Well that is when my first son arrived in my life. He had a slight traumatic delivery and required tubes down his throat and oxygen, plus quite frantic rubbing from the Doctor to get his breathing going.
He passed the initial paediatric test at birth and seemed to be developing well - physically he gained weight well and was exclusively breastfed until he was weaned at four months ( the recommended age back then) and then breastfed until he was 18 months old.
There were no concerns at his 8 months check up either.
However at around 18 months we noticed he didn't respond to us calling his name or talking to him. Our GP referred us for hearing tests, to which he passed with flying colours.
And there our journey through the medical world started.
We were sent to see a paediatrician who after only a 15 minute consultation declared he was autistic. She handed me a two page leaflet and sent us on our way. I read this leaflet with shock and anguish. It stated the basics of Autism but I needed to find out more. So, ever ready with information ( and prior to us having the Internet and therefore the God that is Google) I dragged my rather large and rather tatty (through intensive readings) medical journal reference book out. And there in one paragraph it summed up autism as ' a life long, socially debilitating disability, where the sufferer would not marry, never hold a job and would be dependent on supervision and care for life. Now please try to imagine the devastation of this small passage. I had never heard of autism and this description of it made me think the world had ended.
Further reading ( with me buying several books on the subject) showed this was not always the case and that autism differs from person to person and some people do indeed marry and work,although they do say they have to try hard to 'fit in' as the socially impairing part of this disability is ever present in every autistic person, no matter how mild or severe they are.
We moved soon after seeing that paed and in our new area our new GP said we were being referred to an assessment centre where J would be observed by professionals once a week for one hour, over the course of a year.
The new paed we had said that no formal diagnosis could be made after only a 15 minute meeting and that the previous paed had been wrong in being so hasty.
This then gave me hope. False hope as it transpired, but at that very moment I thought my child was just a little slower in reaching milestones and was not going to be impaired for his entire life with the debilitation that is autism.
Over the year it became obvious that J was having problems with basic communication, socialising, understanding emotions and moving forward in learning.
Toward the end of the year with the assessment centre we were introduced to a special needs school which was centred around autism. Both my husband and I went to view it and fell in love with it. They were warm,loving and full of inspiration in the teaching of children with autism.
J started part time and after a week of unrest and unease on his part he settled in well.
We moved in 2008 and he started at another special needs school. This present school is fantastic, but is still no match for the first, and I mourn the day we left there as it truly was an amazing school with extraordinary teachers and support staff.Even now J looks at old photos of him at that school and he can name all the children there and looks so happy as he recalls his memories of that time and place.
His new school,which as of the time of writing this, he has been attending for two years, is a very modern and techie school. He has a wonderful teaching assistant,J, who he has taken to. He does have a thing about blonde women though!
His old school was smaller,in building size and child numbers. It was a closer atmosphere and as it was where he became a child in my eyes and not my baby anymore, it will always hold special memories for me.
