Hiya moms did any of you get "diagnosis strongly considered" after your 1st CDC paediatrician appointment

[Kesha321]

Hiya as you may know my son has already been diagnosed with autism but differantlt to ,a friend on my facebook went to see the consultant paediatrician this morning and doesn't understand the terminology that the Dr used she write diagnosis strongly considered,to review in 3 months and gave her all the Autism leaflets ect...I didnt get that with my son infact they never once mentioned whether or not he will be diagnosed until the day,he was,they did tell me what they were looking for but used the A word carefully.Does this mean he basically does have Autism? Because I'm not quite sure what I should say to her. Thanks guys xx

For my ds at 3 the paed asked at the first appointment what I though was wrong and agreed when I said autism and said then that he was making all referrals for an assessment for autism. For my dd at 17 months the paed said we will do blood and urine tests to check for genetic and metabolic disorders and if they come back clear we will screen for autism. So for me autism was mentioned from the first appointment but my two were moderate to severe autism so it was obvious really.

Autism was mentioned from day 1 with dd2 and we were told to expect a dx of autism. It still took a year to get a dx and we still don't know where on the spectrum she is although they suspect HFA. With dd1 Aspergers was mentioned as soon as we saw the community paed which was a huge shock, i was given web-site addresses and told to read Tony attwoods books, we still waited 1.5 years for a dx as dd's traits improved over this time.

I got diagnoses for my two within five months for ds and six months for dd so it was very quick here considering as part of the daignostic assessment the child attends CDC for intensive interaction sessions for six weeks.

Oh ok mine was like this 1st pedi we spoke,2nd pedi it was yeah wer looking for this then CDC assessment one day and diagnosis,I was just suprised that the paediatrician basically said to her on day one,diagnosis strongly considered I think that's brilliant service if you ask me,but it still leaves the question does it look like ASD is most certainly going to be diagnosed,if so I'm going to invite her to some groups that I'm learning about and stuff,but dont want her to feel like I'm pushing it on her if you know what I mean,like imagine I bring her and she finds out his not ASD like if I bring her then it kinda means yeah everyone thinks his got it and might add to her worry be less support than helpful kinda thing =\

We were similar, got a verbal dx of ASD and all the leaflets but Psych wanted to do some further tests before giving written dx. Nothing more specific was given in the formal dx but more info about DDs language/comprehension issues.

Ds was recommended at his first CAHMS appointment to consider a Dx of ASD. This is because the paed not the phych have the final say in dx. The paed needed CAMHS to 'asssess' to be sure . (Ds is a bit complex) However it took 4 years to get to the that appointment (dont ask) and ds was 7 and already attending a specialised school, and his 'traits' were well established and frankly we all expected an ASD Dx. I still found the finality of a dx hard!!

Are further asessments or reports being waited on before a final decision is made perhaps? Perhaps more information is needed or the paed needs to see the child for longer to be certain if and which exact diagnosis would best support the child. I suppose you need to be gently supportive, and perhaps use the term spectrum rather than autism for now.