Think I am Going Mad, please help

[tyandemsmummy]

I have a ten year old son with autism, a nine year old daughter and a 7 month old baby boy.

My eldest children have a different dad to my baby, and there is a significant amount of diagnosed (and undiagnosed) ASD in my ex husbands family. There are no known family members with ASD in my family.

My new partner also has no ASD in his family that we know of, but I can't seem to stop convincing myself that the baby is showing signs of ASD. I am driving myself crazy.

He is developing normally, sleeps well, feeds well (but then my son WITH ASD did too), he rolls, is nearly crawling and has no eye contact issues BUT he constantly swivels his wrists (not flapping but swivelling) and has started to shake his head side to side now and again, as if he is saying 'no'. He has, in the last 2 days, also started to tilt his head forward (the only way I can describe it is if he had glasses on, he would be looking over the top of them).

My entire family and all my friends tell me this is completely normal and he is fine, but as a Mother of an autistic child, I can't help but worry.

There is absolutely no reason for me to think the baby would have ASD as he has different genes to my other two (my daughter is neuro typical) and I have always been sure that the autism came from my ex husbands side of the family (I know there are lots of debates around the causes, MMR etc, but having done lots of research I am convinced it CAN - in some cases - be genetic, and looking at my ex husbands family, am sure this is the case for my son).

Does anyone else have any experiences of this? Does my baby's behaviour sound normal? Its been a long time since I had a baby and even then, the boy I had turned out to have special needs in any case.

Any feedback welcome and gratefully received

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Hi sorry no advice but I did not want to read and run. Try not to worry hun xx

 

[Sweet_Alida]

I am not sure to be honest. If your really worried there is no harm in having your pediatrician take a look at him. They know the signs and can give you a nonjudgmental and hopefully accurate evaluation. Good luck I hope your baby is okay. I'm sure he is, but better be safe than sorry.

 

[weezyweu]

Hi, My 6 month old baby also does this. he often shakes his head and looks over his glasses so dont woory i think it is completly normal.

 

[velvetina]

Hi hun,

I posted a massive long reply but this ***** thing has thrown me out for the 3rd time tonight, I think it doesn't like the baby monitor being on next to it.

Anyway, your complete worry and stress about another child being affected was exactly me with ds2. Despite having a good pregnancy and telling myself having one child meant I could cope with 2, but when he came the obsessing started.

I would suggest you stop googling and listen to your instinct and makes notes of anything that concerns you and watch to see if it changes/disappears which it most likely will. I knew my second son was spot on developmentally and his speech was in fact well advanced, but socially he was not great with people he didn't know. I couldn't shake it, but I was right although now nearly 5 years old he is improving, but I did have him assessed by a specialist asd educational psychologist in nursery. I was very much lets tackle this head on and deal with it, but we actually needed to do very little.

Try talking to your gp if you feel the anxiety rising and he may have some coping mechanisms he can help you with or refer you to help. Whatever you do, share it, don't bottle it up, that is when it becomes even bigger.

Please feel free to ask me anything else or pm hun, take care.

 

[missjess]

I think your best shot is speaking with your pediatrician and get him referred if needed as the waiting lists are so long. xx