Worried about 9 month old

[Beansprout1]

My little boy has just had his 9 month development check and I've come away worried about him.

He was top scoring for all the motor categories but communication and problem solving were "in the light grey" which is a slight concern.

Background: he has been a difficult little baby with multiple food allergies, tongue tie and reflux which meant his first 3 months were full of lots of tears and frustrations.

By 6 months he was sitting up and crawling and is now confidently pulling up, cruising and standing. What concerns me is that he shows no interest in me. At baby groups he just crawls off and doesn't really look back. When people smile at him he often just stares back at them blankly with people often commenting "oh you're grumpy aren't you, are you not going to smile!?" He does smile but you really have to work for it and he doesn't give laughs openly. In fact, I don't think he has ever laughed at something because it is funny - he has laughed because of tickling or blowing raspberries on his tummy.
We do loads of talking to him and he loves looking at books and pulling up flaps/touching the "that's not my..." books. However he doesn't really babble. He makes m, b, d sounds but doesn't say mamama etc. He does however make a growly noise...almost like he's gargling the spit in his mouth.
Eye contact is fleeting. He does give it, but again very much on his terms. He'll engage for a short time but then he wants to be off again. He also doesn't always respond to his name. I can sometimes say it and he responds first time, but more often than not it'll take 5/6 times to get a look. If I clap my hands or bang my hands on the floor/table he looks. When I pick him up out of his cot in the morning he doesn't give a big smile and often doesn't even look at me - he just looks around. He loves banging and clapping and will do that with me, but peekaboo is a tricky game to play (again seems disinterested very quickly)
I just feel like he isn't responsive like his peers and I'm really worried that these are early signs of autism.
Any advice/people with similar experiences??

At 9 months I would just take the positives. You say he's scored highly on many of the tests.

9 months is far too young to worry

I worried about my ds at that age. In fact I worried about him from about 9 weeks when I saw how different he was from my friend’s baby who was sooooo interactive. My ds had terrible eye contact, didn’t like cuddles, and wasn’t interested in faces. I can’t remember what he was like at 9 months, but I know I was worried up to 2 years when he started to talk. I remember another time when in the garden and my friends ds was busy laughing and interacting with the grownups and my ds had just crawled off and was sitting on his own and I just remember feeling so worried as he seemed so different and not interested (as he was crawling this was probably around 9 months or later). My ds (now a teenager) is a lovely kind boy who still finds new things overwhelming and still sometimes has a bit less eye contact than others and it is just his personality. I know it’s hard, but if I had those early days again I would really try not to compare and try not to worry.

Babies all have their own personalities.... my DD was quite introverted at this stage, she wasn’t a huge smiler. At age 3, she is, but only at things she is interested in and she still mostly prefers to play on her own rather than with peers.

She also didn’t really do much babbling. Her speech is great though. I think some of them find it more interesting than others.

He will get assessed again before he is 2. Can you tell your health visitor that you have concerns and ask for another assessment before then, e.g. in 3 or 4 months? That might help to see if he is progressing in the right direction. Remember, babies and toddlers tend to obsess over some things and develop lots in those areas, then catch up on others later, they don’t make smooth progress.