Things you noticed in your autistic children when they were babies?

[Kelly in WI]

What things are considered autistic traits in babies/toddlers from about 9 months until 18 months?
Head banging when mad/tired? Pinching/scratching self when mad/tired? Slow to walk/talk? Very hesitant to try new foods (licking first, then spitting out)?

Thanks

[AmyinWI]

during that age range, my little guy would have a hard time making eye contact.
repeatedly rubbing head on floor when tired/irritated
repeatedly hitting buttons on a toy that made music /lit up- but not playing wiht the toy appropriately in other ways, also he would flip a truck over and spin the wheels, but never attempt to "drive" the truck. basically , not playing appropriately with toys like my other kids did.

other repeated actions like banging cupboard doors, banging a toy repeatedly on the floor to hear the noise. flipping the edge of a rug over and over.

because of the down syndrome, my guy is very delayed in walking/talking/eating, so I won't even mention that- but he does have a lot of sensory issues with food - has a very hard time with new tastes, textures and temperatures.

[Chalane (FL)]

There is a great archived thread on sign of autism, that might be what your looking for.

[Alice]

A subtle sign we look for at around 9-12 months is for the child to look at what the parent is looking at. So if a parent is holding a child on their lap and the parent then suddenly looks at a cat walking by, the child should follow the parent's gaze. Like any developmental test, it won't happen every time so you can't drive yourself crazy if they don't do it...but they should do it most of the time.

[Alice R]

Agreeing what the previous posters wrote.

I just saw a child that was about 8 months and I was worried. She was the first baby that I saw that was really hand flapping. Now i don't know how that child is going to develop but I realy don't think hand flapping for an 8 month old is a good sign. She also shook her head back and forth. She also had some odd finger flicking. The mother even asked if she had PDD and we told her that it was too young to tell but to bring her back at 12-15 months for a check up. :sad: We had a bad feeling about her.

Biting excessively on the crib rail
Shaking the head back and forth
odd finger movements
not looking at the parent/poor eye contact
a VERY cranky baby that never seems to have that baby sweet calm to them-they always seem upset and aggitated over something
rocking themselves
head banging on the crib mattress or rail
very picky eater
Seizures
Febrile seizures
Food allergies
Chronic ear infections
A lot of antibiotics from the ear infections
Regressed skills-parent will say that the child was babbling on their first brithday and starting to say words and it disappeared suddenly
Minimal interest in people
Repeatedly jumping up and down in the crib (in an odd way, not regular kid jumping up and down in the crib)
Scared of loud noises
teeth grinding
making odd noises over and over
delayed speech
delayed receptive language (doesn't respond to his name, doesnt look for mommy when named, doesn't look for familiar items when named)


And, (Controversy Alert!!!!!!!!!) the psychologist I work with will ask about vaccinations and how they have reacted. Sometimes parents will say the child had a very high fever, threw up etc. I did one child a few months ago and the mother said the child had a seizure after the shots. She was diagnosed with PDD. Did the child have PDD before the shots or develop it after? No one will ever know that. But she did have a very bad reaction to her shots. Sometimes the parents will report that the child was fine.


I wrote that list for toddlers and believe it or not, you see a lot of that stuff around 15-18 months.


I have noted two sets of parents:
One set will swear their baby was fine until about 15 months and then seemed to change.
The other set will say "I always thought something was wrong with him, even as a baby"

I wonder if PDD doesn't develop in two separate ways depending on the cause.

[Alice R]

Also: Very poor sleep cycle. Having days and nights mixed up. Can't get to sleep. Is awake and very wired.

[Lisalyn]

The only thing that I can relate to at that age level is the poor sleep cycle. Eli was developing normally in every other way: playing, talking, walking, etc. but he always had his days and nights mixed up or would wake at 2 am and stay up until 6 am. :eek:

Alice, Eli started regressing after his 15 month vaccinations. He began to lose words slowly and stopped pointing and playing by the time he was 2. At 2 1/2 he had lost all of his words.

He did not have a negative reaction to his vaccinations that was noticeable.

Who knows??

[Alice R]

Lisa, unraveling the mystery of this spectrum is frustrating.

Shots and the time that some PDD stuff start appearing at the same time, which confuses it even more.

I wish they would come up with a cause for this already. :mad:

[Cheryl in SoCal]

This is a very interesting thread, thank you!

[Robin H in VA]

The only thing that I can relate to at that age level is the poor sleep cycle. Eli was developing normally in every other way: playing, talking, walking, etc. but he always had his days and nights mixed up or would wake at 2 am and stay up until 6 am. :eek:




My guy was just going to sleep at 2 AM. I think it had a lot to do with how I worked though. From the time ds was 5 weeks old (when I went back to work) he was never asleep for the night until around 2 AM. Dh could never get him to go down before I arrived home around 10 PM. So when I got home, dh would go to bed and I would eat dinner, wait an hour or so to take meds, nurse ds and bath if needed and then it would be time for bed around 2 in the morning. Ds is still like that now. We can go to bed by 10 PM but he doesn't go to sleep until well after midnight.

[**Chrissy**]

Ds was developing normally until he had a sever reaction to his 6 month vaccinations. We were told the reaction was "normal" but he was a different baby afterwards. In hindsight, we recognize that his "normal" reaction was encephalopathy; we've been able to reverse much of the damage with biomedical treatments, to the point where he is high-functioning.... still lot's of stimming, social and behavioral issues, but definitely not where he was a year ago:)