Anyone with NT children who they were convincedbwere autistic as babies?

[FloatingGlasshouse]

I’ve been worried about my 15m old for several months - some red flags for autism such as almost NEVER responding to name, odd movements, little babbling recently - no words, and online just started some pointing.

There are also things she does that are positive and go against autism.

I’ve seen so many posts about people worried about signs of autism in their babies/toddlers - wondering if any that turned out to be NT can come and give me some hope?

With regards to no words, I think it's perfectly normally not to have any at 15m.

What does NT mean?

NT = neurotypical

No words at 15M is not concerning at all. Autism is a spectrum, so nothing really goes against it, there is no one thing that a child does that can rule out autism, for example there are children with autism which are very socially motivated, are very cuddly, have great eye contact, have excellent speech, etc things that one would not expect with autism. Autism is a social communication disorder so there needs to be significant deficits in that area for it to maybe be autism; so things like social referencing, distal pointing to draw attention, seeking praise, eye contact for communicative purposes, etc. those tend to be the most reliable indicators for autism. However some of these 'red flags' like 'no distal pointing' are not considered late or concerning until after 18M.

I wondered about DS when he was little; slow to talk and used to walk on tiptoes all the time. Now age 5 there are no indications at all.

A friend worried that her child couldn’t jump at 3 but is fine now! I worried that DS was autistic as he has signs of hyperlexia but actually he’s fine also.