Can you claim DLA for young children?

[totallycluelessoverhere]

I understand that all very young children need a lot of care and supervision so how do you differentiate when it becomes significant enough to be eligible for DLA?

To be more specific: child has just turned 2, is awaiting first appointment with occupational health and has already had a speech therapy appointment and has a follow up booked. He has been referred to the child development centre.
He has no understanding and spends all day climbing and jumping off things. He has to be constantly watched. Mum cannot even pop for a quick wee or to open the front door without taking him as he will put himself in danger.
He only eats six different foods.
He doesn’t sleep well at all, example: he will sleep 8pm until 10pm and then be awake until 4am and then sleep until 6am. Mum wants to go back to work as they need the money but is too tired due to lack of sleep to function well in a job and be parent too.
Mum isn’t considering DLA yet as child is only just two and there are no professionals involved enough yet to support any claim.
Is mum best waiting for a diagnosis or until the child is a little older before making a claim?

He has other issues too, the above is just a few of the main issues.

I'd deffo say get evidence from professionals. Is he at nursery? They could make a statement (I got school to write one for DS, his teacher - could be young child's key worker at nursery). Diagnosis will make it stronger - though that's not the official line - Cerebra and sky badger both have good in depth guides. Certainly by age 2 you would be expecting to get more sleep than she is doing. Higher rate care considers this - ie are you looking after them when everyone else in the house would normally be asleep, are you having to get up repeatedly or for 20 mins or more at a time. Answer here is a clear yes. She needs back up and paper trail from paediatrician and others to support the claim otherwise it will be easy for them to reject even though its genuine. Hope that helps. Also keep a diary to show professionals based on sky badger/cerebra points. That way they can write it all up/document in official reports. Its hard to think straight when you are perma knackered. I know! Having a framework helps. Is he continent? Does it look like ADHD type issue? What about input from health visitor who knows the family? The more professionals on board the better. Their word is taken seriously. It can take time to gather evidence and get referrals but DLA can be backdated to when claim is received. Good luck with supporting this mum and her child.
Can she get respite care? I had Home Start when DS was little. If they are still going, that would be a good call.

You should definitely make a claim. The test is what does your child need over and above what a child of 2 would normally need? For example most 2 year olds would be sleeping for at least 6 to 8 hours at night. You would be able to leave them for a minute or two in a seperate room while going to the toilet or preparing food. They would normally be able to have a quiet time for a short period of half an hour or so in the afternoon, and would be able to respond to simple instructions like not jumping off chairs etc. Don't be frightened to appeal if they turn you down. Ive done hundreds of dla appeals and rarely if ever lost.

Thank you both and sorry for the delayed reply, I haven’t been on here for over a week.
The family is currently waiting on involvement from professionals but the little one is due to start at a SN nursery in September so they are thinking of waiting until then to claim as they really don’t have anyone to support a claim at the moment.
Based on my experience I suspect the child is displaying some adhd type symptoms but I am not a professional in this area and the child is still obviously very young.
I accompanied mum to the park last week and it was very clear that her little one behaves quite differently to other children his age.

The test is does your child need more care than the average child. Under 3 it's unlikely to be awarded unless they have a diagnosis and quite extreme delays (eg no ability to sit up at 2, needing to be tube fed etc) from 3 its expected they become more independent so not being able to walk 100m at 3 is not normal, speech should be developing but won't get points until 4 or so.

We managed to claim from 5 for asd but they didn't accept incontinence until 5 (day) and 8 (night) for instance.

All toddlers are super stroppy so again it's typical. Being hyper active and needing constant supervision again is still within normal limits, as tough as it is, plenty of "normal" children are tricky at 2. Diagnosis really helps because it focuses the mind of the assessor but at a guess they won't qualify at the moment, however gather evidence, get echp in place, etc etc because the key is to maximise the potential of the child, y 3 or 4 if things don't improve then there's a better case for dla