Paediatrician

We met with the paediatrician every 3 months for around 30 minutes. What you can learn in that time I have no idea!

It started very positive. Me and my mum took him, and when he went into the room he saw the computer on her desk. He walked over to it, but then turned and looked at us before he touched it. This was great! No issue with eye contact or knowing he needed permission to touch the computer.

The paediatrician then told us the main reason for speech delay was autism, to which we laughed, no way he has that! Autism is a wee one sitting rocking in a corner, not looking at anyone and not wanting to be touched. That’s not my son. I have the cuddliest wee boy who loves being round other kids and hates when we go somewhere and there are no kids.

She referred him for a hearing test, which was fine, and a genetic blood test, which was normal. As I have an overactive thyroid we got his thyroid checked too. This came back as high so we were referred to a thyroid specialist. I read up that this can cause development delay but the paediatrician told me that his thyroid condition isn’t the cause of the delay. I was clutching at straws!

She tried to talk to my son but he wasn’t really listening. Too busy running round the room. There was lots of eye contact but he just wouldn’t sit for any length of time for the paediatrician to interact with him.

She brought out a bag of toys from a cupboard and he came straight over trying to see what was inside. She brought out a few items and lay them on the table, then asked him to give the doll a drink. He picked up the doll and the cup and gave it a drink. We were delighted! She had an A4 page of colour squares and matching cut out colour squares which she handed to him one at a time and asked him to match them. He done a few but then got bored and was back to running round the room.

At the next appointment 3 months later, he went straight to the cupboard the toys were in and looked at the paediatrician as if to say, get the toys out. A very positive sign.

I went to the appointments on my own with our son, the paediatrician asked how things were going, I used the time to get advice such as on toilet training and introducing new foods. We always talked about autism, but I was sure it was a developmental delay, I didn’t want to think of the alternative.

I didn’t really warm to the paediatrician. There was something about her I wasn’t sure of. She was very straight to the point with not much empathy. I found her very harsh. Maybe it was just the way I was feeling, it was all such a delicate situation and I wasn’t dealing with it all very well. I wanted my son to be perfect.

Eventually we spoke about doing the autism assessment as I said we would know once and for all. She agreed.

I couldn’t sleep that night. My sister told me he was far too young to be assessed, he had only just turned 4. I called the paediatrician the next day to cancel the assessment, but she said no, we need to do it. I was so upset and didn’t know what to do. Friends and family were telling me not to do it as he was too young to know for sure, but the paediatrician was adamant we should do it.

We done it.

Even when we went back for the results, there was no empathy at all. I really didn’t take to her at all. She wanted to discharge us as we basically had the reason for his lack of speech, but I said no way. You can’t just give us a diagnosis then say see you later. So she agreed to one last appointment in 3 months.

I’m glad we had that last appointment. Those 3 months gave us time to digest what had happened and at the last appointment I had a chance to ask some questions. I even noticed a change in the paediatrician at this appointment. She was compassionate and understanding. I even gave her a hug at the end of the appointment to thank her for making me do the assessment!