Wondering about Oliver.

[*Star*]

Oliver is a bit of a handful to be honest.
It started off that when he was tired and I left him he would cry so hard he wouldn't breathe. Then he goes blue and I have to hold him until he takes a big gasp of air because once he realises he's not breathing he starts to scratch at his face and thro himself around.
Now depending on how long it lasts, he can seem to loose consciousness, and that causes his body to breathe. When that happens it takes a minute or so for him to come round fully. And he's still really upset.

Ok so thats the first thing. The next, is he has started to headbutt things. If he doesn't get what he wants, or you take something off him, he'll butt the nearest thing to him. Be it me, the floor, the table, arm of the chair and even amela (though i caught him just in time).

He makes himself sick when he things he isnt getting attention. Mainly happens when he is in his cot and not gone to sleep. or when he is in his playpen.

He's also throwing himself backwards. Wont let you pick him up, and generally does it when your trying to get him to do something he doesnt want to do.

He's also slow with talking. He's almost 18 months old, and we really only get 'hiya' off him. He used to say 'ta' all the time as well, but that's stopped happening much now. He makes an attempt to say cat, yes, bath, mama and dada, but that's it.

He does understand a lot though. I ask him to bring something here and he does. to lie down for istance, or ask him where iggle piggle is, put the tele on, have your juice, be gentle, get a nappy, give a kiss etc. so he does understand.

okay, the reason im asking this is because everything, apart from the making himself sick bit, is a copy cat from what my brother was like at his age. My brother is autistic and has adhd. my brothers type of autism is aspergers, and its high functioning autism.

is it possible oliver could be the same? now im not worried about it, and im not trying to label him with anything yet, but i just want to know the possibility of it. can autism be genetic? im going to do a bit of research on it.

any thoughts anyone?

 

[Jen & Her Men]

hiya hun

firstly, are you sure that all of this just isnt a reaction to the fact that he isnt the baby anymore and its his way of making sure he gets attention now he has a little sister hogging the limelight? Im not suggesting that your not paying him attention but toddlers are sensitive little critters and also very clever and will realise that if they kick off, mummy drops everything, including baby, to come to their aid....

About the autism / aspergers / adhd thing. There is a hereditory link - both my bros have some form of aspergers / adhd and my step dad also has it and his mum definitely had sommat too although being the age she was it was never diagnosed.

If your really concerned then I would go speak to a doctor but be prepared to be brushed off as adhd and aspergers is still relatively new as conditions and docs dont tend to know much about them anyway.

If I were you i would explore the possibility that its an attention thing first and look at ways of addressing that and see if it works. If it does then fantastic you can rest easy but if not then you know you have done what you can to cross that off your list and you can maybe start looking at other areas such as the adhd etc.

There is a website called adders.org which my mum is a member of - its a forum for people with adhd / aspergers and parents of kids who suspect they have it or have been diagnosed. They may be able to help you - its where my mum first realised that my youngest bro had ADHD by talking to other mums with kids with similar problems.

Hope that helps!