Autism at 8 months?

[Anonymous]

She sounds really normal to me OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What you’re describing sounds fine. Does she point/wave/look where you point? How does she get your attention?

No pointing, waving, or looking at where we point. We live in a small house so she rarely needs to get our attention-- she babbles quietly to herself in the morning when she wakes up (no crying). That makes me a little anxious, tbh-- she seems quite independent for a young baby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What you’re describing sounds fine. Does she point/wave/look where you point? How does she get your attention?

No pointing, waving, or looking at where we point. We live in a small house so she rarely needs to get our attention-- she babbles quietly to herself in the morning when she wakes up (no crying). That makes me a little anxious, tbh-- she seems quite independent for a young baby.

PP from earlier with fat baby post. This is nothing to worry about. I think my kid first waved at 14 mos

[Anonymous]

This sounds normal. Model the stuff you want her to do and I bet she'll learn. It's free to have an early intervention appointment so there's no harm in scheduling it, but I don't think they'll find your child is behind at all.

It may turn out that your kid is autistic. It probably won't--most kids are not. But I don't think it's obvious and it might not be clear for years. What is clear is that this is stressing you out. If it is affecting your life--like you can't sleep, eat, do other activities, enjoy your baby, etc. then you might want to talk with your OB, PCP, or a counselor about ways to cope with this anxiety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This sounds normal. Model the stuff you want her to do and I bet she'll learn. It's free to have an early intervention appointment so there's no harm in scheduling it, but I don't think they'll find your child is behind at all.

It may turn out that your kid is autistic. It probably won't--most kids are not. But I don't think it's obvious and it might not be clear for years. What is clear is that this is stressing you out. If it is affecting your life--like you can't sleep, eat, do other activities, enjoy your baby, etc. then you might want to talk with your OB, PCP, or a counselor about ways to cope with this anxiety.

OP again: Yeah, i went on a low dose (25mg) of Zoloft about 6 weeks ago but it didn't seem to help all that much. I'm sleeping better but still get super anxious about my baby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds normal. Model the stuff you want her to do and I bet she'll learn. It's free to have an early intervention appointment so there's no harm in scheduling it, but I don't think they'll find your child is behind at all.

It may turn out that your kid is autistic. It probably won't--most kids are not. But I don't think it's obvious and it might not be clear for years. What is clear is that this is stressing you out. If it is affecting your life--like you can't sleep, eat, do other activities, enjoy your baby, etc. then you might want to talk with your OB, PCP, or a counselor about ways to cope with this anxiety.

OP again: Yeah, i went on a low dose (25mg) of Zoloft about 6 weeks ago but it didn't seem to help all that much. I'm sleeping better but still get super anxious about my baby.

Your baby sounds fine. I would try to add therapy or adjust your meds. Seriously, you want to be able to ENJOY your baby, so keep trying until you find something that works for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds normal. Model the stuff you want her to do and I bet she'll learn. It's free to have an early intervention appointment so there's no harm in scheduling it, but I don't think they'll find your child is behind at all.

It may turn out that your kid is autistic. It probably won't--most kids are not. But I don't think it's obvious and it might not be clear for years. What is clear is that this is stressing you out. If it is affecting your life--like you can't sleep, eat, do other activities, enjoy your baby, etc. then you might want to talk with your OB, PCP, or a counselor about ways to cope with this anxiety.

OP again: Yeah, i went on a low dose (25mg) of Zoloft about 6 weeks ago but it didn't seem to help all that much. I'm sleeping better but still get super anxious about my baby.

Talk to your prescriber. There might be different medicines or dosages that work better. And there might be other things (CBT, time outdoors, figuring out ways to get more sleep, counseling) that could be useful along with it. If there's any way to do a baby-parent class that you feel safe with (is there one outdoors perhaps?) I think seeing other babies your kid's age might put your mind at ease that your kid is pretty normal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know official autism diagnoses often don't occur until 2+ years, but I am having serious milestone anxiety and am worried that my 8 month old DD is autistic. She smiles a lot but doesn't really laugh, doesn't wave hello/goodbye, doesn't always respond to her name, etc. From a physical development standpoint, she has been army crawling for about a month but it has not transitioned to traditional crawling. She is pulling herself up to standing with support though. Maybe this is all normal, idk, I'm a first time mom and am really spiraling!

Consistently responding to her name, waving, and pointing are technically 12 month milestones. They can appear earlier, but you definitely shouldn't be up at night worrying because she hasn't reached them yet.
Her crawling sounds perfectly typical. Many babies never "traditionally crawl."
Babbling is any consonant/vowel combination, so "mamama" and "dadadada" definitely count.
As for not laughing much, I had a baby like that, and now as a 6.5 year old... he still is much more of a smiler than a laugher. Always very chill and not easily excitable. He's also the most socially flexible of my 4 kids.

All that said, I agree with the other posters that you should attend to your mental health and talk to someone about intrusive thoughts/checking.

[Anonymous]

My kid started pointing at 12 months but had no idea what it meant. He would just point at the ceiling or the wall to copy the motion. At 13 or 14 months he started pointing to communicate. 8 months sounds really really early for pointing to me. Or for waving. I think my kid started to do that around 12 months.

[Anonymous]

Pointing, following a point and responding to name are 12 month milestones. Following simple directions 15-18 months. You’re expecting too much.

[Anonymous]

Adding to the chorus of "these aren't reasonable expectations". You can chat with your pediatrician but nothing sounds unusual.

[Anonymous]

Maybe she is not performing bc she senses OPs anxiety???

[Anonymous]

Why jump from milestone anxiety to autism? That's a huge jump for no reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Adding to the chorus of "these aren't reasonable expectations". You can chat with your pediatrician but nothing sounds unusual.

The wonder weeks app lists skills such as "plays peekaboo with a younger baby, mimics what people do, indicates that you think something is dirty, ask parent to build a tower of blocks by handing them blocks" etc. for her age. Hence my anxiety that she doesn't do ANY of these. And of course autism is what I worry about when she is mostly meeting physical milestones but social milestones appear delayed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This sounds normal. Model the stuff you want her to do and I bet she'll learn. It's free to have an early intervention appointment so there's no harm in scheduling it, but I don't think they'll find your child is behind at all.

It may turn out that your kid is autistic. It probably won't--most kids are not. But I don't think it's obvious and it might not be clear for years. What is clear is that this is stressing you out. If it is affecting your life--like you can't sleep, eat, do other activities, enjoy your baby, etc. then you might want to talk with your OB, PCP, or a counselor about ways to cope with this anxiety.

I think this is good advice. I have a child with autism, by the way, and nothing you mention seems worrisome to me, but my reassurance isn’t going to reassure you. You’ll just seek out more reassurance.

This is about your anxiety. I’m glad you are on Zoloft. If it isn’t helping, you might benefit from a different med. If your baby has autism then your baby has autism and you’ll figure out how to handle it. You wouldn’t do anything different now either way.