a few niggly development worries in a 6.5 month old

[flubberdubdub]

He's a smiley, giggly baby but reading development milestone charts (I know, I know...) gets me a bit paranoid. For example, he doesn't and never has put his arms out to be picked up. He has never copied noises or facial expressions. He is easy to get a laugh out of but isn't fussed about peekaboo or hiding games. It's the lack of imitation which really worries me. What does anyone else think? According to the books, he should have started basic forms of mimicry at 5 months old.

Thank you for your messages. I spoke to my Health Visitor today. She emphasised that diagnosis at this age was impossible but she reassured me that DS gives her no cause for concern and seems to be developing entirely normally. Instead we talked about how I'm feeling and why I think so much about this. I realised I am suffering with PND and that that is the real issue here. So thank you everyone for all your posts. I'm so glad that I came on Mumsnet as it has helped me see that I probably am postnatally depressed and now I can start to do something about it. You have all been really helpful, have helped me put my mind at rest about DS and made me take a look at my own issues, so thank you.

Stop reading those bleddy things! They're designed to make you paranoid. The "milestones' are at least as fanciful as the growth charts in that red book of horrors. Hide it! Where you can't find it!

Just came on to try and help and saw your last post fluberdub. Glad you have been able to adress what's really wrong here and can now do somehing about it. I'm really pleased for you. Hope you feel better soon and enjoy that lovely new baby

Glad the health visitor was helpful. Agree with TC. I had to be very careful not to spend ds2 and ds3's babyhood searching for signs of autism (they had about a 1 in 30 risk or something). If you spend every second analysing everything they do it destroys what should be a special time.