Expert: Celtica - 3/27/2010

Question
QUESTION: Hi,
My 17 month old is acting weird. He can say few words. He says mommy, daddy, ball. He loves to play with ball...he likes to be around babies, but he doesn't seem to play with them and look at them. He has good eye contact some times...but when I put him close to my face he will not look at me. Also he is pointing, but it seems his finger is broken when his is pointing, like the top of his finger is broken. He recognizes me, my husband, her grammy...and he does not worry to be around people. He does like the vaccum cleaner...but if I am with him, holding him he is ok with the vaccumm. He also point to his body parts when he is asked. My concern is that sometimes he likes to stomp his feet on the floor and he likes the noise. He like to play outside, but he can not touch the leafs...he start to cry. He eats well, sleep well, and he never had a fever or anything. But sometimes he is confusing with what he wants. Ah, he also like pretend to feed a doll and he likes to give me cookies. My biggest concern is when he is stomping his feet a make a hard face expression...also the way that he points make his finger looks like is brooking and also he does not like to be close to my face...thanks a lot

ANSWER: Hi Rita,

I'm not a doctor or health care professional, so I cannot give you a diagnosis, and even if I could, it would be impossible to diagnose anyone over the internet from a few lines of text.

Having said that, what you write doesn't sound like autism to me (but he still could have it, just what you write doesn't sound very typical), but he may or may not have other problems - you should probably rule out even things like poor eyesight, sesonry problems and things like that. If you are concerned please talk to your family doctor about this and get a referral to a suitable specialist.

Hope this helps
C.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks very much for your answer. He is my first son and I never had contact with babies before. I think the fact that he recognizes me and if he does not see me in the same room than him is he would call me Mommy, mommy.....autistic babies do not know their parents and do not care to be left alone, right?? He is social with people and he smile a lot. But sometimes he likes to play by himself. And I am afraid of his fears...but all babies have fears, right? What are the early signs of autism? Do you think that any sign I have described show a risk? His doctor said that his completely fine and my husband do not see anything wrong with him. Please I need you experience with babies only to get me more relieved with this situation. Thanks a lot !

Answer
Hi Rita,

sorry, you should probably better ask one of the other experts here on AllExperts, one who is a parent or a professional who regularily sees young children - I don't have experience with babies at all (being just an adult with high functioning autism, not a professional, and not working in the field), other than having been an autistic baby myself, of course ;-). So I'm really not the best person to ask.  
I regularily meet other autistic people, but they are usually my age (= adults, from the group I went to for a long time), and the only *kids* I've met before were at least 5 - 6 years old and older. The only info I can give you about babies is what I read on the internet or in books, and the few things my mum told me about myself. I know I had sleep and feeding issues as a kid (starting when I was a new born, really), would only really fall asleep on the backseat of my parent's car,  wasn't fully toilet trained until age 4, wouldn't play with other kids (I would just cry and want to go home). I believe I felt very attached to my parents, especially to my mum, but she later (very much later) complained that she had often felt pushed back/ignored by my behaviour towards her, and she told me a while ago, that I insisted on things being the same all the time (but maybe that was when I was older, don't know).
I don't know enough about normal child development to know if all babies have fears, but I think they do, they are just discovering the world, that might be scary, even for normal kids.
Many autistic babies also don't like to be picked up and cuddled, I read (mum never told me about that one, don't know how common this is).
So, what you write about your kid - he's social, and seems ok otherwise, apart from his fears, doesn't really sound like you should be worried, but then, I'm not a professional. Probably check out sensory issues (you can have sensory issues even when you're not autistic) - don't know, maybe that would explain why he can't touch leaves, and probably anxiety issues - but don't be too worried, I'd say.

Hope this helps,
C.