Please go easy on me as I’m making myself absolutely miserable here. So my eldest who is almost 6 has autism. It affects him quite severely and our lives can be challenging as a result. 90% of the time he’s a complete joy though and honestly we wouldn’t actually change him for the world.
When he was 3 we went on to have our second son who currently is almost 2 and in my opinion (especially after parenting a child with ASD) doesn’t have autism, in fact it was my second who made me realise how obvious it was all along with my eldest and that the signs were always there. The differences between the two of them has been gigantic.
When my second was a baby I made myself miserable worrying every second of every day that he could also go on to be autistic, until he started speaking, pointing etc and then I relaxed a load and like I said now he’s almost 2 and I’m pretty certain he doesn’t have autism.
Fast forward to this September and we have our third, a surprise baby but a very much wanted one and a girl too, after two boys what a dream. Again all I’m doing is worrying myself sick she could be autistic. I don’t know how to stop myself from doing it. She’s 9 weeks old and I can’t help myself from worrying she doesn’t notice when I walk in a room, she smiles at random objects (something my eldest did) and she can sometimes avoid eye contact. Then in my sensible moments I remind myself she is a literal tiny baby and how could I possibly know she’s autistic or not?
Anybody have any sort of advice or anybody also that’s been like this? I make myself unwell honestly, I know it’s not the end of the world if she does have autism, I love my son more than life itself just like I’ll love my daughter the same, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say it worries me! 😔