Hello, this is my first time posting. Just hoping to hear from anyone who has been in the same position as I am, as the loneliness is overwhelming me.
My beautiful and long-awaited daughter is 8 months old and for the last month she has been showing more and more worrying signs, all of which seem to point to autism.
She has stopped smiling socially- she used to be a vey flirty baby and now you have to work extremely hard to get a smile or a laugh out of her. At the same time, she often smiles randomly at objects or the corner of the room.
Her eye contact has drastically diminished. If I hold her on my lap, she twists and squirms to look past me. On the very rare occasion that she looks at my face, it's always at my mouth. She gives me zero eye contact during nappy time when we used to play games and sing songs. When she wakes up in the night or after naps she will not even look at me or acknowledge me at all. It's as though she doesn't recognise me.
Other things that she used to be able to do, but doesn't now:
Babble with consonants;
'Converse' back and forth
Respond to her name
Respond to our voices at all sometimes
Show joint attention, checking in with us when playing
And lots more. Also she flaps her arms strangely.
I'm not really asking you guys 'Is she autistic?' at this point as in my heart I'm pretty sure that she is.
Rather i am just trying to find someone, anyone, who has been in this situation of being sure thy something is 'off' only to have everyone around them scoff.
Friends and family; ' all babies are different' 'she's just being moody' 'she's just growing/teething/got tummy ache/sleepy etc etc etc'
Hv and docs (after 30 secs with her) 'she is absolutely fine, look she just made eye contact with me! Let me check her heart-rate, yes she's in perfect health'
Husband ' why are you trying to make there be something wrong with her?'
And the most isolating at all, from everyone; 'sr is just acing like this because she is picking up on your anxiety! Take some antidepressants!'
Wrong, wrong, wrong - I was perfectly happy around her UNTIL I started noticing these differences - I was not upset or anxious before. Also, when she was younger she would look at me with an empathetic and concerns expression if ever I did seem upset (eg once arguin wig husband) whereas now she does not seem to pick up on my facial expression or one of voice at all at all.
Sorry this turned out so long. sorry lots of typos too! Please help me somebody. How did you cope when you knew something was wrong and everyone else in the world denied it?
Thanks for reading.
Here are some suggested organisations that offer expert advice on special needs.
SN children
So isolated - I'm the only person who can see that something's not right!
WillWeBeOk · 10/01/2013 18:18
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