Does your kid have strange interests/fixations?

[CinnamonSoul]

I just wanna know if this is normal.

My daughter is 10 and ever since she could read, she’s had a fascination with baby names. My MIL had an old book of baby names and their meaning and my daughter would read it for fun😅. I thought it was a little odd, but I was happy she enjoyed reading.

Anyway, over the past several months, she’s developed a fascination with the name “Rosemary”. She heard it in a movie I was watching and she’s been fixated on it since. She seeks out that name. She‘ll Google it and find songs and characters with that name. She’ll scribble it in her notebooks. You should have seen how amused she was when she saw a bottle of dried rosemary at her grandma’s on Thanksgiving. I asked her why she likes the name so much and she said it looks and sounds nice. Ok, kid🤷🏻‍♀️.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't concerned

My DD has strange fixations and interests - it's part of her autism. Not saying your DD is on the spectrum, but that many people will have just as quirky interests. Your DDs love of names is quite sweet. I also love names, I take note when I hear an interesting or unusual one because as an author I sometimes include them in my books.

As long as she doesn’t watch Rosemary’s Baby I think she’ll be fine. It’s sweet she’s so interested

I have wondered if she is on the spectrum before. Her dad shuts me down whenever I bring it up

DS1 (and DH for that matter) have always had obsessions and fixations. In fact DH recently had a significant birthday and lots of friends and family were texting me to find out what the latest obsession was - they knew there would be one - so they could make sure their presents could feed the obsession!

Baby names is quite an obsession for many people on here over the years! I bet your DD would be quite an asset over on the Baby Names board. See what she thinks of Balonz.

Oh she loves baby name sites

Yes but he is on the pathway for autism diagnosis so that's not going to allay your fears.

He's absolutely obsessed with one particular animal and one particular food. The food thing is very annoying because its expensive and elaborate and he knows its not the kind of thing you'd be able to just make for dinner but he gets really fixated on getting it in restaurants and from takeaway places and won't give up asking for it. It's a completely unreasonable request but he has a big tantrum trying to make us get it for him and wont consider other options.

If your dd isn't causing any problems with her obsession (interest?) Then it's not something that you need to worry about.

Does she have any sensory needs ? Ds won't stop spinning around or making high pitched noise. Drives me mad!

I haven’t noticed many sensory things with her, aside from not liking loud noises and large crowds. Those things make her extremely irritable.

How is your son socially? That is my main concern with her. She has always had a hard time making friends. That plus her fixation with has made me wonder if she could be on the spectrum. I read that girls are better at hiding autistic traits than boys are

When I was a child I became fixated on the name Rosalind who was a friend of a friend. I had many obsessions like telephones, the old rotary ones and retro electrical items, blenders, mixers that kind of thing. It was a nightmare when eBay started! Was finally diagnosed at 60. It explained a lot. Never did well in groups and learn better on my own. Fear of not understanding games etc, particularly card games and that kind of thing meant I'd make excuses to not participate.