Should I be worried? Pointing

[OrangeFox4]

Hello everyone. Its my first post here - im a first time to a 17m LB.
Hes hitting every single milestone except pointing and its really freaking me out, just as a bit of insight i struggle with anxiety and depression and have done for 12 years, im 28 at the minute.
He can say farm animal sounds when I ask him what certain ones say (he can do cow, sheep, horse) and other animal sounds (dog, monkey, lion). He can also say Mama, dada, ta, nana, hidey boo (which he pronounces as deedee boof haha). He can high 5, wave, clap, dance, shake his head no (say if we're reading a book and its a lift the flap and we're trying to find spot for example he can shake his head no when spot isn't behind the door). He is also saying "sheep baa" and trying to count in his own way, he makes sounds that sound like 1,2,3,4,5 when he is stacking his cups. He also gives kisses when asked and can blow a kiss.
He passes me his toys and gets me involved in his play time, he passes me books and loves me reading to him. The health visitor however has said to me in April that with all this he's behind in social and communication and she will review him in a year, because he isn't pointing.
Hes a fantastic eater and has a amazing appetite. He is sleeping through the night most of the time, if he doesn't sleep through 99% of the time he can be up once for about half a hour. He has great eye contact and most of the time he responds to his name. We point to things a lot to try and encourage it, but have also noticed if he points to things in books or touches certain things in sensory type books he does it with his middle finger.
My question is do I have anything to be concerned about? Everything I've read online points to autism which freaks me out a little, not in a way that I would feel different if he was autistic because id still love him to pieces, im more concerned how I would deal with it with my mental illnesses.
I really hope I don't offend anyone with this post as that's really not my intention, I have an autistic nephew who I think the absolute world of and is amazing.
Thanks for reading if you have got this far,
Love from a mum who doesn't have any other mum friends to talk to this stuff about.

No, if your child is able to communicate effectively for you to understand (obviously taking into consideration he is very young) then I wouldn't worry. Can he take you towards what he needs or how do you know when he wants something?

Other than him bringing me things he doesn't really show me what he wants but at the same time I dont think I give him a chance if you know what I mean

Demonstrate the behaviour more. What do you like? Mummy likes this one. Point. What one do you like?

See if this changes with you giving him more of achance. Maybe offer 2 options holding them in your hands and see if he picks one.
I honestly don't think it's a cause of concern if he is hitting every other milestone.

@Balloonheartswe do it a lot, maybe we're still not doing it enough though!

@AMagnaMaterhonestly that's one thing we haven't tried and we will be doing now - thank you for your idea!

Can he 'follow a point', so if you point at the big lorry over there, does he look at the lorry, or does he look at your hand (or neither)?

How would he tell you he wanted something (that he couldn't reach himself)? How would he get you to look at that exciting dog/cat/bus/etc. over there?

Pointing is the most common way for small children to do these, but it isn't actually the only way.

If, for example, a child sees a dog, squeals 'woof woof', and looks at you to see if you've seen it as well, then that child is showing a fair number of the same developmental skills as pointing at the dog would – they realises that you don't automatically see what they see, they want you to share their excitement/pleasure, they have a way of drawing your attention to it (albeit imprecisely!), and they check your reaction to see if it's worked. If a child sees a dog and says 'woof woof', but with no engagement with their mum/dad/whomever, then they're showing fewer of those skills.

@skkyelarkhe can follow a point and does most of the time, hes pretty vocal to be honest with animal noises etc and socialises with us by bringing us things and getting us involved in whatever game he wants to play and stuff similar to that if that makes sense. Hes always chatting to himself too

@OrangeFox4 Hi. I wonder how is your LO doing developmentally?