Anxiety about child development

[littlefoxmummy]

Hi! I start by saying that I am a very anxious lady and now I become a mom. Well, it's tough! Sometimes I make myself laugh having so many worries. My baby boy has 7 month old, in 2 weeks will have 8. He is crawling, sitting, playing with our dog, bubbling all day long, engaging with other people, crying if I leave the room, lauthing when we are playing, he is very curious, he react to the word NO, but often he is not obeying :) And he starting to wave for a few days. Well, my current worry is that he is not responding consistently at his name. When I m calling him suddenly he turns his head to me, but when I give him his meals and try to engage with him, he is engage in other activities - stare at the dog, or playing with something and he seems absorbed by that and has no reaction. Dr. Google say that is an early sign of autism if a baby doesn't respond to his name by 7-8 months in 80% of time. What is your experience with that?

The only thing I’d be worried about is him playing with the dog. Recognising their name is usually achieved by 9 months, which he isn’t yet, and their signs of recognition can be very subtle because he’s not going to turnaround and say ‘yes mummy?’ for quite some time.

My son has a mild delay and at age 2 doesn't answer to his name, he has no communication and doesn't understand any commands like no, stop, more etc he's walking but very wobbly. We are under the care of centre for disabled children but even his paediatrician doesn't seem bothered. Your baby sounds totally fine to me

Totally normal not to respond at this age. There are so many exciting things around!

None of my 3 reliably responded at that age, or even by age 1. They're all very bright kids. They're also very loving and affectionate. They were just very focussed on what THEY wanted to pay attention to. At that age, my eldest was obsessively babbling, so not interested in anything else, and my boys were pulling up on everything and trying to climb up things. They all developed well overall, but remember that development guidelines are based on averages and different babies do things in a slightly different order based on their personalities/preferences.