From 1-2 years of age is where I rerally started to worry. Nicholas was never into books, bedtime stories, etc. He was still not pointing or really waving. He did not care if anyone left the house, the room, the planet for that matter – I thought I was getting away with not seeing any separation anxiety. Looking back, I can see how clearly he was in a world that was all his own. Still not responding to his name. At the 12 month mark, we tried to introduce milk – he hated it. He would hand the cup right back to me. We tried strawberry milk, chocolate milk, you name it, he hated it. I even crushed cherrios in a blender and added the milk and that didn’t fool him either. We tried soy, lactaid, you name it – nothing worked. When I started mixing 1oz of milk with 7 oz formula, that did the trick, but the poor thing was so constipated all of a sudden that it took lots of prune juice to get him to go. I gave up and switched him to Isomil 2 Toddler Formula (mistake). I spoke to his pediatrician about him possibly having an allergy to milk or being lactose intollerant and he pretty much blew me off – as he had been doing all along.

He did well with feeding himself with a spoon. Eating habits were french fries, bananas, crackers and apples. Much of this year is a blur to me – mainly because he was always moving, getting into everything – and I felt like a prisoner in my own home. We stopped being able to go anywhere and take him with us – it became pure torture. I was repeatedly told, “boys are active, this is normal – welcome to the terrible two’s” The problem with that statement was he was no where near turning two at that point.

His babbling slowed down to non-existant. His babbling, before it stopped, sounded like sentences – and we thought that any day he would talk in full sentences. I mentioned this to his pediatrician repeatedly and he told me to wait it out, boys usually explode with language around 2.

When we were home and he had stuff he was interested in, he was the best child in the world. People always remarked at how quiet he was and how well he played and how they wished their kids were like him.

He would pull his grandparents into his room to play, sitting each one where he wanted them to sit. Then he’d play while they sat there, never involving them in his play. We tried and tried to change him pulling them into “come” – but he would just grunt and pull.

He NEVER toe-walked, flapped, lined cars up, spun wheels, etc. When I flat out told his pediatrician that I suspected he had autism, he told me that Nicholas was a typical little boy and I had nothing to be worried about. I did not know at the time that I should have just made an appointment with a neuro or developmental pediatrician. Instead, I continued to vaccinate him and continue the assault on his body/brain. Because I thought that because the doctor said he was okay, that he truly was okay.

At 18 months, he got the DTP (dose 4) and MMR (dose 1) – and this was where his babbling slowed down to non-existant. The words he did have were gone, he couldn’t even make the sounds. I was reassured that boys talk later than girls and boys tend to drop skills when they are learning new ones and that was why he probably wasn’t babbling much anymore and that he would explode with language at 2.
At 21 months, he got Prevnar (dose 4) and Hib (dose 4) – and at this point, life became a fucking nightmare