jenfon

Hello all,

I am new to this board. I am posting this because I think my 17 month old son has Autism. I have an older child that was the “prefect” baby. Never had any problems with her. However my son is completely different. Starting when he was 2 weeks old, something about him just didn’t seem right. Not long after that time we found out he had severe reflux which he struggled with until he was about 13 months. For the first 6 months of his life all he did was cry. He never liked being held, if so only a certain way. When he could eat, he would only take a bottle that was very warm, almost to the point of hot. When he started eating baby foods, he would only eat squash and sweet potatoes, and refused any others. At 8 months old things got really bad. That is when his behavior started getting worse. He would get mad about something and from a sitting position he would throw himself back on the concrete floor at daycare and bang his head on the floor.
His teacher would have to take a “timeout” from him because it was so bad. I could almost never have his picture taken because he always had bruises all over his forehead. At 8 months, I took him to the pediatrician and told him I just couldn’t take it anymore. The doctor got to see his behavior first hand that day, because my son was on a role. The doctor said that he seemed to have some autistic ways but that no doctor would diagnose an 8 month old, and basically told us too ignore the behavior and use “timeout” and it should get better. Well it didn’t! It has only gotten worse. Some of the things he does is: he hates anything cold (drinks, food), only likes the feel of certain fabric, has many, many tantrums throughout the day for sometimes no apparent reason other than the wind blowing the wrong way. He hates his car seat and it sounds like someone is killing him when I try to strip him in. The smallest thing can “set him off”. He does the humming thing “Mmmmm” sometimes, not much. He hardly every makes eye contact with anyone. Does not and has not ever like affection from anyone. Seems to be in his “own little world” about 80% of the time, and if that is disturbed , all hell breaks lose. My husband and I actually find ourselves “tiptoeing” around a 17 month old so that we don’t set him off. It is to the point that my husband will stay home with him when the family goes somewhere because we know that he is going to act out. If we decide to be brave and go to a restaurant, we look at the menu before hand, so that we can order right away, because we know our son has an eternal timer that will go off any minute. Now that he is almost 18 months old I am getting a referral to have him tested. What I would like to know is of anyone else has went through anything like this. Is it Autism? Also if their child’s behavior problems started this early. Thanks in advance for any help!

jenfon