My son was born at 35 weeks with gastroschisis (all of his intestines were outside of his body). It took 12 days and 4 surgeries before everything could fit back inside. He wasn't able to breathe on his own for 3 weeks and was in the NICU for 6.5 weeks. At 1 month old, he became very septic from a central line infection. His whole first year was spent in and out of the doctors and ERs with different GI complications.
Since coming home from the NICU and over the course of his first 2 years, we have been working with in-home PT (Physical Therapy), OT (Occupational Therapy), SLT (Speech and Language Therapy), ECSE (Early Childhood Special Education) and CDS (Children's Development Services).
Around 18 months, I started to become concerned with some of his behaviors and sensory issues and sought out an evaluation from a developmental and behavioral pediatrician.
At 23 months old, he underwent the ADOS testing (a standardized testing which is considered the golden key for autism diagnosing) and was diagnosed with autistic disorder. He also had a CDS evaluation which determined he was exhibiting global delays and mixed receptive-expressive language disorder. His OT evaluation placed him at the developmental level of 12 months old.
At 25 months old, his SLT evaluation placed him at the level of 11 months.
He is 27 months old now and we are still only just beginning.
Rockland, ME
