Happy New Year and Q. about pointing!

[runikka]

Happy New Year to everyone - here's hoping it brings the best!

As you know, little Daniel is currently going through assessments for being on the autistic spectrum. Over Christmas he has been a real social little bee and very interactive with us which we find encouraging. However, I have been reading up on development for our little girl, currently seven months and just wondered if someone could advise on pointing.

Daniel has never pointed and it is obviously something that concerns us and the docs. What age can should we be expecting Rebecca to point? In the book it says at 7 months she should point as a way of saying "I want that". She tends to stick both arms out and grunt and I think 7 months is a little early to be expecting her to point at things. Does anyone know what the average age is? I am trying not to evaluate her every move but think we do need to watch her development a little more closely!

Best Wishes
Kirsty

Remember they are all different in terms of development. It maybe another couple of months yet. At least your lo is indicating that she wants something which is good.

7 months is very early for pointing. It should be "around" a year(ish) but the main criteria is by 18 months for pointing out things of interest. DS2 pointed at just after 12 months, ds3 17 months. Ds3's language is ahead of ds2's at his age. I was getting concerned about ds3 not pointing and changed his diet (more on that later if you want- I think we had a very close call with ds3) - poinitng came a week later.

7 months is too early to worry although you are right to keep a check on it.

Glad Daniel has been interactive recently.

jj ~ can I ask what you mean about close call with ds3?

jj - i am interested too - as i have said on ttr in the past there are concerns with dd and i would like to prevent problems with her if poss.

my nt (i think) twins pointed at 11 and 12 months. An interesting thing i noted (when asked at my ds1's dx) that they both could do peekabo by this age and still love it now at nearly 2, but my aspergers 4 yr old ds1 would raise a smile but never do it and now ignores it!

That's good news about Daniel.

I agree that 7mths is too young for pointing but know what you mean about watching them closely. FWIW dd is now 9mths old and I'm fairly sure that she is NT and she doesn't yet point.

We've taken the same approach with ds2 and ds3 which was to avoid any potential triggers as much as possible (I never say never). So neither were vaccinated and we've avoided antibiotics with both of them, neither have had tuna to eat and both were gluten free. In ds2's case although he was a bit of a later talker we had no autism concerns and he started having gluten from age 2. He's 5 in a few weeks time and fine.

IN ds3's case by 15/16 months he was starting to concern us. His response to his name was poor, he just seemed a bit away with the fairies, not quite with us. He'd been gluten free but was starting to have small bits so I suggested to dh that we had his urine tested at Sunderland. He came back with IAG in the urine and showing traces of caseiomorphine (or whatever its called- the breakdown product of casein). I wasn't that keen on putting him on soya but Paul Shattock suggested switching to goats milk (or guernsey cow milk if we could get any) - it had a different protein (A1 rather than A2 or the other way around) and is easier to digest. We did and within a week it was like the lgihts went on. He started pointing and talking within a week of the switch. He's 2 on Thursday so we're aware he;s not out of the woods so to speak, but he shows no signs of autism at the moment. I do think that biomedically/physiologically/ he does have many autistic features- I suspect his risk of developing autism was very very high, and I suppose he's probably still at risk of conditions like Tourettes. We see him as very fragile (he did have a seizure as well). I do feel that we had a very close shave with him. But we know now he has leaky membranes and so we're extra cautious with him. Especially whilst he's young and developing.

I did start a thread about the goats milk at the time btw, but it was during the time there was quite a bit of upset on the SN board and I asked for it to be deleted (was feeling very vulnerable about ds3 at the time- and felt the thread was too personal- it described a lot about him), so it was.

Now btw ds3's reaction to gluten is very like ds1's. So he'll be staying gluten free.

yes socci- I reallly do believe ds3 in particular was born very vulnerable to developing autism. Think of it in the same way as PKU- tested for at birth. Positive test you avoid phenylalanine and the child is fine. If you don't test and give phenylalanine to a child with PKU they grow up with learning difficulties.

Autism is far more complicated (PKU involves one enzyme only if memory serves me correctly), but I'm sure it's a similar sort of idea.

I haven't had ds2's mmr booster yet but they sent me an appointment for Thursday DD hasn;t had her first one yet either. DS2 had no communication age 3 but now nearly a year later talks a lot although doesnt understand some of it - lots of echolalia, I have modified his diet and behaviour is improving slowly. DD is hard to engage and at 18 months has 2 words. This is still relatively new to me and i am unsure whether i am doing the right things. Will definately try changing the milk as both had cows milk intolerance as babies and had to have soya but i was told i should reintroduce cows milk before they were one.