parents of dcs with Autism - PLEASE tell me what you think++++++++++

[kalo12]

my ds is 7.5 months, he flaps his arms and hand twirls when lying on his back or sitting in a chair - legs tensed out arms tensed out. he does it all the time.

He doesn't babble but he does maje aaahh sounds which are mainly throat and monotone.

he doesn't respond to his name or look at things i name or point out.

he doesn't crawl, only just started sitting up last couple of weeks.

when he rolls over he doesn't corkscrew but lifts his head tense and uses his legs to flip. Always doing stomach crunces.

other than that he smiles alot, is very active.
poor sleeper, refuses solids , allergic to dairy

Please tell me if you think this could be autism.

Many thanks

I wouldnt say waking is especially asd at this age- ds4 does it too and although I know regression could happen, right now he has fab eye contact, babbling etc and I can clearly see a difference between him and the asd twosome.

I#m not in London but I tink you won't find anyone reputable who can give you a yay or nay so young. I suppose a Paed might be able to identify a red flag if present, but i'd be very surprised if you found anything above that.

See yur gp today, I do thibk you need to get the pnd dealt with as a priority. If you got an eventual dx of asd, as Mrsb says you need to be in a good place yourself- my poor dh wasnt and has had depression bouts ever since, is off work again atm. You dont want that.

There's no such thing as typical ASD behaviour! My DS slept through from 8wks!

My nephew (4) has always flapped his fingers since he was a small baby (was a PITA with dodgy tummy too). I think he could be classed somewhere on the bottom end of the autistic spectrum if assessed but nobody's ever mentioned it to his mum and he's fine, just what you'd call a free spirit.
My point is it doesn't have to cause whatever lifetime of hardship and horror you are imagining. There are plenty of happy, healthy ASD folks out there living fab full lives and not having a clue they have a problem. They won't have had early intervention because it didn't exist but they will have had loving, supportive upbringings that celebrated their differences. The key is probably helping them get a career in something that they are interested in - again, not something you can do right now.
Try to relax and enjoy your baby, this isn't really something you have control over. Re the sleep issues, ask you GP about your local sleep clinic.

Here are the red flags for health profs from the National Autistic Society. As you can see, not that much that can be ticked off right now.

Agree with Buckets - there is no typical behaviour for an ASD child. Mine slept through from 10 weeks and has done ever since. We often get praise for his good behaviour in public (very quiet and cautious)- some people might think that is not typical. The phrase 'early intervention' is used a lot and in general terms, the sooner the parents know what they are dealing with the better, but I look back and wish someone had intervened with me (rather than DS) and warned to calm down and not to rush into therapies - well actually someone (DH) did. We didn't really 'do' anything specific to ASD til he was 4 and he is making good progress. Worrying about autism won't change your baby but it will upset you.

Great comment Cyber. "Intervention" - sounds so powerful doesn't it? Like a pill you could pop....

Totally agree with cyber, virtually nothing DS1 does is really "typical" asd behaviour yet I still strongly believe he is on the spectrum.
Both of mine have slept through from 7-7 consistently from around 6 months, so no way of telling there either.

Kalo, I really recognise myself (of a year ago) in the way you're writing. Tbh you sound totally panicked, and that's what I was like, virtually to the point of making myself ill. It didn't do any of us any good, and once I was able to calm down, it helped me focus properly on ways we could help ds. I hope your GP appointment goes well, and you can gain some reassurance.

hi everybody, been to GP and he has referred me for counselling and ds to a paed, not just for the ASD but I'm completely at a loss now with the sleep and weaning too.

I know that my panic and questioning is largely due to my PND.

As regards my ds and how I feel about him, well he's gorgeous and I love him and if he's asd then we will all just move to the country and skip about.

I know no one can tell me yes or no. That doesn't matter , but I know also that I know much more than these HVs and Docs about some things, and as I have noticed some developmental delay and some risk factors then I may as well act on them, after all I feel that if people are doing research into early dx of ASD because they believe early interventions like diet and movement therapy or whatever can help then I'd be foolish to say, 'well the doc says they won't know for 18 months, so we may as well get a chinese takeway, put him in his bouncer and then let him cry to sleep'!

I just want to try what I can to improve what at the moment is a slight developmental delay.

My mum's coming down to feed me up and let me get a bit of sleep.

You've all been really really great.

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good luck Kalo,

sounds like you are already feeling you way forward.....

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Heheh morning sickness in my case but you probably don't want to go there yet . I'm so pleased your GP was helpful, hope you get some sleep soon.

Well done for speeking to your GP.

I have 2 girls, one with AS (aspergers) and one with possible ASD.

Dd1 was hard work from the start, wanted alot of atention and was a bad sleeper. We noticed she was differant from as early as 5 months but at this time i did'nt know alot about AS/ASD, as she grew up she became a nightmare to take out as she hated being around people, hated loud sounds and was a very fussy eater. Dd1 was refered to a pead when she was 3 years, she's now 4.5 and we are about to get a dx in the next few weeks.

Dd2 was refered after her 2 year check up, we did'nt realy notice any problems apart from her speach and arm flapping, she slept well from birth and had always been layed back and very easy to look after. She is non-verbal, we always assumed this was because dd1 spoke for her, we have been told to expect a dx of ASD. DD2 starts playgroup and speech therapy next week. We have been told that its hard to get a dx this early as they can change so much when they are so young.

I wish you the best of luck for the future, please try not to worry, what will be will be.

hi everybody,
i'm fluctuating from thinking I'm paranoid to noticing even more things. I stopped at the side of his pram on about 6 occasions during a walk in the park, he didn't turn towards me or look at me once.

on the up side i am eating really healthily, plenty of b6, green vegeatables, calcium and have gone dairy, wheat, sugar free so at least i won't be adding any toxins to him.

Is there anything else I can do? Is there anything that you have heard about, that you try, that you wish you had tried etc?

Not really, because at the end of the day it's part of who he is. I love his strange way of thinking and his peculiar sense of humour (which arrived at about 18m.) It's also fairly clearly genetic in our case so I'm quite confident there was nothing I could have done, he would have 'unfolded' the same way whatever. TBH I'm not even sure why I'm taking the fish oils for BFing DS2, might not bother buying another pack when this one runs out.

I give Eye q fish oil and abidec drops as a vitamin supplement to ds1 every day, minimise artificial colouring and flavourings etc. It's difficult to compare when your ds is so young, my ds1 is 3.1 and I wasn't aware of an issue at all until he was around 20 months old.

With ds2 (now 13 months) I tried to encourage eye contact as much as possible, and shared attention. I pointed at and labelled everything for him, and talked to him constantly. It has paid off, and he's got around 30 words now (same as ds1 at a year older..!) but I doubt I've had much to do with it really, he's just on a different developmental path from ds1.

The more you look for symptoms in your ds, the more you'll notice. Try and keep busy, see people and distract yourself.

hi my son has autism he is 3 now the signs were always there but never knew thats what they were if u know what i mean i feel 7mnths is a bit earlt to be judgeing thoe jst keepur eyes on it and go with ur gut instint when the time is right and if he is u'll love him all the same but jst have to adjust urself alittle to help him good luck xx

hi my son has autism he is 3 now the signs were always there but never knew thats what they were if u know what i mean i feel 7mnths is a bit earlt to be judgeing thoe jst keepur eyes on it and go with ur gut instint when the time is right and if he is u'll love him all the same but jst have to adjust urself alittle to help him good luck xx