My son "may be" Autisitic. What to do?

[MACTALKS]

I have been doing the research on the net about my 2.6 years old son's behavior.
I have gone through a lot of websites and took some tests like this ->
http://pediatrics.about.com/od/autism/l/bl_autism.htm

Now, my greatest fear is that he May Be autisitic.
The best way of finding it out is by visiting a doctor/therapist.
But, that means a lot of doctor visits that makes my son more traumatic, more tension to us parents etc.
And our biggest concern is, "If there is no proven cure for Autism, why should we visit a doctor. Ofcourse the doctor will lessen the ill-affects of autism. But, is it worth trying?"

Sometimes I feel that the best thing to do is to give him some more time. and ignore this completely.
But, again, I think that I may not be doing the right thing by not taking the early professional help.

Your suggestions please.
[This may not be the appropriate forum to discuss this issue. But, I dont know any better place. ]

[sumachechi]

Please do not use the internet to diagnose what is wrong with your son. Medicine is not mathematics. Take your child to the doctor and share your concerns. A doctors visit doesnt always have to be traumatic- i.e blood tests etc. The next steps will follow.
Children of your sons age can behave differently for no abnormal reason as well. Time might sort it, but getting professional help on how to use that time constructively might be of benefit to you.
There is no cure for autism as in a medicine /surgery that will reverse the problems. But there are behavioural intervention therapies etc which if started early and applied consistently will help your child's development significantly.

[dbs]

Now, my greatest fear is that he May Be autisitic.
The best way of finding it out is by visiting a doctor/therapist.
But, that means a lot of doctor visits that makes my son more traumatic, more tension to us parents etc.

I completely agree with Suma.
Even if you thnk that it is traumatic, it may still be beneficial to both you and him.
Go to the Doctor, please. Don't pretend to be an ostrich.

[kumarkuru]

You have to take him to a Pediatric Neurologist. They can accurately diagnose ASD (autism spectrum disorder). Early intervention could make dramatic difference for the child especially if the kid is on the milder side of spectrum. My son was diagnosed with ASD when he was around 2. You can reach out me if you need ANY help in this regard.

[vsudhu]

You will have to take your child to a developmental neurologist / child psychologist first.

Testing for autism is non intrusive. So the child is not going to be stressed during the tests and it is not like a pediatrician visit. For a child that is so young, the tests are likely to be in the presence of parents in a play setting and wll be based out of observations than anything else - walking, repetitiveness, method of talking, variety of interests, fixations, sharing, reclusivess, so on and so forth. The other part of the screening is for the parents to fill in exhaustive checklists. Typically this is a 2 hour assessment / interview.

In the event that the diagnosis is that of a general delay, you have piece of mind.

Assuming your fears are true, the earlier you provide the services to child, the better he turns out . The basic premise is that behavior can be modelled / taught where it does not come naturally. So you dont want the kid to miss out something that will be difficult to learn at a later time.

The worst thing for a child in need is a parent in denial.

It is frustrating as a parent to go through this phase, but you wouldnt regret once you take the right decision.

[M V]

...
The best way of finding it out is by visiting a doctor/therapist.
But, that means a lot of doctor visits that makes my son more traumatic, more tension to us parents etc. ...

The tests are like what vsudhu described. You may not want to waste too much time working up the nerve to go see the pediatrician who will then refer you to a specialist, who can then say if the tests are needed or can wait. In some places, there can be a long wait of up to 9 months for an appointment for the test. The test also involves the kid being observed in a group of kids of about his age, and that is one reason they only do a few appointments per day.

Added later: It need not be traumatic for the kid. In fact, the knowledge that there will be no shots should make the kid happy. Until the kids are about 6 or 7, depending on the individual kid's maturity, the test can be done without the kid even being aware that a "test" is going on or that it is a visit to a "doctor". It is up to the parent what and how much they want to tell the child about the test.

[Grace]

As others have pointed, pls dont rely on the internet quizz and see a doctor. If it helps, from what I have read, Children with mild autism grow up with an average or above average IQ.

[rich]

mactalks - since its an early thought/possibility, I dont want to drag you in too much of discussion and I just hope/pray that he be a perfect child.

Others - I dont know what other thinks but on the net there is lots of dicussion going arnd abt vaccination role in possibly causing autism though fda doesnot support this...
I posted earlier in the forum but got no response esp MMR given at early stage....
Its strange that I keep hearing abt autism now and than in US(among Indians!) and have seen in the case of two known desi people's son here in US while in india I didnot hear of such case in known circle !!!

[dark angel]

But, that means a lot of doctor visits that makes my son more traumatic, more tension to us parents etc.
]

For the child it wont be traumatic as there may be a lot of toys around to play with during the assessment. Also the technicians are usually very good with communicating with children. But for parents it will be stressful as during the exhaustive questioning we will be wondering in our minds what will be the diagnosis at the end of the assessment. If you or anyone else like family members/daycare have raised concerns on him, then its better to get him assessed as quickly as possible. The earlier the therapy is started the better as atleast within their primary years they can catch up with the other children if they only have mild autism.

[dark angel]

Others - I dont know what other thinks but on the net there is lots of dicussion going arnd abt vaccination role in possibly causing autism though fda doesnot support this...
I posted earlier in the forum but got no response esp MMR given at early stage....
Its strange that I keep hearing abt autism now and than in US(among Indians!) and have seen in the case of two known desi people's son here in US while in india I didnot hear of such case in known circle !!!

On the vaccine, it was said that the earlier MMR vaccines had mercury as preservative. The other likely causes are lead poisoning and genetics. Largely the cause is unknown....

I think Autism and other learning disorders have always existed among every community and race. But only developed countries like US,UK,Australia had more awareness and the skills to help individuals who had these problems. I remember about 5 years ago, my sister in law who is in Australia was explaining about her son to us. Her son who was nearly 3 at the time was going to a day care and the day care mentioned to her that he was very quiet and did not mix much with other children. They suggested that she take him for assessment. He was also not able to express. Once he was sitting in the day care waiting for his father to pick him and his lip was bleeding. When he saw his father he just rushed to him and blurted out crying. His father asked him what happened and he would just cry. Then his father asked him "Hugh hit you?" and he nodded(They already knew that another child at the day care named Hugh had bullied him earlier). She did not mention that he has autism, but she just mentioned that he was not able to understand what is being said. So I think she may have meant some kind of learning disability, though they assessed his IQ to be high. Anyway therapy was started. He was taught with a lot of pictures as he was assessed to be a visual learner, and the parents started constantly talking to him using simple language. Now he is 7 and looks fine and is always talking and asking questions and he is able to reply when people ask him questions. If they were in India, I'm almost sure that it may have gone undetected and at school they would be receiving lot of complaints from the teachers that he is not learning properly and is slow and may likely also get canned from some teachers. So its good that they started early intervention and now he is on par with any average kid in school. Anyway nowadays the situation in India is also changing especially in the cities the parents have become more watchful of the childs developments and making sure that they receive any help if required much ahead of time before it becomes late. I'm not sure if the diagnosis, treatment and the skilled resources available here are on par with the the developed countries, but from whatever I have noted when I started searching for my son, I think there is more awareness here now and more options available now.