Am I being paranoid due to past experiences?

[MrsDiggens]

Hi

I' a mum of 4 children, 3 boys and a girl.

One of my sons is going to be 5 in a month and has Sensory Processing Disorder and also Speech, Language and Communication Disorder. He was diagnosed at 3 1/2 after a long battle with Health Visitors as I thought his development was behind. We have been told he may also have ADHD and possibly be a High functioning Austistic. We have been to Autisim assesment and they said they found him tricky to diagnose as his sensory and communication difficulties were so strong so we had to do numerous questionnaires as they thought he may have PDD-NOS. I am still convinced this is possibly the case but trying to argue it is so tricky and after to speaking to another paediaitrician I am convinced along with them it will show by junior school age.

My husband has Dyslexia and recently found out he has Auditory Processing and Dyspraxia.

My youngest son is 11 1/2 months due to be 1 on 28th May. He is a very content baby some would say amazingly perfect, very rarely upset. He was a large baby born at term weighing 10lb, he had a ingunial hernia operation at 6 weeks, and since then has had trouble with his bowel movements chronically constipated so back to drs on tuesday. He has always sound nasally and finally a couple of weeks ago after being given an inhaler and that not helping another doctor has suggested Adnoids so now need an ENT referral to help him. He is rolling over but not crawling, he tries to shuffle like a solider on the floor but struggles to bend his knees, if I put the pushchair leg support down he will still keep his legs out straight. When he looks at lights of something bright in colours his legs bend and arms flap and if he's super excited he will flap his fingers in to his palms, and sometimes will screech.

He doesn't respond to me smiling at him but if I do with noise and his attention is on me will smile or make a noise back but not all the time. He has very little eye contact, and if I get it, it quickly shifts to my mouth or another object in the room.

If I call his name I would say about 15% of the time he will turn to me but the other 85% he won't even notice I have called him, and if his interest is fixed I cannot get his attention at all.

I am worried I am being over paranoid but with all the problems I have had with his older brother I want to make sure everything is looked into properly and before schools as I am still struggling with school bits for him.

Has anyone got any advice or experiences with something similar xx

Ok, none of what you describe is proven to be associated with later problems. But the studies on infant indicators of autism in siblings just are not there yet, (I know, my baby is is a study currently). Many parents of older children say they 'knew' something 'wasn't right' from infancy.

I'll be blunt. You have 4 kids, one of whom is probably on the autistic spectrum. So you know what you're doing. If you're worried, you probably have good reason to be. Don't faff around, and don't be fobbed off as being over-anxious. He needs to be in the system as early as possible. Yes, there is a chance of wasting your own time and anyone else's. But there's at least as much chance of missing an opportunity to diagnose him at a very young age.

With intervention now, fingers crossed you're looking at a good long-term outcome. Plus if he is deaf, or generally delayed or anything else it needs to be picked up.

Thank you.

I hadn't thought about Glue Ear, as he is still breastfed, we are non smokers so house is smoke free, never had any ear problems and all other siblings haven't either, but saying that it maybe worth me mentioning it as it could be a possibility. Our niece and nephews all had glue ear, but all came from smoking parent families, bottle fed, and had recurrent ear infections.

I was thinking possible asd but him being so young i'm worried I'm being over anxious. I have requested an appointment with my Health visitor which is in a couple of weeks and spoke to my sons Paediaitrician and she has told me to note it all down and she'll wait for a referral to come through. I'm just pleased at least someone has taken me seriously and if it's nothing but delays at least he will get some help. Just need to wait until the appointments before I can start my intervention which we helped our other son with as awful as it sounds we saw such an improvement with him it meant further delays with getting help, so need to get that into place first.

ok, sounds like there are some traits of ASD but some may be age related, they may not. My advice to any parent is to start early as possible. Yes you will be more alert to any difficulties because of your DS, but this doesnt mean your wrong.
Both my DDs have ASD, one dx at 5, with formal dx at 6 and the other dx at 2 but we have formal appointment now she 3, but in the meantime she has been at an Autistic preschool and getting ASD imput. The younger the help is in place the better the outcome.
I would push for a paed appointment via HV, and go from there. He isnt likely to get a formal dx at 1 year old BUT he will get the imput needed and be in the system. Dont forget these appointments take 6-18months in some areas!

Good luck and remember you know your children best :)