# At what age should a baby start to recognise their name?



## mandimoo

LO is 20 weeks old but I have been on and off worried about autism for some time. Just too many 'pointers' for me to be comfortable. Everyone keeps dismissing me saying its way too early. Yet all advice I read says trust your instinct.:huh:, so I've tried to put it to the back of my mind with varying degrees of success. Thing is, now something else has come to light. So, can someone tell me when a baby should recognise its name? Sorry for rambling.


----------



## Eccleston2011

Most things I have read say between 5 and 7 months. I think my daughter was around 9 months. According to my doctor, its not a source for worry until their first birthday.

I have to side with the others and say it is WAY to early to be worrying about autism... They wont diagnose until 2 to 3 years. I have a nephew and two friends that have children with autism. The reason for this is that children have different temperaments and develop at different rates.

If you truly believe something is wrong then I would bring it up every time you see your doctor and if they refuse to talk to you about it, then you need to find a new doctor that cares! 

Can I ask what are the other "pointers"? Also does your child make eye contact? Do you get smiles?

As a mom that already has an infant with a known "problem" the best thing you can do is enjoy your child. I have spent way to long worrying about my daughters future, and now I regret not just sitting there and enjoying her. I kind of learned to let go and accept that yes there may be something "wrong" with her. But she is still perfect and she is still mine. I still love her and I need to just let her be her and not try to make her into something she is not.

Its hard and I'm sorry you have to go through this concern. I hope I was of some help to you and didn't offend you in any way, that was not my intention. 

Best of luck getting some answers! :hugs:


----------



## sun

20 weeks? What's going on to make you think there's something wrong? At that age some eye contact, some smiling (though my kiddos were never big on that for the first few months), and some degree of head control are all I would really expect. I agree with above, unless there is something obviously wrong I wouldn't keep worrying and stressing about it. She's not even 4mo yet. My son had some issues that early (hypotonia and hypermobility, though they only knew about the hypotonia). I think the docs asked about him recognizing his name at 12mo. My daughter was around 6-7mo? Hard to tell as lots of the time they'll look if you call generally. 

Please don't let your worry of autism prevent you from enjoying your daughter - she is perfect as she is.


----------



## mandimoo

Thank you both for your reassuring comments.

It started when I noticed that LO would not look at us, even when we put ourselves in her line of vision she would turn away. Then I noticed she wasn't smiling, or fixing and following. She used to hold her head up for tummy time really well when only a couple of weeks old, but as she got older, she would just lay there. Her head circumference grew rapidly (this has retrospectively been shown to be a possible red flag) and crossed about 20 centiles ;o(. She wont turn to noise although I know she can hear because she passed her newborn hearing screen and she will startle to a sudden noise. She doesn't turn her head to me if I enter the room talking. And she seems quite a 'still' baby compared to the others in my antenatal group (I know you shouldn't compare, but impossible not to when you start to get worried).

Of these things, she does now fix and follow and WILL make eye contact, but only if I really make an effort to get her to look at me. Then she will smile. But the eye contact and smiling are still hard work, even at 20 weeks. My heart absolutely melts when I get the smile and I feel greedy and want more.

It just seems to me like every red flag going, I can relate it to my LO.


----------



## sun

Comparing her with other babies and checking for signs constantly will wear you out. One thing I have learned is that babies and toddlers are all so so different. If you are already doing the milestone/red flag checking so much, then it will be really hard once she's a toddler and every second thing they do is on the "red flag" list. Because many many things toddlers do every day are on the list. Rapid head grown has been observed in children with autism, but it doesn't mean that children with rapid head growth will have autism. Most don't. Some children with autism line cars obsessively - however almost every toddler I have met lines cars. Autism isn't anywhere as simple as that. Babies don't all look every time you call, or make perfect eye contact every time - they smile on and off when they want, they do things as they want lots of the time. Some babies are super social and always trying to please, and others are more reserved. I wouldn't go comparing at this point. 20 weeks is so young. Let her develop at her pace and take joy in everything new she learns!


----------



## Eccleston2011

There are two things that you mentioned that happened with my daughter and she is the most social child I know! 

And those are holding her head up and then stopping. My daughter was soo strong to begin with then at a couple months old she stopped holding her head up, during that time she was working on gaining some control of her hand and then one day she started rolling. It may be that your daughter is concentrating on a new milestone.


It took us forever to get Grace to track anything from side to side. I think she was six months before that ever happened.


----------

