I'm new to this topic on mn, but hope I will be welcomed and someone can advise me.
DS is 2.8 years old, and has had a real regression in his verbal and social development over the last 6 months or so. It's now at the point where his 20 month sister is at about his level.
Our HV referred us to the community paediatrician and we had a two hour appt with him on this week, which I was quite impressed by (the length of time, not the actual content). It did however seem a lot like a Q and A session, rather than anything meaningful. The only thing he did with DS was to take his height and head circumference and listen to his chest.
He has referred us for a hearing test, which will be in around 6 months, something I don't feel he needs as his hearing is absolutely prefect. He's also booking us to have bloods done. We are now on the list to see a SALT but have been told it will be almost a year. He labelled him as autistic, which I thought rather unprofessional given the short amount of time he had with him. We asked for advice on activities/ books/ excercises, even changes in diet we could be doing to try and help DS whilst we slowly get ushered into the system but he offered no advice.
He also suggested we should cancel his preschool place for september in case he has to go to a 'second tier' nursery. I was left in tears and feeling bewildered and helpless.
I can't shake the instinct that being in a preschool will help him.
My MIL (to be) has been awful too. Within minutes of me talking to her she emailed me countless links to studies on Autism, and then decided it was all because we gave him the MMR (against her advice). She has been nagging me non stop about it which is far from helpful and even told me if I give our DD her second MMR it is akin to child abuse (!?)
Can anyone help or advise me at all, I don't even know what I need help with but just feel so down and helpless. I want to do all I can for my precious little boy, but no one is telling me what.