(Re: Fall 2007)
Liam started out behind the curve. He was born a little early, was tiny, had issues with colic, and spent most of the first months of his life crying. Poor thing. We tried several formulas and landed on soy. Not sure if that helped of or if he grew out of it on his own, but he gradually started being awake without crying. I remember snapping out of my own funk at about that time too. He was always small though, and was late talking – we started signing at about nine months and that helped. Eventually he got there. He was late walking – but he walked. He was a little behind on some things that he was “supposed” to do. But all kids are different and do things at different paces. That’s what I thought and that’s what the books say. My parents were the first ones to bring up the A word. It was shortly before his second birthday and his two year well child exam. This came from two people who didn’t see my child on a regular basis. I felt like they were comparing him to their neighbor’s boy who has an older brother, and went to daycare where he is around other kids all day long. So I asked the pediatrician about it, mostly to appease my parents. She did not think the A word applied either, but suggested an evaluation with First Steps, the government run early intervention system in our state. I didn’t want to because I have never wanted to be the mom who has her child poked and prodded and analyzed at every turn. But we did. So they came to our house and spent some time with my sweet boy. They ended up confirming that he was behind developmentally, but that they didn’t see any signs of autism. They agreed with us that his being behind was likely a product of his daily situation with the old lady babysitter. So we agreed that with some socialization, he would catch up in time for kindergarten. We didn’t dig any deeper.
Liam started out behind the curve. He was born a little early, was tiny, had issues with colic, and spent most of the first months of his life crying. Poor thing. We tried several formulas and landed on soy. Not sure if that helped of or if he grew out of it on his own, but he gradually started being awake without crying. I remember snapping out of my own funk at about that time too. He was always small though, and was late talking – we started signing at about nine months and that helped. Eventually he got there. He was late walking – but he walked. He was a little behind on some things that he was “supposed” to do. But all kids are different and do things at different paces. That’s what I thought and that’s what the books say. My parents were the first ones to bring up the A word. It was shortly before his second birthday and his two year well child exam. This came from two people who didn’t see my child on a regular basis. I felt like they were comparing him to their neighbor’s boy who has an older brother, and went to daycare where he is around other kids all day long. So I asked the pediatrician about it, mostly to appease my parents. She did not think the A word applied either, but suggested an evaluation with First Steps, the government run early intervention system in our state. I didn’t want to because I have never wanted to be the mom who has her child poked and prodded and analyzed at every turn. But we did. So they came to our house and spent some time with my sweet boy. They ended up confirming that he was behind developmentally, but that they didn’t see any signs of autism. They agreed with us that his being behind was likely a product of his daily situation with the old lady babysitter. So we agreed that with some socialization, he would catch up in time for kindergarten. We didn’t dig any deeper.
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