Delayed milestones/GERD

[3gingers]

I have a little girl who will be 17 month old in a week and I’m worried about her development. All of her milestones were delayed (crawling and clapping included) and given her age I’m concerned that she doesn’t: walk, talk (not a single word), babble, point, gesture to something she wants and has only in the last four weeks started standing and cruising. She is also extremely flexible and often sits in “W” position. Her legs and hips click when I change her.

She has half bronchiolitis about 4/5 times since being born and was low birth rate. She needed oxygen for the first two days after birth, needed 3 lots of treatment for Jaundice. She spent only 10 days in SCBU and was readmitted during that time due to losing 14% of her birth weight (5lbs 2oz when born).

she has suffered with reflux since birth and is often constipated. Even now after every weight and meal she “sick burps” and is constantly getting vomit on her clothes. This is all day, every day. The doctors and HV’s aren’t doing anything because she is now in the 90th centile. But regardless, she’s constantly getting chest infections and I think this is due to her reflux.

I am concerned about possibly Cerebal Palsy and I’d rather know now so we can help her sooner. We’ve got an appointment with the HV in two weeks due to the issue above and I’m just worried I’ll be told to wait and see again.

has anyone been in a similar situation? What happened? Thank you

I'm just messaging because I saw you had no replies.I'm afraid I don't have experience of all of your concerns - although my Son sick burped up until 2 years old if sat funny/bending over it wasnt all day, everyday.

Hopefully your HV can reassure you when you see them. I think tell them all your worries and make sure you know your next steps. Write down what you want to ask the Dr and maybe say that you want to be referred to Pediatrician.

Fingers crossed HV can put your mind at rest and give you some good advice.

My daughter has had some developmental delays due to reflux and food allergies.
At 16 weeks she scored very poorly on her 4 month assessment. She didn't respond to any noises at all, not our voices or loud noises if you dropped something and she didn't smile. She couldn't be put down for more than about 20-30 seconds. I had to put her down and pick her up 5-6 times just making a cup of tea.
At 18 weeks she had her vaccines and had a reaction that put us in front of a paediatrician. He overhauled her reflux meds and adviced me to start cutting milk and soya our of my diet. She had her 5 month assessment and score a perfectly normal score and had started responding to sounds and smiling a week after the higher dose medication and the changes to my diet. Since then she has done some things quickly, some things slowly and a mix. She crawled and stood early but then refused to walk. When she did start working she ran the next day and hasn't stopped. Her speech has been up and down. She quickly got 3 then 4 she didn't quite well then she dropped all words except the last two words she had learnt. This was about 8 months after starting talking. She even lost mumma and dadda which was hard. She mostly responded with pointing. We then went through a difficult time of upheaval personally and her nursery closed without notice. 3 months later we moved house and she was back in nursery. She had start to rebuild her vocab and probably 10-20 words but still got everything with a look or a point. This was aged 2. 2 months after starting at the new nursery she was using a few 2 and 3 word sentences and expressed her needs with words rather than gestures.

She's 3 now and at the moment we don't have concerns developmentally. Her language is a bit behind some of her peers but probably now within normal parameters. We have done work with our HV at times and they have been a great sources of support. Our HV praised our current nursery and that they just automatically adjust teaching to a child's needs and are particularly good at doing so.