Hmm....could he have this?

[napandjdpsmom]

I'm new here.

My little Noah, age almost 3, has some autistic characteristics---but not many. He has some complex GI issues, an autoimmune issue, and a feeding tube---so he doesn't get much social interaction outside of the home anymore, but did at one time before all this snowballed.

We have noticed for a while now that Noah loves to line things up....classic autism, right?

He lines books up on the floor. He lines his "characters" up in a row. Then he makes them "go to sleep" and he puts them all on their backs in order on the table. Perfectly in line. Then he has the leap frog alphabet thing for the fridge. He lines all the letters up and if you mess them up, you're going to fight with him! This is his little brother's pay back for being knocked around so much. He loves to mess up Noah's lines.

Noah hates to swing! Hates it. Will jump out. At first he kinda acts like he likes it and then just loses it. I wonder if he doesn't like the way it makes his stomach feel.

He is very social, but speech is a little behind. We've been working with a speech therapist and that has helped a great deal. He had an aspiration problem as a baby before his surgery for reflux. Lots of oral motor problems.

He has some (very little) sensory aversions. He used to not like the textured balls. He doesn't like certain food textures, but is getting better.

We have an early interventionist. I've mentioned my concerns, but she assures me he just likes to play like this. He's far too social to have autism. He is very lovable, tells me hi and waves, waves at strangers and tells them hi and bye. He loves being around people. He greets his specialists at the door and calls them by their name excitedly. So, part of me thinks this really is nothing.

But, we stayed with a friend a few weeks back and her husband kept the kids several days while we did a trade show and he even mentioned how all he does is line stuff up and it didn't seem normal. Then we went to Ireland last week and mom said that's all he did and she swears there's something wrong.

I'm temped to take the toys or a video to our pediatrician who is fabulous, but knows Noah is reallllly smart. Noah knows his entire alphabet, can count, knows all his colors...drew an oval and called it that the other day. He knows emotions--tells me he's sad. He can be quite devious and can read all of brown bear brown bear without being prompted....his memory is incredible.

So, I know this is long, but what do you think? Do you think I just have a smart kid who has some OCD like his momma...or do you think it's more?

Thanks!
Brandi

[LIZARD]

Hey, Brandi. :)

A classic hallmark of AS is that the kids are socially awkward and/or painfully shy. If he's really social and is appropriate for his age, it's probably something else.


LIZARD :)

[napandjdpsmom]

we went this morning for his speech eval and i mentioned it to the speech therapist. she said she had noticed some other things like no eye contact, no joking, no creativity, she saw the lining up stuff....i also told her that he sleeps without clothes and they said there are a lot of sensory issues there---so we're going to put him in a mother's day out program (as scared as i am about that---worried he'll get sick to the point of hospitalization), i think he needs it for us to see how he acts around other children. they said if he doesn't start playing well with other children they would look into it more---he was borderline they said.

i don't know. i don't want him to have this, but i don't want to miss it.

[halsgluten]

Noah hates to swing! Hates it. Will jump out. At first he kinda acts like he likes it and then just loses it. I wonder if he doesn't like the way it makes his stomach feel.

My T was the same. He wouldn't swing until 7-8 years and would cry on the kiddy car rides at the carnivals. Now he tries roller coasters. My guess was visual and/or vestibular sensory issues.

He went gluten free age 5, dairy free age 8. Did the gluten free diet help? Enterolab said he was gluten sensitive. It is impossible to be scientific here since such an experiment can never be performed with controls (observable changes take several months). My own late-onset visual/vestibular vertigo greatly improved on the gluten free diet.

Great Plains Laboratory found profound vitamin C and B deficiencies even though he had plenty in his diet (oh yeah, he had cradle cap (B3)), so he gets sublingual B in his juice, chewable C "candy", and meat or eggs at every meal all to naturally boost his dopamine and norepinephrine (noradrenaline).

Hal

[halsgluten]

I should add that T is always improving in his weaknesses. He can now do prefect push ups, just not many yet. One great thing about kids wrestling is I get to see how is abilities are changing each year. When he is with strangers his age, you can hardly see an Asperger's sign. Last year the bullying at school was terrible, but so far he is excited about school this year.

Hal