Expert: Trey McGowan - 4/3/2008

Question
Hello,
My son is now 16 months as of last week. There are certain things which has lead me to think he has some form of autism but it could be just delayed development. He can lift himself up, but cannot walk on his own yet. He is quite heavy for his age (approx 30+ lbs) and I think he's fairly strong in both his arms and legs but he can't seem to balance himself for more than a few seconds when standing alone. He gets focused on doing things that are not related to toys and becomes easily frustrated if he's not immediately satisfied (eg: getting to hold my cell phone or the TV remote control or playing with the on/off pull string of a lamp). This happens on a daily basis. He only says a few of the same words over and over again, mostly related to papa (i.e. mama, caca, baba) and has not made much progress in the last few months beyond that. He has a habit of playing with his/my ears, especally when he is tired. Finally, he throws back his head or throws it forward sometimes and we worry about that behaviour. It's resulted in a few bruises to his head but nothing serious thankfully. I don't know if all this is normal or not. On a more positive note, he does make eye contact and smiles/laughs frequently. He eats very well and can pick up the smallest pieces of food to feed himself. So, am I worrying for nothing or do certain traits I mentioned need to be look at more closely or examined by a specialist? Your reply and advice is greatly appreciated. Thank-you.

Answer
Hello, Alex!

As I have said many times, and will make sure I do so again, I am not a doctor. Because of this, I can't give you a diagnosis, or even really tell you details from one single letter. There are a lot of characterizations that make 'autism', and thus it's hard to tell from a letter unless the symptoms are quite glaring.

The best I can offer is that at reading the letter, anything that causes a child to bruise their head in that fashion should immediately be looked into. Head injuries in a child this young can be dangerous, if not deadly, and if the child is doing them to himself, the cause should be discovered. Autism or otherwise, the child's safety needs to be focused in on first and foremost. Thus, talk to your doctor about this problem. Bringing to him a detailed (or at least fairly detailed) list of the other characteristics or oddities you are seeing might help make the difference in diagnosis as well, or at least tell him where to direct you, whether it be neurology or other specialist.

I wish I could help you out more with this, but with the level of detail you have given, I honestly couldn't even begin to make a guess as to whether I was looking at anything, and wouldn't want to for fear of muddying the waters. There is something that needs to be treated there, and thus you bringing him to the doctor and finding out what's up with it is the most important thing.

Any questions, comments, follow-ups, et cetera, are welcome as always! Good luck to you and your son!

Trey