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SN children

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Original poster

People with autistic children.....

75 replies

Jimjams · 07/06/2005 13:17

Straw pole (if you can remember)

When did your autistic child start to reach out? Did they play with baby gyms or just look at them for example?

If you can say whether you think they werte autistic from birth or regressed that would be helpful as well. If you think they regressed any identifiable trigger would be helpful. I'll explain why later....

I'll go first.

Ds1 used to look at baby gyms but never reached out. We went to baby swimming classes and he didn't reach out for the swimming toys until 7 months. When people gave him presents he never took them. Still often needs a verbal prompt to take things from people.

I think he was stuffed by thimerosal in baby jabs, and regressed further at 11 months following eczema herpeticum.

OP posts:

Original poster

Jimjams · 07/06/2005 20:21

agree completely Davros!

Was watching a video of ds1 at around 12 months and he really dooesn't look very autistic , was using lots of referencing (which we're now going to start RDI to teach him FGS!)

But he was too passive with toys, and he didn't reach out when other babies were.

What's the chin press? DS1 has started pressing his chin into me now really hard and it's blumming painful! (for me)

OP posts:

RnB · 07/06/2005 20:23

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Socci · 07/06/2005 20:34

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JakB · 07/06/2005 21:03

One of the main things looking back was DD's lack of understanding and lack of communicative intent (no pointing BTW). We thought it was 'glue ear'.
She was a very smiley baby- almost intensely so. But one of the earliest signs, now I've had another child, was that she was incredibly passive. DS turned round to see where I had gone when I left the room very early on. DD never did that.

RnB · 07/06/2005 21:05

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JakB · 07/06/2005 21:10

When do you go honey?

RnB · 07/06/2005 21:14

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JakB · 07/06/2005 21:20

Do believe I am! And the way things are going, I'll need a drink by then

RnB · 07/06/2005 21:31

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RnB · 07/06/2005 21:35

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maddiemo · 07/06/2005 21:41

I don't remeber if he reached out for toys but I know that he had no interest in them. I think he was born autistic, way too passive, no interest in games of any kind. He did seem to regress twice. The first was following a hypospadias repair op during which he suffered breathing problems at the age of one. He was given lots of antibiotics at this time. Impetigo before op, HIB bacteria and candida found during op and treated with antibiotics. Two weeks of antibiotics after op. He screamed virtually non stop after the op until almost the age of 3. The second was slowly between 18-26 months when he lost all his language. This followed numerous bouts of impetigo, asthma attacks, mmr and men c given on the same day followed by chicken pox. Lots on antibiotics and oral steroids.
Bowel problems started at around 8 mths.

Original poster

Jimjams · 07/06/2005 22:20

ditto socci- and sitto jakb- both ds2 and ds3 moaned/moan if left alone in a room- ds1 didn;t give a damn,\
\Socci I think rnb is your rdi girl- i've just got the dvd and book and am incorporating a few things.

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Eulalia · 07/06/2005 22:36

ds reached out about 3-4 months which was age appropriate. However I would say he was autistic from birth and there has been no regression. Looking at baby photos he looks like he is in his own world. I did have concerns at 18 months when his eye contact wasn't good. He also had some odd playing behaviour. None of this was conclusive enough till he was 3 when he wasn't passing the usual milestones, talking, toilet training etc.

Eulalia · 07/06/2005 22:38

Forgot to say the first time I noticed something odd was when he was 6 months and he would turn his head at right angles to look at things. I know this is common in autistic kids but strangely he never did it when he was older.

coppertop · 07/06/2005 22:55

Ds1 had antibiotics from birth. It was a long labour (40hrs) and the consultant was worried about possible infection so ds1 was put on antibiotics while we were waiting for his blood test results to come back. There was no sign of infection so the antibiotics were stopped. By this time ds1 still hadn't fed at all (about 3 days old) and the MWs were finally starting to realise there was a problem. He was dehydrated and tachycardic (sp?) and the MW who examined him (after much begging from me) was so concerned that she put a feeding tube in straightaway and sent him off to the SCBU - where the antibiotics were re-started.

Ds1 had several toy rattles as a baby and I remember wondering why people bothered to buy them when babies so obviously didn't play with toys. I didn't realise that it was just ds1.

InternationalGirl · 07/06/2005 23:17

Up until 8 months DD appeared absolutely normal. I even went and checked her baby book. It said things like at 4 months - "smiling, vocalising, social butterfly", and just before onset of seizures (which we believe triggered autism) said things like "loves to roll, sitting supported".

Then, after infantile spasms (eplieptic seizures) at 10 months old she had no muscle tone, no babbling, lay her on the floor and she could not even lift her head up, wasn't using her hands to pick up anything - was really scary because we were told by the specialists that they didn't know if she would get any of her skills back.

We think with regard to the autism we feel she was already possibly susceptible due to family history but was perhaps triggered by the seizures.

Socci · 08/06/2005 08:32

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macwoozy · 08/06/2005 09:05

My ds was on antiobotics as well for the first week of his life. Whilst he was in the SCBU, they suspected meningitus, and performed a lumbar puncture on him, thank god that wasn't the case, but I still don't know to this day why it was suspected

I've also got another chin presser here. He likes to press his chin into my eyeball socket, he used to get quite angry if I didn't allow him to do it, but now he's 5 I've managed to stop him doing this.

bunny2 · 08/06/2005 09:14

this really alarms me. ds was given antibs for 5 days following his birth - I have GBS and the hospital policy was to treat any baby born to a GBS mother with iv antibs. Ds is being assessed in 2 wks time by the Ed Psych .

Original poster

Jimjams · 08/06/2005 09:26

lots of children have lots of antibiotics!

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Sax · 08/06/2005 09:38

Hope you don't mind if I join in this one. My ds1 is autisic, he was such a 'good' baby, having had two more now I realise he was 'too good' really. I thought he was placid but what I mean is he didn't make noises as a baby and didn't look at toys (looked away from me a lot) no eye contact but he had a baby gym but wasn't fussed about that. i don't remember when started to reach out but certainly a lot of months after my other two at same age.
He has and still doesn't really play with toys the same as other two, he doesn't seem to know what to do with them. Once shown, he sort of takes an interest in them.
Anyway, I need to get round to reading all the responses to this thread in case I'm rattling on when the subject may have changed by now!

Davros · 08/06/2005 10:19

Someone I know who has a DS with ASD and 2 NT kids came to our house once and said "oh, isn't it lovely, its not full of toys and kids' junk" and I said "no, that's because I have a child who isn't remotely interested in toys", silly cow!
Oh, the chin press. DS used to dig his chin into my shoulder and it looked like we were having a lovely hug but it was agony! He then started pressing his chin with his forearm or mine. I think he might have got a reaction to this, don't know, but the pressing into the forearm because bashing upwards to the chin with the forearm and is now one of his SIBs. Maybe its the path the chin press takes that matters or maybe its just the way he first started his SIB which was going to emerge anyway.

Eulalia · 08/06/2005 11:16

Re antibiotics - my ds is 6 next month and has never had any antibiotics or anything other than small doses of Calpol and yet he is autistic so wouldn't worry bunny2.

Original poster

Jimjams · 08/06/2005 12:46

oh we've gone the other way- from chin bashing to chin pressing!

OP posts:

Socci · 08/06/2005 13:14

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