Early Signs of Autism

Can you spot anything odd about the baby in these photos?

That baby is Gord. In the following months after these photos were taken, he started to inch away from us. It must have be quite gradual as we didn’t notice anything peculiar in his behavior until we saw what we now would consider his early signs of autism.

Kids naturally gravitate to my father. And in this photo on the right. my father is seen showing Gordon some tricks. This photo may be one of the last ones we were able to capture where we could see Gordon’s attention to something shown to him. After then, his attention was close to none, we thought he was deaf.

After a year old, when he started taking solid food, cereals and milk were favorite breakfast meal. Until one morning, he quickly swooped up the solid cereals in his bowl before I could pour milk into his bowl. He shoved off my hand to stop me from pouring milk. As I continued to pour milk, he grabbed the bowl and threw it to the floor. The action came very quick, I could not stop him. He preferred his plain dry cereals. But why? It was the same reaction when I would pour milk into his glass. After several broken glasses and bowls, I then realized that in his non verbal ways, he was communicating to us… that he could not take milk. Knowing what I know now, I’d say - what a smart boy! He was able to associate the milk with the odd feeling he was experiencing at that time.

My ADVICE : If your child refuses something, especially if it is something he had gotten used to, allow him. Specifically, stop the milk and other milk products. The internet has a plethora of discussions on the association of milk and autism. One research paper also claims that we are already taking in enough calcium in other foods. If you’re really concerned of your child’s calcium intake, consider calcium chews, or digestive enzymes such as , LactAid tablets.

At first, my friend didn’t heed to this advice seeing how much her son loved milk and ice cream. But, after a day of trial, she noticed a big difference in her son – no tantrums. She now recalled that roughly 2 hours after a milk intake, her son would go on tantrum.

Some of his early signs we observed at that time were:
- he preferred to be by himself,
- he would not respond when to his name,
- he was always steering any round object in sight, from a penny to a plate,
- he would stare at any spinning object like the ceiling fan,
- at three yearsold, he had no language; he just babbled the whole time,
- he would not imitate to words; he would, however, imitate humming intonations,
- at four years old, he refused to be toilet trained; he could tolerate dirty diapers,
- he would wake up in the middle of the night, and would babble loud enough to wake us up in the next room and with such expression, like that of political candidate delivering his campaign speech.

Undoubtedly, the boy in the photos above has changed.