My 22 month old...possible Autism or Asperger's Syndrome?

[Blushing Dove]

My son is 22 months old. He had problems when he was born. Taken C-section, early by a GP that was attentive at all. I had too much water and they thought that the baby was full term. My son swallowed a lot of my water when he was born and his lungs weren't mattured and they absorbed it...he quit breathing. He went to a NICU for the next seven days...he never opened his eyes until I got to the hospital, 3 days later and held him for the first time. When I spoke, he opened his eyes. My son still refuses to walk on his own unless I force him, then he gets stiff. He only says a few things...Momm..Momm...Dadd...Dadd. He won't point at anything, just screams when he wants something, He has a 4yr old brother....and I will admitt...I suffered severe depression when I had both of my sons, but responded different with each one...I clung to my first son and was over attentive, and wasn't near as attentive with my second because my oldest, 2, at that time, demanded all my attention. The 22 month old slept unless he was hungry ...so I didn't have as much interaction with him. I always did things for him too, so I could hurry and tend to my oldest before he got jealous and started throwing a fit. The youngest one is fascinated with his hands and any repetitive motion...a toy that he can open a door and shut will entertain him for up to an hour.  He does like to be held and is very "huggy", prefers to play alone, is starting to feed himself. Is he behind, simply because of a combination of my lack of involvement to "push" him, or do you think there is something more behind his "physical delays". It only took me about a week to get him to start feeding himself...but he has skipped a lot of "steps" the doctors always say were important. He still grasps everything with his fist, no pincher grasp, and this causes him frustration when feeding himself. Took him forever to crawl, and still refuses to walk or stand, won't even pull himself up. Rocks on  his hands and knees a lot making a "uhhhh...uhhhh" noise. He's left handed...tends to "forget" his right hand even exists. When not using his left his fists are always clenched very tightly. Likes to play patty cake and he is starting to do it on his own...will mimick sounds I make. Likes eye contact, loves for me to sing to him.

Am I over-paranoid?? Scared and alone...(Single-Mom)
My son's father was doing drugs, cocaine to be particular ....I didn't drink or smoke...I had kidney failure during pregnancy and did undergo minor surgery...any possible links??

Thanks

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

It's pretty clear that your son displays some form of developmental disorder, and it would be wise to arrange for an evaluation by developmental specialists (neurologist, pediatrician, psychologist, speech/language pathologist). It could be that he displays some condition along the spectrum of Pervasive Developmental Disorders (Autistic Disorder and Asperger's are two such conditions), but that will only be clarified via the appropriate evaluations. It's quite likely that your son's condition is more biologically or neurologically rooted than caused by inadequate infant/mother attachment, though the latter could be one factor.

[Kidomom34]

My son is almost 8 and displayed some of the symptoms your child has. He never played with toys at 22 months, he did not imitate at all(no patty cake, peek a boo, pretend cooking etc), never asked us for anything, just screamed alot and never had desire to interact with kids at that age.He did like to look at things from the corner of his eyes. He would just walk back and forth while looking along the edges of things for sometimes and hour. He didn't develope the pincer grasp until he was about 4 yrs old. And never closed his hand to keep chips or candy from falling out. He kept open palms and everthing would fall out everytime. But when hands were empty, he kept clinched fists or thumbs and forefinger pressed together until he was almost 3 yrs old. Sometimes when he had a small object in his hand, he did not respond to the enviroment around him. But if you took the object away, he could hear you and attend to the enviroment. I mean you could bang and pot together next to his head and he wouldn't even flinch. Everything was a big deal to him. Getting him dressed was a struggle, getting him undressed was a struggle. Putting him into the car, then getting him out was a struggle. Nothing was easy. And he stuffed his mouth with food till his cheeks bulged out while eating and drooled excessively when not eating(2 yrs old). My son will be in 3rd grade in 2 weeks and he has just a little residual left over.

[Joan311]

A related discussion, My 22 Months old could be at risks of Autism? was started.