my autistic son

My son ethan was born on 20th july 2007 weighing a healthy 7lb 6oz at frimley park hospital.
All the initial signs were good you would never be able to tell anything was wrong by just lookng at him.he did however have problems latching on to breastfeed(not uncommon in newborns...however linking to other symptoms this is a sign of being on the spectrum.

He started trying to sit about 7 months and seemed to be doing really well as you can see here....

Unfortunately he didn't improve if anything he seemed to forget how to after 2 weeks and could not sit without support  until he was about 11 1/2 months.

He said his 1st words at 9 and 9 1/2 months old of mum and dad.at 12 months said bye,hi and daisy(from in the night garden).

again like his sitting  by about 19 months he was doing well then didn't progress,at 3 he said about 50 single words and 2 two word sentences which most of was unrecognizable.

He is now 4 and currently just started reception at school and has been put forward for speech therapy(at school) he saw a speech therapist before now but only on about 5 occasions.

Now as for his crawling ect....well he commando crawled by just using his arms and not bothering with his legs at all!!....we found out this was not helped by him having laxy ligaments and had to buy shoes from clarks to ensure he had a good fit and good support.

After a few months he then started to walk along furniture and at about 19 months started to walk,a little delayed but not by much.throughout all of these development delays when i mentioned to health visitors ect i would just get told hes a lazy boy he will do it when hes good and ready.

Now another thing was his constant dribbling(and not caused just by teething)he done this till hes was 3 and a few months old and he would literally soak his clothes  i would have to change his tops at least 3 times a day!.

He also has a habit of shoving his hands in his move and when in a temper he would scream and ram them as far as he could into his mouth until he chokes then cry's and starts over again.

he is constantly on the go especially at home he will run up and down the garden over and over again and round and round the washing line.

he used to walk a bit on tip toes and flap arms,not very good eye contact he does occasionally but normally looks past you away or through you.hes dry by day but only since a few months ago and still wears pull ups at night due to accidents on a daily basis.

and apart from cereal and beans ect he eats everything with his hands so always on the lookout  for products to review to entice him to eat properly.

Now a basic day with ethan:

6 am:   he wakes up and screams really high pitched constant until you open the door to get him out(if you say come on out or come here ethan he will not listen you have to get him).then its straight downstairs no delays or his 1st paddy will happen hes usually saying didit over and over(his word for hungry)whilst holding his stomach.he sits at table with his cereal and bowl all ready or he would start again.normally he will throw himself on floor 4 no reason and say no didit no didit,but if you say ok in a bit then he will scream and say didit didit,this time he will get up help pour out and if im lucky eat it.this behaviour carries on throughout the day with extra paddys screaming,hitting and throwing. he goes to bed at 5.30 as he takes 2-3 hours before going to sleep and will only wake at 6 next day either way.

Now he was diagnosed back in june 2011 just before moving into our new house and since then has gotten alot worse behaviour wise most likely his issues linked with,new home,new baby,starting school and being at home 4 summer hols(with such bad weather couldnt go anywhere).

We are currently trying to get a statement started at school to help get him a teacher in to offer him 1 on 1 help.

So as you can tell there is alot of difficulties we are going through atm and more to come but at the end of the day he is ethan,our son,the boy we love.and  even he with his issues does seem to enjoy life on his good days,hes obsessed with animals and bugs,loves anything yellow,building with bricks and lego and is mad on cars,trains,planes ect.

All we ask is for people not to instantly judge him.

and ty 4 taking the time to read.

xx