Youtube videos of diagnosed or suspected autistic babies.

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Have you seen them? What do you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU2jLnQcjuU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18xHHsTPLL0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8m_4EU7phg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQxDG4LD1Eo

There are many more, but these are good examples representing a majority of the videos in question.

I find them confusing. In some of them, the skills parents seem to expect are barely appropriate for the child's age. I don't know that a two or three week developmental lag means a baby is autistic. Repetitive play is normal for children at the ages shown, too. I can't find it now, but there was also one video of a child who was "cured" by chelation at 2 years of age, and the mother suspected autism because of skin problems--I am quite suspicious about that one.

It seems like the parents are looking for autism and finding it because they can. In once instance, the child has an older sibling with a diagnosis, and that makes sense to me. Of course a parent wants to be able to get an earlier diagnosis so they can get help for their child sooner. The rest of them, though? I'm not sure. As I understand it, many infants will have a slight delay, and with a little help (or sometimes even without it), they catch up by preschool and have no further problems. It seems to me this is probably the case with the children who are suddenly "cured."

I know this topic is controversial. I hope I am not offending anyone. I am just trying to make sense of this as a parent and a person who is probably on the spectrum.

typically, a child would want to look at you and smile at you while playing with what they are enjoying. I only looked at the last one of the boy pressing the computer button over and over, and the mom calling his name and him not responding to her. I kept waiting for him to look at her and smile, but he was not. I say that's NOT typical development. at that age babies what to share what makes them smile with mom or caregiver.

I think that of all the videos, that one makes the strongest case. Still, at 14 months, there are other delays or issues that could account for it. In the absence of other information, I must question why this parent automatically assumes her child is autistic. One of the other videos includes footage of a child at nine months of age.

Well, the first baby (Ricky) doesn't seem to make as much eye contact as I'd expect, and especially not responding when his mother tries to get his attention. It's usually not hard to get an NT baby's attention, at least briefly. Plus, he seems to be stimming (chewing nothing, flapping, and putting his hand to his mouth while whistling).

The second baby seems a lot more typical in his behavior. I'm not really noticing anything unusual in how he acts in the video. Maybe a bit of stimming (spinning) although NT babies often stim a little too. And his Mom isn't trying to get his attention, so it's hard to tell if he's socially responsive or not. Could be autistic, or could just be BAP or NT. He does seem very focused on the book, but maybe it's just his favorite toy.

The third baby (Carter) is a bit unresponsive - he does look at Mom, but it seems to take more effort on her part to get him to respond. But the dangling toys is pretty normal - NT babies that age are testing out physical causality a lot, things like gravity.

The last baby doesn't seem to responding to Mom at all - just focusing on the toy. He doesn't even glance at her once during the whole video, which is pretty unusual for a baby.

So, my call? Babies #1 and #4 are definitely on the spectrum, baby #3 probably is, and baby #2 might be AS but more likely is NT or BAP.

Incidentally, just off the top of my head, only differential diagnosis I can think of for the unresponsiveness that #1 and #4 show would be deafness.

All of the babies seem normal to me.
Then again, I am aspie-ish. When my son was small I had no experience with children, and accepted all his behavior as normal, as well. I gather the children are supposed to look at their moms? What's so interesting about her?

its not about mom being interesting...lol, its about the baby wanting to share his world with others. Looking is about sharing, the baby can say without words by looking. When baby has a toy, then looks at me and smiles, I know he is sharing his interest with me, trying to engage me (or whoever). Those babies didn't look, and they didn't share their experience with anyone either.

I think all 4 of them are on the spectrum. What gets me most is the lack of responding and them not looking at their parent, and the one baby was SOOO QUIET!! !

She's the most important person in their life. They depend on her to take care of their every need, and to ensure their safety.

It seems like a lot of kids get that way when overstimulated, do they not? Hand to mouth is also common during teething, not necessarily stimming. Also, if you read about attachment disorders in infants, there is quite a bit of overlap with characteristics cited here as evidence of autism--ignoring or avoiding one's caretaker, or interacting in an unusual way, is a major part of it.

I do wonder, though, if I really know what an NT baby looks like. Maybe I don't!

Well, that's ALL my kids.

With the exception of DD3, who screamed constantly and would seemingly do anything to garner attention and/or control the situation.

I would like to show some of these videos to DH and my stupid f*****g b***h of a neurotypical girlfriend, who accuse me of trying to force a diagnosis on DS5 or of insisting that he has to have problems just so I can get attention. Apparently following a professional's recommendation for an evaluation and using clinical terminology constitutes Munchausen by Proxy, at least it does if you are a drunk insecure self-righteous NT f**ktard b***h who's 8-year-old refuses to do homework, stabs holes in the walls, and tries to burn the house down while you sit around talking about how wonderful he is, refusing to admit that there could possibly be anything wrong.

Want a real laugh???? The stupid f*****g b***h is a special-needs aide by daylight.

Want to talk about hypervigilance?? How about statements like, "Take them to as many doctors as necessary until you get a diagnosis..."

Buyerbeware, I think you need to get yourself a new friend.

The most striking thing to me, as was for many of you, was not potential stimming or being super focused on toys, etc, but the low responsiveness to mom. I have been around many typical babies. They vary a great deal in what is "normal" behavior for them. Some are more active, some are more quiet. Some are "stimmy," some are still. But all typical babies I have been around reference their mom on a very regular schedule. Lots of looking at mom. Lots of interaction with mom.

My kids were not typically autistic nor typically typical in that regard as babies. My son, from what I remember, did reference me and did share some things with me. But he was extremely hyperactive and had clear sensory integration issues as a baby. He is primarily ADD, but has a lot of spectrummy things going on and has a degree of social awkwardness that is noticeable. My daughter did not respond to her name as do most babies. Sometimes she would reference me, and sometimes she would bring things to me to share, but these actions were very hit-and-miss. As was her eye contact. I remember when nursing her that I kept waiting for that moment that moms describe when their babies lock gazes with them and they are filled with a sense of connection. My daughter NEVER looked at my face while nursing, let alone into my eyes.

But regardless, I knew that my kids were not like other babies, way before the word "autism" even entered into my conscious awareness. Through internet research, I identified that my son had sensory integration issues, and I thought my daughter was probably MR. While I do suppose there are moms out there who "invent" issues for their kids....I know one who insisted that she and her kids were all autistic, but it is quite clear that none of them are; none of them are diagnosed despite many attempts and no one familiar with autism on a personal level sees them as autistic...I think most moms want nothing more than for their kids to be "typical" so if they are seeing something that is off, there is likely something going on. Whether you can be certain at this young age that it is autism or not is questionable IMHO, but I think it is foolish to disregard a mommy's gut feeling.

The environments in all four videos did not appear noisy or chaotic enough to overstimulate an NT child. While NT babies do get overstimulated, it takes a lot more stimulation than it does for autistics.



And if these kids were living in an orphanage, or had been in several foster homes, or were being severely abused or neglected, I would be considering attachment disorder as a differential diagnosis. But that kind of behavior only occurs with severe attachment disruption - not the milder insecure attachment styles that you more often see. Insecurely attached kids still readily seek out interaction, and generally only act differently from securely attached kids when they experience attachment-related stressors (eg separation).