New diagnosis (autism spectrum?) and 2 questions (Long)

[Guest guest]

Well, we have a sort of provisional diagnosis, maybe. Ha ha.

Developmental ped says my 2.5-yr-old is too young to say for sure, but if he

were older she might call it Semantic Pragmatic Language Disorder. I look that

up and get more confused than before, because some sources place it on the

Autsim spectrum and some don't. I imagine it changes according to the winds of

the day.

She says he DOESN'T have Autism. She was ver clear on that, because she said we

probably won't have many services covered by insurance because of NOT having

that label, but that she can't in good conscience give it, but that she might

consider giving it in the future if his symptom picture changes with time. I

don't really want the label, but, as I said, when I look it up it seems he might

be considered on the spectrum anyway.

I'm not sure what she'll put on the official report. I'm guessing she will write

" communication disorder " or " language disorder. " She also said she would

consider calling it apraxia for us if it would help us get services in the

future.

Basically, her findings are that he has aspects of Autism, specifically deficits

in communication and imaginative play and some of the repetitious behaviors and

sensory stuff, but he is too socially interactive to be called Autistic. She

says she has very rarely seen this type of mix of behaviors, and she thinks we

should keep doing what we're doing (speech therapy and an intensive Montessori

preschool every morning), but consider adding Autism-type therapies (out of

pocket if necessary) to help with communication and behavior.

Sorry for the long intro, but my main questions are this:

Where can I find a list of ways to get NV into this kid? He can detect it in

anything and is super picky to begin with. I force fish oils, but NV is too much

to force in any way I can think of. I hate forcing anything, but the fish oils

make a HUGE difference in behavior and possibly in speech.

Second, have any of you very smart people found anything that can convince me

this gluten-free and dairy-free diet is worth the enormous trouble it will be to

get my picky, temper-tantrum-prone family to get on it? Even my husband will

tantrum if I go that route. I called the doc because I forgot to ask about it,

and her message was to try it and we can discuss later. She didn't mention it on

her own, though, so it's not on her list of must do stuff, apparently.

Thanks, folks.

I'm struggling to accept that we are going to be officially on the Special Needs

side of the road. I was holding out a bit of hope that we had just a speech

delay and a few odd behaviors, maybe a mild apraxia, but I guess the diagnosis

isn't as important as what we do for him. I also realize that diagnoses can and

do change. She seems to think there's a good chance we'll be able to mainstream

him. And she also seemed to think she was giving us good news. I suppose she is

used to seeing kids with a lot less to work with at the outset. And I've seen

kids with full-blown Autism end up in with too few symptoms to count as such

within a few years. The one I'm thinking of went on that awful diet, though.