Autism Diagnosis and Treatment in Infants
Those concerned with autism treatment in infants often want to know how early you can legitimately diagnose a child or infant with autism. Now, opinions are certainly split, and there is no definitive answer, but some do say that there are some signs to watch for in your infant.
Autism is hard to diagnose before 2 years of age, but babies can start showing symptoms of autism between 12 and 18 months of age. With autism symptoms showing, you can investigate autism treatments for your infant.
Mostly, you want to be aware of what the developmental milestones for each age are, and pay attention to make sure your infant attains them. Missing milestones is a good clue to potential problems and the potential for autism in your infant or child.
If your infant does not respond to cuddling, and seems to stiffen in your arms and try to get away from you, that could be a possible sign (or you could just have a finicky baby). If your infant doesn't look at you when being fed, or reach out to be held, these are also potential signs of autism. Once autism is suspected, you can then seek the advice of a trained therapist in regard to autism treatment for your infant or toddler.
Other Possible Warning Signs of Autism In Infants
If your child exhibits several of the following warning signs, it is wise to ask your pediatrician if autism treatment is appropriate for your infant. Here are some other early signs of autism in infants, babies and toddlers:
- If your baby does not smile at you when you smile at him this may be an early warning of autism
- Your infant does not respond to cuddling or they do not reach out and want to be picked up
- Your infant does not looking at you when you are feeding her
- Not responding to his name or to the sound of a familiar voice when you call to your infant
- If your infant won't follow objects or focus on them with his eyes as you move them around
- Not using gestures such as pointing or waving goodbye
- Not recognizing gestures you use such as not looking at an object that you point to
- Not realizing that if he makes noise, your infant will get your attention
- Lack of imitation of facial expressions or lack of imitation of your hand or body movements
- When you pick her up she does not reach out to you to express the desire to be held
If by a year old, your baby does not respond to their name, does not babble or engage in "baby talk," and does not point to things to show you, then this also warrants an autism evaluation by a doctor.
Is there such a thing as autism treatment for infants?
Well, some researchers think that you can start autism treatments in infants. One of the most important elements of the infant experience is the mother-child bond. If an infant is not attuned to this bond or is trying to avoid the bond because of certain sensory issues, then they could miss out on important social development steps later on. Autism treatment for infants may make sense in this case.
So what can you do to help your autistic infant gain social development skills?
You can change the environment for your autistic infant so that it promotes interaction, such as eye contact and babbling in your infant. This type of autism treatment is something you can implement yourself. You make the infant with autism feel as comfortable as possible. That means it needs to be as quiet as possible, no bright lights, mobiles and other such things may be visually overwhelming to an infant with autism. Fragrances could be overwhelming to -and remember to start slowly.
Assume that your infant with autism is being bombarded by sensory information, and try to minimize that so they can focus on you instead of it. One suggested autism treatment for infants is to touch your infant very gently and slowly. If you do this, there is a greater chance an infant with autism will be learning the social information that they should be attuned to.
Diagnosing and treatment of autism in infants is hard to do, but not impossible. Parents want to learn as much as possible about infants and treatment of autism. Tips from other parents and professionals can be extremely helpful. A great place to start is The Autism Survival Guide. This book by Craig Kendall covers many autism treatments for infants along with tips and information on autism.
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