Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello everybody!
Glad to have found you :) I'm writing this primarily to put my thoughts in some order, but also to share my concerns and, perhaps, hear from other parents...
Normally we would have an appointment with a specialist this Wednesday but it was canceled to to the COVID-19 situation, so it'd be great if I could converse with someone who might know a bit more than I do.
I'm the father of a little boy who's 15 months old. We adore him to bits! Even though I never felt any particular attraction to babies, and I always said I wanted a daughter, ever since he was born I fell in love with him... For the last year, the most precious moment of the day, every day, is when I bring him to the bathtub with me to give him his bedtime bath :)
My son is an unbelievably sweet little boy. Smiling from the moment he wakes up (literally) until he falls asleep, mischievous (when his mom changes his diaper he plays it aloof until he 'attacks' her in a way that makes us laugh out loud), tender (mostly with his mom and mostly when he's tired - when it comes to me he mostly jumps me so that I pick him up to throw him in the air), curious, emotional (joy, but also sadness, especially with some tunes or songs), but...
So, he's 15 months old, but:
Perhaps irrelevant, but I must say he's very low on his weight charts. He was born light and although he gained weight steadily he was always hovering around the 3rd percentile. Unfortunately, just as he started going up in the charts our doctor gave us some nutrition advice that proved very bad as he lost weight, so now we're struggling again. But, even though he's now at 4%, his height is at around 90% (so you can imagine how thin he looks!).
Let me say that, I understand that even if our son is in the spectrum, it's not the end of the world - anything but. A good friend of mine is in the spectrum and I wouldn't have known if he hadn't told me - he's a genius, literally, very successful and with a happy family, so... In any even, we love him, we'll do what we must, we'll adapt, we'll grow.
But I just wanted to share my thoughts first in order to put them in some semblance of order, but also to share and see if anyone could shed some light until we manage to meet the specialist...
Hope everyone and your families are safe,
L.
Hi L, If you want to learn more about the process of diagnosis for autism in children, we have an advice page on the subject here - https://www.autism.org.uk/about/diagnosis/children.aspx It is worth bearing in mind though that doctors are generally unwilling to make a diagnosis of ASD in children until at least two years old, and often older. But there's certainly no harm in familiarising yourself with the diagnostic process if it's something you think is a possibility. If you'd like to speak to someone directly, the NAS helpline and Parent-to-Parent lines can be found here - https://www.autism.org.uk/services/helplines.aspx
Best wishes,Ross - mod