Hello. My baby was born after going through difficult labor as a result of a severe bp drop by the mother, which caused a bradycardic episode (followed by tachycardia) and prompted an emergency C-section (an hour later). It has never been clear to me whether hypoxia was present.
At 5 months old my baby was diagnosed with low muscle tone, for which she's been on early intervention. The pediatrician believes it is benign congenital hypotonia after running some tests.
My daughter never crawled or otherwise displaced her body on the floor, but has been trying to walk very intensely and started doing so by herself at 11 months more or less. She is weaker in the mornings and needs some time to warm up, something therapists say is due to her low muscle tone.
What worries me about my daughter is her social skills. She has many reassuring signs, such as smiling, laughing at funny things we do, repeating words, babbling (a lot), some back-and-forth interaction (give-and-take, clap) and generally good eye contact (although she tends to look at the mouth much more than in the eye). Worrisome signs (for me) include: she almost never spontaneously imitates gestures (did learn to clap and to play peek-a-boo, and often uses clapping to indicate "the end" of an activity, sch as feeding); she is very inconsistent in responding to her name (sometimes I can call her ten times from behind and she won't even turn--but other times she does); she does not wave bye-bye, although she does tell me when she wants to be picked up (by patting on my legs) or dropped (by basically throwing herself down). She does not engage in joint attention (maybe too early?) except when we point to certain objects--she never does point or brings a toy to us. Her back is very straight when on arms, but I'm not sure whether that's related to her muscle tone. She's not a big fan of hugs and gives none (but she likes cuddling).
She looks at new people with great interest and follows cars, but at home she has a habit of roaming around, often using the same routes, with no apparent objective, while babbling to herself. It's very hard to make her come unless there's food involved. Finally, she has a certain fixation for a couple of seemingly simple, repetitive activities, such as turning the pages of a book (without much regard for content) and play with a string or belt with his hands and one foot. The belt thing she's done since she was six months, and it can be a twenty-minute thing. She also likes to feel and pull hair, whether my arm's or the fuzz of a tennis ball (not too fixated, tho).
My wife and I filled an online parent questionnaire (I forget the name) when she was 11 months old; she was supposed to score 13 or more on social and she scored 6-7 according to us.
I am very concerned about possible ASD. My wife says she's not concerned at all. Is it too early to tell? Am I reading too much into these signs? Thank you.