re: ADHD and Autism

Quoting lilsoph:" my son is on the spectrum and he always fought sleep, still sleeps no where near the recommended amount ... [snip!] ... was reaching all his milestones we didnt really think twice at the time. He has Aspergers, a form of high functioning autism."

i know a little about Aspergers. if DD has it, that's what she'd have. you kinda just described DD. doesn't get the recommended amount of sleep so is always tired. will go from jumping up and down having a good time to suddenly screaming (either mad or crying). she doesn't laugh like most babies, its more of like gasping. reaching milestones early or right on time. doesn't turn to her name being called (though not sure if she's supposed to do that yet).

my son doesnt have adhd or add, but he has SPD and Autism. he is three and has always been a terrible sleeper. he fought sleep all the time and only took a nap every couple hours for the first 8 months of his life. after that his nap would last about an hour longer than it was. so yeah. he was only sleeping in 2-3hr increments until he was 1. after that he'd sleep for about 4 hrs at a time but was always so cranky when he was awake. he's been on melatonin for about 10 months now. without it bedtime will take an hour or two of constant putting back to bed. with his melatonin he will fall asleep faster, but we are yet to get full nights sleep still.

the first thing that made think "something" wasnt quite right was that at 6m he wasnt greeting people with smiles, didnt like familiar people, would only smiled if a provoked smile (tickles or swinging around). he just didnt seem happy majority of the time. then at 11m he stopped babbling (didnt get anything out of him again until 14.5 months). by then he was doing what i thought were some sort of physical tics (i now know he was just stimming). i could go on and on about all the things he was doing that felt really off and looking back seem to make so much sense to me now.

My oldest is both ADHD and Autistic. Personally I started picking up on signs around 12 or 13 months. He was cranking out milestones and then just stopped. He became excessively picky about what he ate and when. He refused to sleep on or in his bed but rather slept under it. He always stripped his sheets from his bed and rarely ever used a pillow. He had had HAD to have this little wash rag with him everywhere he went or he would absolutely melt down. I am talking screaming and crying until he threw up, hitting, biting, and throwing things mostly at himself and at me.

In addition to sleeping under his bed, he rarely ever slept. I am talking the most I could get him to sleep a night was about three hours and that was very broken sleeping. He also had horrible night terrors. They broke my heart.

Some other common symptoms for him were echolalia (rather than talk independantly he would repeat EVERYTHING someone else said) and he wouldn't maintain eye contact with anyone.

As for the ADHD it was his complete inability to pay attention or stay on task for longer than 3 or 4 seconds.

Feel free to message me if you'd like to talk. I would be more than happy to answer any and all questions you may have.

We are about 6 months into OT, ST, and ABA therapies and the change is just amazing!

Quoting Mommy to Milo&Ava:" my son doesnt have adhd or add, but he has SPD and Autism. he is three and has always been a terrible ... [snip!] ... go on and on about all the things he was doing that felt really off and looking back seem to make so much sense to me now."

she doesn't full on laugh. she doesn't know any strangers so smiling isn't an issue. she basically sleeps through the night but it takes about an hr of her falling asleep just to wake up 5-10 mins later. we're lucky if she gets 2 10-20 min naps a day (though they do seem to be getting longer). we have a video of her at 2 months old sorta babbling. she looked like she was carrying on a conversation. she hasn't done that since. she more of shouts or makes noises "ah ah ah ah ah" over and over. its like for an hr or so she is stuck on the same sound repetitively. she does things that look kind of like ticks to me- the main worry other than eye contact.

Quoting LilyRain12:" she doesn't full on laugh. she doesn't know any strangers so smiling isn't an issue. she basically sleeps ... [snip!] ... on the same sound repetitively. she does things that look kind of like ticks to me- the main worry other than eye contact."

if strangers looked at my son or tried talking to him in the store he just cried and screamed. people couldnt even look at him and the people he knew since birth he stopped responding to. the only "sound" we had from my son was "ma". it was the only sound he made until he was 2. he's been non-verbal until right around his 3rd birthday. we didnt get infant babbling out of him really until around 5-6m. it was just random noises like cooing. he said mama and dada at 7m but those stopped at 11m, so didnt have much babble as an infant at all. janruary marks 1 yr in speech therapy, and march it'll be a year since OT.

Quoting Mommy to Milo&Ava:" if strangers looked at my son or tried talking to him in the store he just cried and screamed. people ... [snip!] ... 11m, so didnt have much babble as an infant at all. janruary marks 1 yr in speech therapy, and march it'll be a year since OT."

well, it kind of worries me that she babbled so early then all of a sudden basically stopped (at least that kind of babble anyway). she does ma ma ma more than anything with a few others thrown in occasionally.

Quoting LilyRain12:" i know a little about Aspergers. if DD has it, that's what she'd have. you kinda just described DD. doesn't ... [snip!] ... milestones early or right on time. doesn't turn to her name being called (though not sure if she's supposed to do that yet)."

How old is she? It is soooo hard to tell when they are infants, the 'normal' range is SO wide. When my boy was an infant we always described him as high maintenance. After he turned 1 is when i started wondering if there was something else to it. He also started getting incredibly picky with the things he touched/clothes, hated being dirty and didnt turn when we called his name. Then he started lining up cars (he didnt PLAY with cars properly until he was 2 1/2) and flapping his hands. By 2 I knew he was different.

Quoting lilsoph:" How old is she? It is soooo hard to tell when they are infants, the 'normal' range is SO wide. When ... [snip!] ... lining up cars (he didnt PLAY with cars properly until he was 2 1/2) and flapping his hands. By 2 I knew he was different."

she's 7 months.

Quoting LilyRain12:" she's 7 months."

Def watch her as she enters toddlerhood, thats when i started noticing something here and there.

Quoting lilsoph:" Def watch her as she enters toddlerhood, thats when i started noticing something here and there."

  this.
as an infant i didnt want to jump to conclusions since as an infant so many things vary as to what is normal, delayed or "advanced" when it comes to milestones and personality. keep an eye and if after her first birthday you're still concerned, talk to her pedi. they're getting better at finding clues at an earlier age to help children get earlier diagnosis to get the right treatment