Well Duh!

News of the Duh. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42787858/

 I must say that I already knew this, trying to convince a doctor something is wrong at age One is just simply impossible, ask my Aunt!  Doctors seem to think that disorders like Autism is something that occurs after age 3, but it is not.  I know not because my Aunt told me she just knew Baby Gaby was different, but because I saw it when I ran a Home Based Daycare center.

Children with Autism or other disorders like ADHD show up early, very early, like a few weeks or months old.  My child Nicky showed signs that he was different at about 2 weeks.  While I wait for a formal diagnosis, and I have been waiting for over a year, getting help while poor is very, very difficult.  I am certain that Nicky is ADHD.  He was colic as a early as a week, you could not get him to take a nap unless he was in your arms, if by chance you got him down to his crib while asleep, hope that the door didn't creak!  The child literally drove us all nuts.  By the time he was 6 months old he decided that breastfeeding was not fast enough-just a bit impulsive at that point too!  He switched early to bottles and bit big wholes in the nipples, I have never had to replace so many bottle nipples!  He was always needing to change things, he didn't have enough toys and we did not have enough safety things.  By Nine months he was trying to put things in electrical sockets and throwing things at the mirrored wall.  We took the mirrored wall down as a safety precaution because we feared he would pound the mirror to the point of it breaking!  He could not be still for diaper changes, his older brother was often needed to sit on him so he could be changed!

Anyway it was obvious he was impulsive, by the time he was 18 months old I was certain that he would loose his virginity first.  Nicky is going to be trouble, but my biggest concern is that if I do nothing, like the school district wants to until he is in the second grade he will find himself needing to change baby diapers before he graduates.  So I say, Duh parents know something is off early!  The signs are there.

And as a child care provider of other peoples kids, you can tell when something is different.  It gets really easy to see that something is off if there is more then 2 kids the same age.  As that happened when I ran a home based child care, and his behavior or lack of it was just a red haring!  I told his parents that he seemed different then the other children and that I was concerned, but was ignored.  He is nearly 5 now and is severely autistic, something I knew when he was about 15 months old.  And yes his parents, an RN and School Teacher, were very offended and pulled him from my care, but years later apologized for doing so.  They regretted not seeking treatment earlier too.