Worried my 6 month old shows autism signs, normal development?

[NewMum629]

Hi all, I’ve gone down an absolute rabbit hole and completely worked myself up convincing myself that my 6 month old has autism. It doesn’t run in either family so has not been a concern until I started googling something random a few weeks ago and now I can’t get it out of my head and noticing more things. She has just started twirling her hands all the time, has always had leg stiffening randomly, sometimes flaps her arms, will look anywhere else other than you if you’re holding her, has only proper belly laughed once but does do small laughs and squeals sometimes. Alternatively, she gives amazing eye contact from across the room or if someone else is holding her, will respond to voices, she’s always had more ‘serious’ days but does smile a lot, mainly at dad! He only has to look in her direction and her face lights up every time 😂 I was also very happy that she is VERY vocal, lots of ‘aaaah’s, ‘oooo’s, squeals and shrieks during the day and when she’s getting herself to sleep, but this I’ve read online can be ‘vocal stimming’ once again linked to autism as she does it repeatedly 🥺 also going through a real raspberry blowing phase but I don’t think this is a sign?

Milestones wise she rolls from back to belly but not the other way yet, doesn’t really push up on arms during tummy time but does a lot of airplane motion. Sits well with support. Find her doing a 360 circle sometimes during tummy time.

Ive had tears this evening because I’ve absolutely convinced myself and find myself watching her every move which is horrible! I know of course this affects a lot of people so I really hope this doesn’t come across as offensive in any way, just a mum worried about her baby!

I will contact her health visitor however as i understand it it’s far too early to look into (hasn’t stopped me clearly) and we won’t get answers until she’s older so just looking for real life mum or dad to mum advice!

Hoping others will have had similar experiences and everything has turned out fine and I’m just being overly anxious ♥️

Thanks so much in advance for any comments 🤞🏼

Your baby sounds extremely normal.
You’ll find that she’ll do something for a couple of weeks and then stop, so best not to google everything.
A lot of things that babies do as a normal part of development can be seen as ‘signs’ of autism online.
Best bet is that if you notice a concerning behaviour and it’s lasted a few months then start to look into it. But as of right now nothing you’ve said about your baby is concerning.

Thank you so much that’s good to hear ♥️ google can definitely be the enemy sometimes!!

I agree that your description sounds like fairly typical baby behaviour – they do lots of strange things and have lots of little phases and obsessions as they figure out how their bodies work and how they can interact with the world around them.

It's also worth noting that some of these things can be signs of autism at a much older age, and stuff you'll read doesn't always clearly make that distinction. So repetitive shrieking, squealing, etc. from a baby is probably just part of figuring out how their voice works (if a bit hard on the ears at times!) – the same repetitive noises from a five year old would be more unusual and potentially a concern.

As the parent of an autistic child I dont think at this point you ve got anything to be concerned about, the noises and hand movements can be quite typical at that age, if they were getting past say 18 months old with them then it could be concern but I imagine the noises are them just testing their vocal cords for the next few weeks.