe speech delay. My DNephew is 10 and can speak a bit and you can understand a few words (his parents understand much more obviously). He is a long way behind in school learning terms and has behavioural difficulties at times. (He still does not poo on a toilet for example but uses a night nappy for this purpose). My friend's dd is four and does not say anything concrete apart from mama dada and a few sounds which are the start of words, but vocalises a lot. She understands instructions and is a very smiley, happy child. I don't want to frighten you but this may want to be something you investigate. Here's a link which may be useful GDD.

I hope you get some answers soon. You're right to push for it because the earlier the intervention the better. I know from personal experience as my prem ds was not diagnosed with cerebral palsy until he was 21 months and with hindsight should have been by 12 months - I made the mistake of listening to the so-called experts. Good luck and take care.

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Lesleyann24 · 30/01/2015 07:57

Thanks everyone for all your advice. Im definatly going to push this to get some answers for my DD.
She has had a squint since birth and we were told that it was nothing to worry about ext however yesterday we took her to see a private ompthomologist and she was diagnosed with Duanes syndrome, my faith in HV and GP's is slowly fading and now im considering whether its best to just take her to see a private paediatrician as soon as possible and hopefully get some answers!
Thank you for the link caminantenohaycamino i will definatly have a read and present this to the paediatrician!

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PalominoPony · 30/01/2015 20:41

Well done you for being on the ball. No one on here can diagnose but I do agree that your concerns are worthy of seeing a paed.

If you can afford private, then I would do it. Having been a huge proponent of the NHS all my life, I have rather changed my tune in the last year. My son (2 years old) has autism - he saw an NHS paed at 18 months who said she was sure he didn't have autism. Two weeks later we took him (privately) to Dr Daphne Keen (one of the top autism specialists in the UK) who said she could say with absolute certainty that he does have autism (8 months on... it is clear to anyone she was right).

It is impossible for anyone here to tell you what (if anything) is wrong with your DD but it seems to me that most of the time, if a mother thinks something is wrong, they are generally right. If (IF) it is autism, early intervention is key (and our son has come on leaps and bounds with his therapies).

Good luck to you, I know 100% how hard it is.

PS - The MCHAT test (Google it) is the generally recognised test for autism. It is for babies who are 18 months old (so don't assess your DD by it yet!) but will give you an idea of the red flags you should be looking for. BTW, being affection/not minding change does not mean that a child is not autistic.

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PalominoPony · 30/01/2015 20:45

Oh! I should also say Daphne Keen does most of her work on the NHS - I don't mean to say all NHS paeds are no good! Just that I was fobbed off for far too long on the NHS (and there are an awful lot of people who have experienced the same).

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PalominoPony · 30/01/2015 20:47

And one more thing - maybe try to get private medical insurance now before you have seen anyone (just in case).

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Lesleyann24 · 30/01/2015 21:17

Thank you PalomoniPony! We have got insurance for DD unfourtunatly she was referred before the insurance completed so we are not covered by it. The referral has taken a good 6 months for us to get a letter informing us if the first appointment which is thankfully just over a week away now, but myself and MIL have been talking and we are also going to take her to see a private specialist as soon as possible, i was looking up specialist paediatrics so thank you for the name i will look her up and hopefully be able to see her soon and get some answers for DD. I just wish i had been listened to a lot sooner but hopefully if i keep fighting and pushing we will have answers soon

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PalominoPony · 30/01/2015 21:57

Great, Dr Keen is wonderful (as backed up by many a Mumsnetter on here!).

I know, there is so much fobbing off isn't there? Whether it's from healthcare professionals (with their waiting lists and cost concerns) or family friends who try to reassure and say there's nothing wrong and it's just slow development... All I can say is trust your gut instinct and be determined.

Your DD is lucky to have someone as switched on as you .

Feel free to PM me if you need any support and also the posters on the special needs board are a font of all wisdom and very kind too.

All the best.

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Lesleyann24 · 30/01/2015 22:34

Yea there really is! Even DH shrugs it all off! Ive felt like im going mad at times and like im imagining it but the differences between DD and other children her age are startling and even the differances between her and my youngest are huge!
Im just going with my gut its got me this far, as much i dont want there to be something i cant ignore whats in front of me. Its a real shame there is not more support and belief in a mothers institution surely we cant all be crazy!
Thanks for all the advice and ill be sure to keep you posted!