Autism

[blueangel128]

My 9 yr old daughter (who is turning 10 tomorrow...) was recently diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder ( or something in the spectrum of autism), they also think that she may have add/adhd. I am kind of blown away because she has been closely monitored her entire life with different therapists and I am curious as to why she is just now being daignosed with it. I'm not surprised by the ADD it runs in my family, with me being diagnosed at the tender young age of 28...and my oldest daughter was diagnosed in 2nd grade. Sadie is in 4th grade... Sadie was born at 26 1/2 weeks, weighed 1 lb., 7 1/2 oz., and was about 12 " long. She was born early because I was sick (vasculitis) and my cord quit working. She had a lot of developmental delays, along with health issues. She is seriously underweight at 46 lbs. and has ISSUES with eating anything that may be remotely related to being a vegetable. She eats mashed potatoes, french fries (only skinny ones), and popcorn. That's it for vegetables. The last time I had her try to eat a piece of an apple she gagged and carried on for over 30 minutes. I have given up on fruits and veggies for now, I'm in the process of having her be evaluated by a feeding clinic. She does eat cheese, meat, (not hamburger) crunchy salty and sweet snacks and lots of pasta. She won't eat other peoples cooking if it doesn't look exactly like mine. She once wouldn't eat bread at a friends house because it was not square like ours. I'm curious if the eating issues are related to the PDD.
She has been diagnosed with mild high tone CP, Failure to thrive, and reflux of the kidney. When she was younger, she had meltdowns where she would not be able to calm herself down and she would bang her head off of the floor (even cement...), rip her hair out by the roots, and mine if I tried to stop her. We had to use music therapy, bouncing her on our knees while patting her back when she was throwing a fit. (OMG it actually worked to calm her down!) We also used a tent filled with pillows in addition to a radio playing so that she could thrash about and not hurt herself. That has matured into, stomping her feet, clinching her fists, really really really mean looks, and leaving the room. She mentally shuts down when she is frustrated. She also hits herself in the head and calls herself stupid.
She has had developmental delays and learning disorders. She walked and ran on her knees for almost a year before she walked which was around 2 1/2 or 3 yrs. Her way of exploring new things/objects was to sniff and smell them to death... We had to teach her sign language around the age of 3, before that we used pictures of snacks and drinks on magnets so she could bring me a picture of what she wanted. She still struggles with fine motor skills even though last year the Occupational therapist insisted that Sadie didn't need help anymore. Apparently Sadie being able to tie her own shoes is not her problem; I believe she said that wasn't an educational issue. I'm not real impressed with our school district or the pathetic excuse for a teacher that we had to endure last year, which is why I sought help with the JRC. By the end of the school year Sadie woke up crying because she didn't want to go to school and I have absolutely nothing nice to say about the teacher, except that maybe she should be in another line of work, like fast food or shoveling cow manure or something...
This year Sadie is blossoming. She has a therapist who is working with art therapy and dealing with her feelings and helping her deal with depression over the separation of her older sister who moved in with her dad 1 year ago and hasn't spoke to us for 6 months.( that's a whole other story..) Sadie's current teacher must be on loan from heaven because Sadie loves school again. The teacher is a little unconventional, her goal is to make learning fun. If learning is fun, they'll want to do it. So far it's working for Sadie.
I'm curious to see if her earlier actions with temper tantrums, melt downs, and self mutilation could have been indicators for what she is being diagnosed with now, or was it the stress of the teacher and losing her relationship with her sister that brought everything to a head? Sadie's best friend has Aspberger's and her mom had noticed a couple things that Sadie did that looked like autistic symptoms but not enough for any kind of diagnosis of autism She plays by herself sometimes, even when she has friends to play with, and she is obsessed with her nintendo ds, especially pokemon. She will talk in great detail for long excruciating periods of time to people that she doesn't even know about pokemon. She also hugs people that she has just met, which I've found out is kind of inappropriate, it could lead to trouble later if she doesn' t learn boundaries. The one thing that I find kind of strange is that Sadie is very empathetic about her friends and family, if they get sick or hurt, or any poor animal that has a reason to be called a poor animal...
Sorry this is so long. I'm just curious about the autism diagnosis and if anybody had any more information about the spectrum disorders and anything I can do to help Sadie. I am not so much worried about school anymore, because I decided that if I am ever put in that kind of situation with Sadie again, I'm just yanking her out of school and cyber schooling her at the school districts' expense. Thanks for letting me prattle on.
Sadie's mom aka Melissa