Could you tell....

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when your child was an infant that something was different? Our 4 year old was diagnosed in December as being autistic, we're in the process of our 3 year old being diagnosed as well. I have some concerns about our 8 month old as well. She was 7 weeks early so I'm not sure if what's going on is cause of her being a preemie or if it's something more. She's a happy baby and smiles a lot, but she doesn't laugh out loud unless we tickle her or something like that. It's like there's something going on that I can't put my finger on. I'm not real sure what to think.

We knew something was diff very early. My daughter nursed only untill she was 5 months old. The first time she got hold of a bottle she would not go back to nursing, I guess because she didn't/doesn't like to be held/touched. By a year she was lining things up, sorting by color & having melt downs if her lines of toys got disturbed, etc. We never drempt of placing a blue block in the green block pile, that sort of thing.

Thanks for the reply. My husband swears there's nothing going on with her and says I'm imagining it all and that if there is something going on it's from her being a preemie. I'm not so sure myself. Her adjusted age is almost 7 months. She's not crawling yet. She also tries to avoid eye contact. She is just now starting to try to sit up. She can't get herself into the sitting position yet and isn't even trying to pull herself to standing. She only does vowel sounds and doesn't make consanant sounds yet either. She has said mama and dada once but hasn't again. She does nurse, but doesn't nurse for very long at a time. It's to the point that she acts like she only wants snuggles on her terms. I'm just not sure what to think. I know if I say anything to the pediatrician my husband will never forgive me. I'm not real sure how to handle the situation. He doesn't go to the pediatrician appointments though so I could act as if the pediatrician had asked about her development and asked about certain things instead of me bringing it up.

I knew something was different with my son from day 1, but I never, ever considered it was autism.

One thing I knew about my daughter from day 1 was that she was totally different than my son.

My daughter is NT; my son is AS.

I guess, however, that I really don't think there is any point in speculating with an infant. While some conditions require intervention at that very young age, it seems to me that the only thing an AS infant needs is a parent paying attention and well tuned in. Which is, basically, what all infants optimally should have.

I guess that's the reason I've picked up on all of this. I'm VERY tuned in to my kids and their needs.

I guess time will tell what's going on with her anyway. I just need to enjoy each and every day with her.

At the time, I had no idea. But looking back, yeah, I can see the signs. My Aspie was my first. When my second came around I knew almost instantly that she would be NT. It was more of a gut instinct thing. My Aspie was my preemie so it's hard to distinguish what is age appropriate and what is age corrected behaviours.

I knew almost from the very beginning that my son was on the spectrum. He never seemed attached to me and at about 3 mos of age he started hand flapping. He also never made eye contact with me. He rarely babbled, and had mild hypotonia. He couldn't sit up until about 8 months and crawled very strangely for ony about 2 weeks. He was an early walker though (11 mos.)Luckily, he started therapy at 8 mos. Today at age 5 he is an amazing, high functioning aspie. His biggest problem now are fine motor skills, specifically handwriting. I think that is is great that you are so tuned in to her developmental progress. I hope you have a good developmental pediatrician or pediatric neurologist that you can consult with. Best of luck to your family

The earliest sign I saw that there was anything unusual about my son was when he was 23 months old and already could identify most of the letters in the alphabet on sight. Even by age 4, though, it took two sessions for a specialist in ASD to diagnose him and she said she wasn't completely sure even then. The differences between AS and NT in very young children can be extremely subtle.

I did know something was different in my oldest when he was around three months old, perhaps even before that age.
My 19 month old is most likely NT. He is a lot of work compared to my ASD child.

I did. I posted on my blog about that a long time ago:

http://autismlookingglass.blogspot.com/ ... -knew.html

I need to post more on that blog! LOL but I'm too freakin' busy!

My first is NT (she's 12), my second is my son (he's 9) - and he has HFA. My youngest is 9 months, and the jury is still out on that one. She's behind a TINY bit with some motor skills - but she started crawling just this past week (she'd been trying before that). She does babble and she says some words that those of us here in the house know for sure, but she also does some flapping. I can't decide if it's just baby excitement, or if it's true flapping, but yes of course I've noticed it and made a note of it. She laughs, she has no trouble signing and communicating - but you know, it's early yet and I'm no expert. I mean, it took me until my son was almost 8 before we were able to convince someone to test him! I knew something was different with him - not right away, but little things from the time he was about 2, but trying to connect all of the dots was very difficult. He's really high functioning to the point where he could almost blend in if you didn't know better...which is both a curse and a blessing I guess.

I have begged for her to NOT be on the spectrum, but I think I'm coming round to the idea that it really doesn't matter. I love her no matter what - and whether or not she's on the spectrum, it all makes up who she is - and I wouldn't change that for the world. I am just enjoying her because she is absolutely our last baby, and if the time comes that we have to have her tested, then we'll do it and go from there.

We knew Jake was different from birth but he was 8 weeks early and really, really small. He didn't sleep, didn't eat (well) and cried all the time. His gross motor skills were severely delayed and he was hypersensitive to light, sound, textures, etc. But we thought these were all b/c he was a preemie with poor muscle tone. Our babysitter asked for an autism eval at 2 years. We got one and they said he had 'some' characteristics, but he wasn't autistic. The sitter insisted the psych eval was wrong and put up such a fuss that we switched babysitters. Come to find out she was right all along. He was diagnosed with OCD/Anxiety at age 8 and Aspergers at age 9.

And, by the way, while some of this is genetic, it is also related to his fetal distress and low birth weight according to the Neuropsychologist--Autism Spectrum Disorders are not uncommon in babies who weigh less than 4 lbs.