AUTISM in Baby

[NJJT]

EXTREMELY WORRIED ABOUT 8M BABY BOY…

1. very quiet- he has only started making more noises past week but no specific sounds or babbling.
2. Settes off to sleep and wakens up without a sound. Will waken at night and lie there quiet. (could be up to 2hrs)
3. Stimming with wrists is very pronounced and he keeps bringing his hands together up and down to his mouth.
4. He is alert and aware of surroundings and watches everything going on.
5. he is smiling and laughing when siblings engage with him.
6. responds well to noises and always looks in direction of sounds.
7. rolling over but not up crawling yet.
8. Eating well and fine with different textures.
9. Eye contact can be good at times but when you’re too close or he is on your lap he will avoid it.
10. this past week or so I’ve noticed him becoming more social and responding better to peek abo and social interactions.
11. always felt as a younger baby he was difficult to make smile/laugh.

In many ways he is so perfect but I can’t help but think the quietness and stimming are major red flags. I have raised concerns with HV and GP but being told it’s a watch and wait game. Finding it vv hard to just do that.
Can anyone offer any advice or been in similar situation. Have 3 other children all fine and no family history of autism. Feeling very confused and afraid.

My 4-year-old son is autistic, and at the moment, I wouldn't say there's anything to be wary about in what you've mentioned. I would see how their language development progresses over the next 6 months and then go from there, at this point there's absolutely nothing the NHS would do for you until closer to 2 years old and even then the interventions offered are quite minimal so even if there was something there's no harm done by waiting until their 18 months old to look at things again.

Yes I know this to be the case there will be no support available as of yet. I have saw children who clearly have very severe needs with their autism and still awaiting diagnosis when they came to school.
I am scared because lots of people say they wouldn’t have been aware of anything until their child was much older and that makes me feel is my wee boy going to have very severe needs. A mummy’s never done worrying!!

Oh my son is "very severe", it was two years to get a diagnosis and the support was 2 hours of speech therapy and then discharged from all NHS services.No matter how early the diagnosis there's barely any support until you get them into a good inclusive mainstream school or a special school anyway (his nursery does his best with him but there's only so much intervention that can be done by them). Apart from some eye contact differences nothing was noticeable as a baby, he was 16 months and losing words overnight when it became very clear.