Early Diagnosis…helps in better Results …!

Hi All,

the hardest phase of the Journey for a family with an Autism kid is getting him formally diagnosed and get the word out officially.

This post is to share how we began this journey. Our son Swamynathan, is our first child, we conceived naturally, Wife’s pregnancy term was normal, due to low level of AFI she was scheduled for pain induced pregnancy 3 days earlier than the expected date.
(AFI is Amniotic fluid index, it refers to the level of water that’s inside the Uterus allowing the baby to spin and move freely, more the water better it is … lesser the water is not that good.) The pain was induced, but she has not reached the expected level of dilation, it was roughly 2-3 cms since morning, after that doctors observed the heartbeat of the baby is going down, and we had the C Section done.
Pediatrician (Rohit Bharadwaj) had the routine inspection of the baby and handed him over to me … there was no birth complications observed at that point of time. The hospital where we had the delivery done is in Ambattur called Dr. Rabindran
Health Care Centre Pvt. Ltd, where Dr.Revathi Baba delivered my son and also our daughter few years later.

Later we were seeing Dr.Raghuram (pediatrician) from Nanganallur, as we lived there during that time. We took all the vaccination shots as per the schedule.
He used to call amma occasionally around 1.5 years old, but that too got stopped as he was close to 2 years old. We highlighted about his speech delay to the pediatrician, who suggested to place him in a play school so that he will observe other kids and begin to speak. We joined him to a nearby school and went for 6 months, we did not see any improvement. Even the school teacher pointed out issues in addition to what we were already aware of.

This is the phase where we were kind of unsure and lost, not knowing what should be done to proceed further.

During the time frame, my wife attended a workshop on cake baking for couple of days, during the interaction with the host during the break she found out her son also had such symptoms and it is due to Autism disorder, we have to put him in therapy at the
earliest. We got the therapy center details from her.

We got appointment with Dr.Lal.D.V.Nair, had an assessment. He was extremely patient and polite with his assessment and communication, after an observation and testing of 30 minutes, he broke the news to us that he is on the Autism Spectrum at mild/moderate level. He should be given therapy for roughly 30 hours in a week, so that the symptoms will wear off by the time he reaches 6 years of age, else the duration of therapy will get prolonged.

We began our therapy when he was 2.5 years old and it is continuing since then ….

Below are the symptoms which we saw at the time of putting him in therapy:
1) Speech Delay (One of the prime reasons for suspicion, often ignored)
2) No Eye Contact
3) Spinning
4) No Socializing Skills
5) Spins all playing objects, stares at spinning objects for longer duration.
6) Self occupied in his own world…
7) Not responding to name

As a parent the first phase when the doctor broke the news was Denial, as with many other parents. How can this happen, there was no family history, there was no physical problem with my son, etc….. From Denial the next phase is Acceptance, the journey from denial to acceptance should be short, we did not waste much time in getting second, third, fourth opinions with other doctors to see if any one gives a positive information… we began the therapy journey from the week he got diagnosed.

My humble request to all fellow parents is to take professional opinion from pediatrician or therapists, when your kids have speech delay, lack of socializing skills at the earliest, the earlier you place your kid in therapy, the chances of resolving the issues are more. There is no blood test, scan or x ray that shall help in diagnosis in most of the cases, it is only a behavioral examination mostly, at times a checklist/questionnaire may be filled in, and your kid will not be given any drugs as part of therapy, therapy focuses on one to one time with the kid and stimulate his responses naturally over a period of time. (Recent studies claim autism can be detected through blood test, with a success rate of 85%, which is still at a research stage)

Also please keep track of Developmental milestones and check whether out kid is in line with it or not. We found our son skipped the Crawling stage, and began to walk directly. At that stage we thought it was impressive, but it can/may be a warning sign for something to happen in future. Please go through the below link, which details the key developmental milestones we should be aware of: https://pathways.org/growth-development/baby/milestones/

I am sure you will have family members who justify, that speech delay is common and may point out that your father/uncle/cousin did not speak till he was 5 years old etc. I do not deny such facts, but the difference between then and now is:
1) We are not living in a healthy environment
2) We are not eating healthy foods
3) We are not living in a joint family
4) We are fed with chemicals in one form or another
5) Our immunity is weak etc.

The situation is changed now, hence an earlier diagnosis and intervention is the key to address this disorder. Time is Critical!

Regards,
Saranya and karthik