Failure to make eye contact

[frangosa]

DS is 10 weeks old and will not make eye contact. Every thing I see on the net is really scary - suggesting autism. I know it is early days but no other baby I know or have heard of has taken this long to connect/recognise the people around them. Please let me know if you have had a similar experience and how it turned out. Please do not tell me to relax and enjoy my baby and don't worry, particularly if you have a baby who is interacting with you. Sorry but I have had some really unhelpful remarks back and this is something that really concerns me and after some research I know that I am right to be worried.

sorry to hijack frangosa but something jimjams said caught my eye.....

jimjams, you mentioned your boys being cow's milk and gluten intolerant but not goats milk.... what exactly is that an indication of and is it only linked to autism? dd has those exact intolerances even down to being ok on goats milk and her behaviour has changed dramatically since going mostly gluten free

i don't want to take over this thread but could you e-mail me? dee_pinktulips @ hotmail . com .... i know your run off your feet but i'd really appreciate hearing a bit more about this from you as dd has a paeds appointment coming up and i'd like to be able to ask them to do that test if it could help. TIA

Hi PT

don't now if JimJams e-mailed yu, she knows far more than me but my ds1 is on the same diet.

No, its not only ever linked to autism! Its a quite common set of intolerances that can be linked due to gut problems, but please don't worry. Unless your child has clear indicators of ASD its not a link at all.

HTH

Hi Pinktulips- are you ok if I reply here- bit of an email problem.

DS3 has the same gut problems but isn't autistic. Basically if you have a leaky gut you are likely to have problems with gluten and casein. Often children cannot tolerate goats milk easier (probably because often children with autism have diigestive problems as well- it all gets very intermixed).

It's not an indicator of autism- but the theory goes if you have leaky gut and then have lots of gluten and/or casein depending on your exact problems- it can cause you to become autistic. In ds3's case I think giiven his famiy history, his leaky gut is a strong indicator that he is at high risk. There are other potential factors related to guts and leaky guts in particular- such as candida and salicylates. It all gets very complicate though- for a fuller understanding I'd recommend Richard Lathe;s book- Autsim the brain and the environment.

I doubt your pead will be that helpful with regards to this (our reigstrar is very interested and knows a bit about it, ds1's paed isn't remotely interested). You would need to contact the ARU direct really.

thanks JimJams and Peachy.....

Good to know about it possibly triggering autistic tendancies, all the more reason to be strict about her diet then. I already have mild concerns about the possibility she might be slightly dyspraxic and I know the two can often be linked.

Will see if i can get my hands on a copy of that book.

Hopefully the paed will be somewhat helpful as I have no idea what the Irish equivalent of the ARU is!

Thanks again and apologies for taking over your thread frangosa

frangosa
My ds3 was a moany and whingy newborn although born good weight - full term etc etc
at 10 weeks i took him to the gp just to say ' he is so unhappy al the time' she checked him over and said he had 'head lag'
I then quickly saw a paediatrician who also diagnosed what she described as 'faliure to engage' he would not look at me and indeed as you say seem to turn away...
i saw the paediatrician for 14 months - he had a brain scan bloods/ urine test after test. slowly he caught up
On sunday he was 4 - happy smily very healthy a complete chatterbox - just a slow starter.
I would go to the gp - more than likely it willl be nothing but only a professional will set your mind at ease

Stella Waterhouses' book "a positive approach to autism" links dyspraxia and autism biomedically, sort of shows how they might link together developmentally/biomedically. It's quite detailed, but very good.

You can still send stuff to the ARU from Eire I think. Google for ARU Sunderland.

NotanOtter, thanks for your message. It gives me hope. Did you let it work itself out or were you actually working with him in some way, with the paed for 14 months? Seeing GP this morning. Will see what she has to say.

Lots of people have said talk to your HV. There must be some good ones out there but mine cannot answer the most basic questions about anything at all!

we were advised to have physioltherapy but i declined .... we kept thinking - he is ok and strted finding the paediatrician a bit of a chore tbh test after test but they were only doing their job/ They questioned cp and autism but like i said - by a year he had caught up with his peer and now has a vocabulary to shame many of them!!!!
let me know how it goes this morning

Thanks for your reply. Doc agrees something is not quite right. Referring him to paed eye doc and for a hearing test, to rule those out/in before we think of other causes. Feel better for doing something. While waiting for appointments, hopefully he'll start to interact more.

Thanks everyone for all the emails and advice.

my dd is 24 wks and visually impaired (we don't know how badly yet) she will try to look at faces but as soon as anyone tries to make eye contact she looks down at her chest! (she has got better with me over the last month but as I don't have much vision its debatable whether eye contact is really established) also when she smiles she looks away from what ever makes her smile straight away. its almost like she is painfully shy (can a baby as young as 24 wks be shy already??). Anyway, the Drs have a lot of clever tests to asses her vision and seem pretty confident in being able to tell us how her sight is progressing so hopefully thay will be able to eliminate poor vision as the reason that your ds does this. hope you get some answers soon!

Wanabe - I presume you have kids as you are on mumsnet. I would be very interested it talking to you about how you manage as I am also blind (but not totally. I just cant see anything more than a few feet away)

Entropy, thanks for your note. I have spent the last week with my face in his face trying to establish eye contact. It is very difficult but occassionally we lock eyes and I might even get a smile. The more I do this, the more I think it might be an eye problem. I seem to have better luck at certain angles and distances. Hopefully it will all become clear after a few tests and it's something we can improve, if anything at all.

I'm amazed by the sight tests that my dd has! she has an ERG electro retinagram(sp) once a month which involves monitoring (I think) brain responses to visual stimulous (flashing squares on a big tv) they can tell straight away if there is a problem with the response which would indicate delay in sight development.

If this had been around 30+ years ago I'm sure my life would be a lot different now. (my problem was not diagnosed until I was 18 mnths old by which time the damage was done, hers was confirmed at 2 weeks!) dd has her next series of tests in mid february and although the last ones went welel i'm nervous already! I hope your ds gets some tests done soon to put your mind at rest.