the pead was lovely she listened to everything i said was there hour an half wasnt expecting it to be so long tho

dunno what to think now she wanted to talk about what next but some other woman was kicking off outside because she had to wait (woman even tried nick our app) so she ringing me this week to talk as she needs speak to salt too

she asked loads questions played games with him etc
she did say he has a delay in gross motor skills and she needs to score his development test

she seemed bit concerned due to their dad bi-polar an autism in family

she kept asking about his head as its big also asked does his dad forehead stick out dunno why an does he look more like dad an same as bradley dunno why

she kept trying check for birth marks after i showed her the raised strawberry mark on back of head and said something about having fingers like me the lil 1s are short curve out an upwards

she noticed th bag obsession too
he was pretty calm apart from lining up everything toys etc rearanged the table to different side of the room
he refused to let her examine him kept hiding behind me

still none wiser wondering why questions about his head tho and the birthmark an fingers comment

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i know it sounds strange but a lot of autistic children do have big heads, i remember matt (and i didnt forgive him for the stitches i needed with his bigass head) had to have his t-shirts cut to get them over his head, he did grow into it but not until he was quite a bit older and it seems to be the same with other autistic Children, whether or not this is just coincidence or if it is a sign of autism i dont know
dont know about the birthmark as matt doesnt have any birthmarks (think i used them all up have about 3 i know about) and fingers it might be something to do with how Children hold pens or cutlery??? only a guess there.
glad it was a good appointment sounds like u have a good pead there
corinne

They measured Jack's head too, there's meant to be a link between cranium size and Autism but don't know how definite that is though. Did they offer any blood tests to rule out Fragile X Becky?

Paediatricians routinely measure the circumference of children's heads during examinations. When the authors of the new study looked back at the medical records of 48 normal and autistic children aged two to five, they found that 60 per cent of the autistic children had head circumferences far above the norm when they were six to 14 months of age.

By contrast, only six per cent of the normal children had enlarged heads. The severity of the autistic children's symptoms was also correlated closely with the size of their heads during infancy.

During normal development, the brain grows slowly, and synapses, the connections among nerve cells, are retained or eliminated in response to sensory stimulation or motor activity.

Courchesne proposes that the unchecked brain growth seen in the study may undermine this synaptic strengthening and pruning process, leading to the social isolation characteristic of the disorder. "They're developing synapses so rapidly that experience doesn't have a chance to determine which are maintained and which are eliminated," he told New Scientist.

Rigid criterion
It has been known for 60 years that some autistic individuals, both children and adults, have unusually large heads. About 20 per cent are formally diagnosed with "macrocephaly," which requires that a patient's head circumference measurement be in the highest two per cent for their age group.

Courchesne believes that the rigidity of this diagnostic criterion may lead doctors to overlook cases in which infants' heads are abnormally large but do not surpass the threshold for macrocephaly.

Janet Lainhart of the University of Utah told New Scientist that the new study sheds important new light on the developmental origins of autism, but she cautions that head size measurements alone cannot be used to screen children for the disorder: "You certainly wouldn't want to be taking head circumference measures and telling parents, 'Your child is at risk for autism.'"

Courchesne notes that the heads of infants who later develop autism are actually smaller at birth than their peers, before undergoing the growth spurt. He says this pattern will be a good marker for autism.

i do agree with a lot of that Daniel apart from matts head was big from birth trust me lol,cant remember what his measurements were then but do remember as well when he was out of romper suits and into t shirts couldnt get them on his head so more noticable as he got a bit older but when you read stories in magazines and they show a pic you can see their heads are usually bigger, not massively but a bit like their body hasnt caught up with the head lol
have a friend who's son doesnt have autism and there is a pic on the wall (the naked baby on a sheepskin rug) and it always makes me look cause his head looks like its from when he is about 5 but his body is a one yr old hehe but i dont know if his head was bigger or he just looked old for his age and being closer to the camera it looked large as well.
corinne