Expert: Trey McGowan - 3/28/2008

Question
My daughter is almost 3. she has been diagnosed with a form of muscular dystrophy(fsh). She learned to roll after a year and by 17 month learned to walk. She is delayed in laungage and play skills. She seems to play like a 18 month to very early two age. Basically will try to feed a doll but won't pretent to burp, put to sleep ect. He laungage is delayed. She can put 2-3 words together now. She was a huge parrot at 18 months repeating but never using she has said 90% more then she has used(she uses about 80 or so words now) She oddly enough seems like she doesn't understand sometimes while other times she is smart but doesn't repeat what she has done(the other day she counted to ten!) the same as some words she has used. She sometimes talks in a creapy wisper voice and repeats what i say in this voice often.She has a high pain tollarence. she has had to get blood drawn 2x and didn't shed a tear even though they kept sticking her. She has cut her self with a razor and said color and laughed and has gotten bitten by a hamster and painted in the blood(hamster bites hurt and bleed like crazy). When she falls even if she gets a goose egg no crying.When her cousin attacks her and pulls her hair hard or bites her hard enough to leave a mark no complaint at all comes from her. She gets obsessed about a food item and has even fallen asleep asking for it(she loves granola"bars" are what she normaly askes for).

Answer
Hi there, Tina!

The issue here is that I don't know anything about FSH, and thus don't know what sort of behavioral changes it can cause in a child. In addition, as I'm not a doctor, I can't make a diagnosis on whether there is an ASD issue here or if it's something else. I can just say what you already know: there are signs that it could be, but without knowing whether FSH causes this sort of issue as well or not, I can't say anything for sure.

It would probably be best, if you were concerned about the possibility and would like to get assistance, to look into local people who might be able to do just that. Doctors and therapists could direct you to a child psychologist or pediatrician who's dealt with this sort of thing, and could help with a genuine diagnosis.

I know, it's a frightening thing to consider, but in the end, asking a doctor directly rather than worrying and not doing anything about it will end up making it a lot harder. If there is something up, a doctor will be able to not only tell you, but be able to direct you to the genuine experts who can get you a diagnosis and all the help your child needs.

Hopefully you have luck, and will be well! Comments, questions, feedback, et cetera, feel free to direct them to me!

Trey