question about autism?

[addictedisback]

I was going to ask this on a thread in chat, but thought rather than hyjacking I would start my own thread.

Did any of your austic children have 'autistic traits' traits as babies?

dd2 is 9 months old and is very diffrent form dd1, weve had many problems and she had a pead. He has said she has 'autistic traits' and that she is 'one to watch'

part of me wants to scream 'ffs she is 9 MONTHS old' and the other part of me agrees and can see diffrences in the two girls and can see traits that older autistic children have.

I see a theripist and she says (shes never met dd2 and constantly states that she isnt qualified to give advice) that it could be to do with my angsiety. dd2 picks up on my angsiety, portryys these traits and I get more anxious making her worse. a vicious circle really, that I can accept.

the traits that the pead has picked up on include, eating problems (has problems sucking, swallowing and difficulties with textures), she wont sleep and she will have 'tantrums' (throws herself around, hits out at me and nothing will calm her down apart from being in her car seat on being hugged very very tightly. So tightly infact when we are in public people often think I am hurting her) and finally she is (or was, she is catching up although I re iterate she is 9 MONTHS OLD) behind developmentally. at 6 months old she was still very much the same as a newborn and now at 9 months can cruze, crawl, grab, play etc but doesnt have a pincer grip, hasnt attempted to stand by herself doesnt chatter much amonst other things. but like I said she is 9 months and there is plenty of time to learn these things.

Did your austic children have autistic traits as babies or is my pead talking out of his arse?

Yes. My first was clearly autistic from birth. No eye contact, no interest in interacting with me, went rigid when cuddled, pushed away from kisses, not drawn towards looking at pictures of faces, never wanted to show me things, very angry, etc.

I didn't know what it was at the time, I just thought he didn't love me

My second, born 15 months later, was very cuddly, very interactive, really interested.

My first was diagnosed with autism at 2 and a half.

My second was diagnosed at 3.

That one was a bit of a shock he did the classic toddler regression that people associate with autism. So yes, autism can be detectable from birth. Sometimes it screams at you!

9 months does seem very young to be thinking autism. I can honestly say that at 9 months, even in retrospect, my DS didn't exhibit any signs. He was quite a happy little chap, though, breast fed well, hit all physical milestones on time. He just seemed to stall at about 12 - 18 months and didn't make any more progress for a couple of years.

But, all DC with ASD are different, and my friend's DS was an extremely challenging baby, who cried all the time, was rigid in her arms and never cuddled in, always seemed unhappy and anxious. I was oblivious/in denial to my DS's issues while her DS attended a special school from age 2. I caught up by age 3 and my DS was DXed at 3.6. Her DS wasn't DXed until he was 6.

Ooo, interesting cross post with Hecate! Her 2 sound like my DS and his friend. My DS would have failed the MCHAT at 18 months, but I had no worries at they age.

thank you hecate. When I tell people they say I'm worrying over nothing or lying and that my pead wouldnt say that because autism is a lack of development and babies arent born with it.

dd2 does give lots of eye contact, she also recently started kissing me :o which is really cute.

I just feel like every little thing I'm over analysing. it doesnt even matter to me if she is autistic, I just would rather know iyswim.

Yep I knew Dd3 was quirky from really little. she wouldnt take a bottle from anyone except me, including her dad.

She refused to swallow medication, she wouldnt even have it in her mouth she would gag and heave. I found this out after she had a bad reaction to her first jabs.

She was terrified of noises of any kind and would go completely hysterical.

She hated bright lights and unusual smells.

She would only sleep wrapped tightly with about 6 blankets piled on top of her.

I think you are lucky to have met a paed who is so tuned into ASD especially as she is a girl because some HCP's still dont realise that girls can have ASD too.

Good luck

thanks ellen, thats intresting, dd2 doesnt cuddle in, I force her to cuddle its one of the only things that will stop her screaming. and the screaming is torture! it sounds like she is in pain all the time. shes not a happy baby but is very clingy to me. she will not be put down and if I put her on the floor to play she will whip round and start climbing my leg.

I just dont know what to think. I would rather the pead had said she is just a difficult child rather than throw the 'autism' word around.

Sorry forgot to say, it took until Dd3's 9th birthday to get a diagnosis

I used to call Dd3 my spider monkey, I could walk around the house with her clinging to me

but then saying that she has improved so much, this week she had a cold and I realised just how much she has improved, because she reverted back to how she was. if that makes sence.

ineedalife, thats intresting, I havent yet managed to find a cause for the way she reacts, it just seems to be everything.

Have you considered cranial osteopathy? I'm not generally into things too 'woo' but it might be worth a shot?

Toad had professionals questioning by 9 months too.
He was up and walking and had absolutely no interest in anyone. He was never clingy with me unless he chose to. Still does now. Will only cuddle on his terms.
He preferred to be independent with everything, food, toys, tv etc.
He didn't speak a clear word till he was 5 years old. He was diagnosed at 3.

thankyou all so much. suddenly I feel like I'm not loosing my mind or making mountains out of a mole hill.

as crazy as it is its actually reassuring to know that it could be autism

Yes I knew there was "something" with DS from birth. He could only tolerate milk at fridge temperatures (any warmed milk he would gag or be sick), he would be hysterical at certain noises, he has always been a bad sleeper, has always had an extremely clingy bond with me and no one else (but responded well to my mum and sister who had similar hair and we all have a similar voice), he liked to be squeezed hard to get to sleep, like to be held facing away from you, liked there to always be background noise, didn't want eye contact or interaction just physical held tightly.

Everyone dismissed all of my concerns until at 3 his preschool teacher noticed the same traits. At 3 his speech was very behind and mostly echolic, he would get extremely distressed, still wasn't sleeping well, had huge sensory issues with food. The nursery teacher seeing the same things spurred me on to push and have him assessed and 3 years later we got it in writing.

This is a great place to come to feel reassured addicted.

I didnt have any support in RL when Dd3 was being assessed but when I found this board I felt like suddenly people understood what I was talking about.

Keep coming back

Dd1 (autism) was cuddly and smiley as a baby, good eye contact etc but she was a terrible sleeper (still is), extremly irrirable, crying all day long, crying in babygroups (i soon stopped going) and very very clingy... with hindsight, she was also late to point and to communicate... i had the gut feeling from 5-6 months on that something was not quite right... she was really extremely high maintanance iyswim

I have a DS 6 and I didn't see any signs @ 9mths I think thats very young but some people will say they knew early on & will notice differences I have a friend who's DS wouldn't sleep as a baby and constantly cried she knew there was something.

My experince I didn't see any signs @ 9mths more at 1 -2 yrs late in didn't crawl, late in sitting, talking & walking.

Then noticing things like interest in spinning items buggy wheels, washing machines and objects but it wasn't constant.

We knew around 1-2 yrs & DS got DX'd @ 5 yrs though the paed had been watching since age 1!!

My DS hasn't got a diagnosis yet but have been told by paed that he is probably autistic, he is 18 months.

As a baby he couldn't latch on properly to breastfeed and had to have his bottles of milk quite hot, at a very particualr temperature and wouldn't take a bottle of anyone other than me under any circumstances, and sometimes it was difficult to get him to take a bottle from me so i had to rock him under a light while feeding him. He had to have suppositories for constipation and medication for reflux.

Didn't stop crying for the first few months, the first 2 months were horrible, he wanted constant motion and hardly slept, I had to bounce him in his bouncer really fast with my foot constantly or have him in a baby swing at high speed , cried when I put him down but wouldn't tolerate being in a baby sling.

He hated being moved in his pushchair, cried the whole time when out in it. hated the sunlight.

He smiled on time, had OK eye contact, but didn't laugh on time and still doesn't laugh now unless in rough and tumble play.

He flapped his arms a lot, walked early at 9 months.

He's now very independant and has been since around 9 months or so, doesn't like being held, no cuddles or kisses.

In hindsight we noticed strange things with DS from about 8-9 months old, from the time he started walking. At the time though he was about 2 and a half before things came to ahead and we started the road to diagnosis.
The things we noticed early on didn't seem big but when e looked back it was obvious that somethng was different.

Even with the benefit of hindsight I can't say if DS had traits or not at that age, because he was my PFB, I didnt know much about babies, etc etc. If your pead is already talking about ASD then you have a head start: many posters here have said the best advice they had pre-dx was to treat their child as if they had been dxd already. Certainly using ASD friendly techniques can't hurt at all.

The one thing I'd like to pick up on is your comment about your therapist essentially saying its your anxiety that's causing this. Obviously I don't know why you're seeing someone or what kind of therapy it is but I don't think that's a very helpful statement. At all. Both in terms of its probably wrong, but even if your anxiety is contributing to the situation your therapist doesn't seem to be helping you with it?