Physical disabilities and autism?

[isthiscp]

This is a question for anyone who is autistic themselves or the parents of an autistic child. Our son is 8 and has shown signs of an asd since he was small ie didn't speak at all until after 2yrs, could read almost instantly after that(and can read pretty much everything now)ran constantly from one corner of the room to the other, hand flaps ALL the time, repeats everything,I could go on and on. When he was 2 we even brought him to a hearing specialist because we thought he was deaf, he wasn't. We were told he was fine and he would grow out of the "behaviours"(funnily enough,his doctor who we saw last week said the same thing, he'll grow out of it. 8 years on and he hasn't!!!!) My 15yr old brother has aspergers and I guess I should have pushed more. Anyway, my real question is this. We have a 17 month old boy as well. He was hospitalised at 7 months having had 2 seizures in 1 day(turned out kidney and uti infection with sepsis). Before that I had concerns such as he couldn't sit up and slumped to right in pushchair,highchair etc. Our baby nurse said to just"prop him up with a pillow". After this everything became more noticeable. He didn't sit unaided till 11 months, rolled only 1 direction and was diagnosed hypotonic. He could combat crawl but dragged the right side. he can clap but only the left hand onto the right(which doesn't move).He can now walk but it is terrible to watch. He walks on his toes and his legs criss-cross and he just keels over at times,always to the right. When we saw the neurologist in December we felt he was VERY dismissive but his eyes lit up when he heard the family history of autism. I forgot to add, his own paed dr. said it was cp on 2 occassions but needed confirmation from the neuro. He has no words not even mama etc. He has global delay. Any advice??????????????  

[mum2beagain]

My son is mildly right sided hemiplegic. He did the exact same thing you described when clapping. He didn't sit unaided until well over a year and didn't walk unaided until he was 2 1/2. He still walks on his toes on the right leg as his heel cord and hamstrings are tight and he wears a leg brace and orthopedic boots to help with this. He was diagnosed with CP at about 18 months but only diagnosed with Autism in Februaury, he also has hydrocephalus and many of his behaviours and delays that have now resulted in the autism diagnosis had been put down to his hydrocephalus.

[isthiscp]

Thanks for your reply. You said your son has cp and is autistic, can I ask if you recognise any of the physical symptoms I wrote that would be similar to your boy ie the one-side dragging? I know that children who are solely autistic can have low muscle tone etc but it still doesn't explain why my son can only clap one hand and dragged the right side. Any help you can give me would be great!!!!!!!!

[mum2beagain]

My son has both cerebral palsy and autism

[888mom]

One of the people in my mothers of preschoolers group (we're a large group of 80 some moms) has a son in my daughter's kids age group where other moms volunteer to watch the kids who has cerebal palsy who had a lot of physical delays.  It turns out now that he's close to 2 1/2, they are now thinking he also has PDD/autism as well as cerebal palsy.  Sometimes both can occur, so a diagnosis of one does not rule out a later diagnosis of the other.  Sorry to relay bad news.  But, really, it could be one and not the other as well.  Doctors are frustrating waiting to find things out.  The seisures sound scary because that sounds like it's life threatening.  So, you really do need to figure out what's goign on.  Well, anyways, just wanted to share the bit about the other mom who has kid with cp who also may be autistic.

[MJIthewriter]

Doesn't sound like the doctors are very helpful. I agree finding one that is more familiar with the conditions would be a good idea, that is if you can.

[JenDew]

I would push and go to a dr that knows about autism, and hypotonia...To me sounds like that..