Early autistic traits/girls

[Happytorelax]

I’m currently seeking an autism assessment. It’s been suggested as a possibility by many people as I’ve struggled severely throughout my life. I definitely have a lot of very obvious traits as an adult but I’m conflicted about early childhood signs from say age 0-5.

My question is, to anyone who has been either diagnosed later in life or their child, particularly daughter has been diagnosed, whether they would say that any of these are autistic traits.

Very distressed baby/very poor sleep/never settling/couldn’t be put down no apparent reason.
Not settling at nursery/pre school at age 4. Not making friends. Refusing to speak to
adults/other children.
Finding school very distressing.
Having imaginary pets and being very intense about them such as screaming and crying at the school gates because I couldn’t take my imaginary pets with me or screaming and crying because I’d left my imaginary pets somewhere.
Refusing to eat at nursery/school
Watching the same film over and over or reading the same book over and over.
Habits like hair pulling/lip biting

I recognise a lot of that, especially the poor sleeper and clinginess. DD21 is still very focussed on me. Imaginery friends (or pets) is a classic trait. Hair pulling and lip biting sounds about right - DD and I pick our skin which I would say is similar:

It could be ADHD or autism or both.

My dd about half of that

She is very intelligent
Heavy masker
Diagnosed at 17. Nearly 20 now and only just starting to understand herself and unmask

Be kind to yourself. After the high there will be a time of adjustment. You might lose skills as you unmask. But you will
Hopefully be better in the long term

Yeah th imaginary pets thing is common. I was diagnosed at 50. I had an imaginary cat for a long time, also made up words.

what about problems with interoception:
“Interoception is an internal sensory system in which the physical and emotional states of the person are consciously or unconsciously noticed, recognised and responded to. For example: a person notices their stomach is rumbling and they have a pulling sensation in their abdomen. they recognise this as signaling hunger.”

really common in autism - for instance I didn’t know what ‘hungry’ was as a young girl