doctor concerned about delayed milestones - Page 2

[wednesday]

Originally Posted by therdogg

I gotta be honest, when I hear that a baby boy is behind in communication and has a large head, I think "autism?"

Wow, I had no idea. I just googled and found this page about head circumference and autism. I'm not sure that so far I would describe him as having "delayed speech, unusual social and emotional reactions and poor attention to, and exploration of, the environment." I mean, he babbles, he plays with us and laughs, he crawls all around opening cabinets and getting into things. It just seems like he's not using or recognizing language yet. But he communicates in other ways. He initiates games like peek-a-boo, by pulling a cloth over his head or peeking from behind a doorway. He has just begun to imitate things we do, like making faces back at us, sticking out his tongue, that sort of thing.

Last night I thought he might be shaking his head for no when his granddad was trying to feed him, but he might have just been trying to move his mouth away from the spoon. I'm not sure. He definitely doesn't recognize words for things, though. I keep reading that he should be able to point to something, like a toy or a book or his dad, if I ask him where it is. But he just stares at me like I'm speaking greek.

[acrathbun]

I'm in the camp of "figure it out early". The main reason being, like another poster mentioned, if you can figure it out early, get them help early, etc., Then your child is much more likely to be developmentally appropriate at an age when it really matters.

Also some things, if treated aggresively in childhood (like mild asthma, for example) will help the child have a longer, healthier life.

[IdentityCrisisMama]

A little off topic but I really feel I need to respond to this because I don't want to misunderstood.

Originally Posted by LoveBeads

As to the statement: "I feel there might be some damage in the confidence of the parent or something. " With special needs kids, we are confident.

Oh, yes! My intention had nothing to do with commenting on the confidence of parents with special needs children. I was just talking about the chance of a lack of confidence if a parent feels they should go against their gut instincts in favor of a doctor.

Originally Posted by thoesly

I think your concerns are valid, but I have never known any mother in real life who was completely clueless about a problem with her child.

Thanks for saying that. I felt bad for being the only odd one out in this discussion. Just to be clear, I never thought the OP was clueless. I just feel like I know quite a few great parents who have been in a similar situation. Perhaps, I was posting too much from that.

I read the posts but I still wasn't that clear on if the charts and the doctor were the cause of the worry or if there was something additional, which is why I asked.

Originally Posted by thoesly

The confidence of a parent isn't going to be undermined if she follows through on checking out a worry, no matter how slight.
Tara

No doubt.

Wakeupmama, Please let us know how everything goes and take care.

[wednesday]

Just posting an update...DS had a follow-up appointment where our family doc decided she is no longer concerned about a developmental delay. However she felt that some bloodwork should be done just to cover all bases. She said his large head could be a symptom of a thyroid disorder.

It took a while to get the blood draw and results, but she called me today and said the pediatric hematologist she consulted with suspects that DS has a genetic blood disorder called thalassemia-trait. There is a more serious illness called thalassemia disease but she says if he had that we would already know, because he would have shown a lot of serious symptoms. With thalassemia-trait he may have mild anemia symptoms but she says really he will be healthy and fine--it is nothing to worry about.

So from here we are going to have another blood draw for a test to determine whether or not he has thalassemia-trait. If he does, then DH and I will also be tested to find out which one of us carries the gene. If we both carry the gene then there is a 1-in-4 chance that future children we have could be affected by the more serious form of the disease. I'm not sure what one is supposed to do with that kind of information. Not have more kids? The severe form of the disease is pretty bad, involving a lifetime of blood transfusions coupled with intravenous chelation therapy to remove iron buildup in the organs.

[Mommiska]

WakeupMama - to you.

That is good news that your ped isn't worried about your son's development, but scary about the thalassemia-trait. Hopefully this is just a guess on her part, and it will turn out that your ds doesn't have it.

Even if he does have it, however - I would imagine that it would be very unlikely that both you and your dh would be carriers.

Will be thinking about you all...

[wednesday]

Thanks, Mommiska. I'm not sure what to think. I feel like it can't be very common or I would have heard of it before or known someone affected by it, right? But then I read on a web site about it that it is THE most common genetic "defect" or something to that effect.

Oh well, my position is that I'm not going to worry about it until we know more from the test results.