Community paediatrician for autism at 17 months

[Natalie6869]

My little boy is 17 months old and we have been concerned about autism since he was probably 6 months old, he has all the classic traits big ones being no eye contact, not responding to his name no gestures at all, we have just received the call for his initial paediatrician appointment and want some advice on what to expect? Can’t find anything about children his age being referred. Thank you 🫶

Are you on the UK @Natalie6869?

@BunnyRuddington Hello I am yes, have I posted in the right place? ☺️

Yes of course you have. It’s just a bit unusual to manage to get a referral so young, we didn’t manage to get obe for 15 years.

Because our DC was older tge process might be different but it went quite smoothly. They started by a Nurse Practitioner taking a full history. Then a SaLT did an assessment and after that it went to a Panel and we had the diagnosis by phone. There were a few months between each step.

Has the HV managed to signpost you to any groups or Nurseries locally for DC with SN? We missed out on these because of the diagnosis but early intervention can be of benefit.

You might also want to ask for a referral to Portage and Occupational Therapy

@BunnyRuddington We are as suprised to have been able to get the ball rolling so quickly, I feel like there was no support for early years/intervention when I asked for it, did all the courses the children’s centre offered and the health visitor advised I felt like I didn’t want to say no to anything as I didn’t want to be accused of not even trying if that makes sense! When the first health visitor didn’t take my concerns seriously I went to someone else and emailed so many different places I didn’t even know if they were the right ones or not😂 but eventually managed to get through to a health visitor who put through the referral from meeting my Son and doing a couple questionnaires on him including the social and emotional one which I think prompted the referral even more, I wish there was more available for parents who feel like me it can be so lonely and isolating when your child doesn’t want to be involved in what all the other children his age are doing and becomes overwhelmed! I know these things take so much time but getting him in the system it’s what important to me right now I just want to be able to help him in anyway I can!

I think you’ve done really well to get that referral, especially after not being taken seriously.

I would write down everything you can think affects him before the initial appointment.

Hi my son saw the community paediatrician around the same age, it's quite a while ago now (he's 8 in August) but from what I remember they asked us questions, then did a few simple tests like trying to get his attention and interact with him etc. they told us in their opinion he is definitely autistic, referred us for official assesment which we were on the waiting list for a while he was diagnosed officially at 3. We were referred for portage and in the meantime before that was sorted we would go to a group for disabled children at the children's centre, I can't remember how often that was for

@Sarah447 That’s really helpful thank you! How has it been since the diagnosis do you think it’s hard to find support? I’m so sure that he’s autistic it would break my heart if they didn’t refer us further as I know the waiting lists are so long and I just think why delay the inevitable! It’s only been 3 weeks since the referral went in to our appointment at community I don’t exactly know how the referrals are put through but I hope that means they see him as urgent

There's very little support unfortunately I remember thinking once he was diagnosed all this help would appear but it didn't. It was difficult to get him into a suitable school but he is at a good special school now but apart from that there's hardly any support, we have a yearly appointment with paediatrician but theyre not always very helpful