Anyone else feeling a bit sceptical of the 'experts'

[claw3]

Had an eye appointment for ds 4.5 recently, he was diagnosed with Brown Syndrome (unable to elavate eye) 3 years ago. This is a life long physical condition and doesnt just get better on its own. This has now disappeared and he doesnt have it anymore!!??!!

After a blood test 3 1/2 years ago, expert read his results wrong and told me he was not anemic, when he was and this went untreated for a year.

After 2 1/2 years of taking iron supplements and being told the colour would return to his cheeks, im still waiting he is still a deathly shade of white. Have they got this wrong too, is he still anemic, have result been read wrong again??

Sorry for rant feeling very anti experts at the moment!!

Lingle - I wasnt suggesting that sensory issues cause autism or vice versa. Just that sensory issues seem to overlap with autism and other disorders. Basically because my son has sensory issues, the experts are always trying to find a disorder to link it to.

Or did i totally misinterpret that?

my fault Claw3 sorry. The phone rang before I could review and I made the mistake of pressing "send". Yes - I had understood your point - I think it's some professionals who want to make an automatic link.

This may tie in with their checklist/referral systems. For example, when we had the dreadful first SALT review at nursery, the SALT said to me: "we ask three questions: is it a language problem? Is it a learning difficulty? or is it autism?"

So by sticking to those three questions she was basically excluding sensory issues except as a subset of the other two issues. So sensory seeking/avoiding behaviours would just be dismissed as "traits".

Your paediatrician is presumably a little bit freer to think for him/herself and doesn't have such a "checklist" to tick off.

I suppose as parents we are always looking for the 'why' and its far easier for experts to link to something they already have knowledge of, than the unknown.

As Dr's in fact, they are not allowed to think about the unknown, thats for the researchers, they have to rely on the tried and tested methods.

Ive been looking at lots of research into autism and SPD. I have found it really interesting that sensory issues are linked to autism because of atypical brain function. On the flip side, so to speak atypical brain function is also linked to gifted children. Quite conflicting if you know what i mean.

Right i need to go and do some shopping, enough thinking for one day i think

In a lot of cases the doctors simply do not know.

Many doctors told us that DS2 is "complex", a "mystery", an "anomaly", and an "accident".

It turns out that he has a very rare complex condition, and we are actually very lucky to have even got a diagnosis.

Many young children's symptoms do go away over time, and it is also the case that it is simply not possible to always get an accurate diagnosis until the child is older.

Agree though you would think that something like anemia would be relatively easy to test, diagnose and treat!