I'm not sure that everyone knows that one of my daughters was diagnosed with PDD-NOS or ASD when she was almost three. To simplify that even further, PDD-NOS is Pervasive Development Disorder - Not Otherwise Sepcified or Autism Spectrum Disorder. This is the category for kids who show signs of Autism, but are kind of on the fence. My daughter Haley was diagnosed a little over a year ago and has since attended early intervention services, speech, occupational, and physical therapies. The most frustrating aspect of all of this has been doctors who don't believe kids like Haley need special services; that they will just "grow out of it". Bullshit. Kids like Haley will only get worse without early intervention services and by the time she would reach seven or eight years old without services, it's pretty much too late without very intensive therapy to help ease the symptoms. I thank my wife, because without her motherly intuition, it would have probably been too late for Haley. She saw things that just weren't right. Eye flickers, slower speech development, lack of direct eye contact with anyone, inability to sit still, walking on her tippy toes (yes believe it or not it's a red flag), higher tolerance for pain, lack of concern for her own safety, BIG gastrointestinal issues, and on and on. There are finally some studies coming out linking constipation and/or recurring diarrhea to Autism. We are also getting some big publicity on the links to gluten (wheat products mostly) and casein (dairy products) having links to autism. For some kids with Autism, dairy wreaks havoc on their digestive tract. For others, it acts as an opiate which can explain why Autistic kids sometimes seem like they are in outerspace.
Well, this past week, the American Academy of Pediatrics has finally prompted pediatricians around the country to test children twice under the age of two for early signs of Autism. This is a great day for those of us who deal with it everyday first hand and have other younger siblings to worry about as well (younger siblings have an increased risk when they have an older sibling diagnosed with it). I urge anyone who has young children to ask their pediatrician if they are aware of this announcement by the AAP and be sure that he/she is on board with it. There are too many "old school" pediatricians out there who don't believe in the signs until it's too late and then they are full of excuses as to why they missed it. I can tell you dozens of times we didn't follow our pediatricians advice.
Today, Haley is doing great having been in early intervention for just over a year. She now makes eye contact with us for longer than 2 seconds. She focuses better on the now, her speech has made huge leaps and bounds, she wears brace devices called MAFO's for her tippy toeing but her muscles are loosening up a bit thank goodness, she's more aware of her own safety, and she's starting a casein free diet (removal of all dairy products).
The video below is video of the announcement by the AAP. I urge everyone with children to talk to their pediatrician and make sure they are on-board with this. If each of our members on this site had children, we would have at least 2, maybe three Autistic kids in the bunch. That's a pretty high number for only having 226 registered members. Autism speaks.... are you listening?
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