Colicky/Fussy Baby or Calm/Quiet?? | Autism PDD

My son was a very, very easy baby. Only cried when he was hungry or hurt and then these wernt usually even full on cries. Hed fixate on our tv we were watching as a young baby and everyone used to comment on that. He was a happy baby tho and likes being held but didnt really cry/ask to be held and was content to stay by himself and would wait till we got up in the mornings just laying in his crib chillin. Thats what used to trip me out! Lots of times id actually wake him up to feed and he slept thru the night very quickly. Altho now hes very clingy to me and me only. I thought (as did everyone else!) I was lucky but wish Id known better. My daughter screamed from birth non-stop. I remember thinking, there is something wrong with her but I didn't know what was wrong and Dr's didn't know either. I took her in a bunch of times and after a while looking like an ace, I stoped taking her in. She hated all swings and bouncers. She never slept,hyper and acted deaf but loved flashing things. I would fall asleep holding her all night bec. it was better than her screaming all night, my arms hurt so bad. My family ,who was never around, they tried to say I must be doing something wrong. Yet, for yrs they were hiding family neurological disorders from me. I just found out this yr. . I'm talking about 4 disorders. I guess they wanted me to suffer .
Oh, baby sitters, refused to watch her. I even tried to pay them double, still nope. I would of payed her and the lady was charging per kid. Now she is 6 yrs and I have a 2 yr old but I won't allow anyone to watch my kids. amberwaves39294.4228125Jasper was an incredibly mellow easy-to-please baby---unless I put him
down. He wanted to be held all of the time. But he was defnitely not a
screamer at all. He was coming out to dinner with us regularly by 7 weeks.

No extremes here. C wasn't much different from his NT twin. C has always been a bit mellower and R a bit more high strung, but not extreme in either case.

When people ask how they were as babies I always say that they weren't easy babies and they weren't hard babies, just somewhere in the middle. It was only hard because I had two of them at once.

my ds with Autism is Adopted,he was still in the hospital (at 2.5 months ,27weeker)when I met him ,when I told the Head Nurse I was going to Adopt him she said,I hope you know what your getting into!!

He could not be soothed,he cryed all the time,dident sleep or eat well.But I loved him soo much, I stuck it out,His parents abandoned him,I wasent going to!!!

Linda

My ds (with asd) was a very easy baby - he ate well, slept well and
cuddled a lot. I have two other friends whose kids have asd and both
theirs were extremly colicky babies.One to the point of needing to be
hospitalized because he screamed so much that he could not eat for 15
hour stretches and was loosing weight.

On the other hand one of my dd's was a very demanding baby - do not
have one picture before 6 month of her where she is not screamming her
head of. All I did was have her in a sling and walk for hours and hours
while she screamed - I thought I'd loose my mind. Now at age 4 she is
the only one of my three kids I am sure is not asd.The boys were very high needs, had to be held constantly. They were 10 weeks early though so I took it to being out too early and wanting to be back in. Since there were two of them and holding both at the same time wasn't always possible I would put one in a bouncy chair and tap it until they fell asleep. When they got older they would sit in the saucer or the johnny jump up and bounce themselves to sleep. They could not go to sleep by themselves. If they woke up in the middle of the night they had to be rocked back to sleep. I don't know that they were like a collicky baby, they didn't cry for hours on end and they were consolable usually, but they cried several times a day and they were 2 before I got a decent nights sleep. Nikolas still has to rock himself to sleep in the rocking chair. I too have heard of the quiet variety that can spend lots of time alone and happily entertain themselves in their cribs, my kids were never like that though. The exact opposite.The first night home from the hospital at birth, he started crying (blood curdling screams) at midnight until 6am EVERY single night for the first 4 weeks of life. The doctor and I tried everything from warm baths right before bed to prescription colic meds. They tried sedating him, still no luck. After he turned a month old, it stopped. But he never really slept through the night until they put him on Clonodine about 6 months ago.

my son was active alert and fought sleep since an hour after birth, he had sensory issues with noise while sleeping and having his hands and feet covered immediately. nothing like seeing a one hour old child find a way to get his hands unswaddled constantly.

my son had round the clock colic for 14 months and had to be held almost nonstop, always over the left shoulder over your heart. i got some relief from wellness colic/gripe water, but it was costing 12-24 per week and i couldnt afford it.

I only had T from 12 mos., but she was VERY easygoing, then. I did not know just how much till I got kids #2, and #3!

The only time I felt helpless was 3 weeks after we got her, she was teething and inconsolable for a couple days ... till I caught on and gave her motrin .. FOUR TOP TEETH AT ONCE! Poor thing.

I guess this is just like everything else with an ASD... everyone is different and has different 'things' going on.

I love my DS so much, and never let him see my frustration ( try not to) but wish he were a little less fussy sometimes. I also wish he would let me hold him, hug him or cuddle with me...

I know there is also a lot to be thankful for... so I will just try to focus on that.
denise

Jason screamed almost constantly for his first four months, then started slacking off. The only things that helped were car rides (which he still loves, btw), tight swaddling (which he now does himself with his favorite blankie), and running the vacuum all night, every night for those first four months. We tried other kinds of white noise, but he wouldn't have it.

During the day, I could never lay him down for more than 15-20 minutes without him crying. I carried him in a snuggy, in my arms, or in a sling non-stop, and slept right next to him every night on the couch.

Gosh. Writing it out makes it sound so bad! It was, I guess, and I cried a little over it at times, but we got through. JFTR, he's still a bad sleeper, but he at least sleeps through the night more often than not by a good margin.

From what I have read on this board from other parents, Their children seam to be either very, very calm, To very, very fussy. It seams they are both , but all seam to be to the extreme. My son was very, very fussy, would not eat, tried but could not suck right, no sleep, no naps until he was 24 months thats when he started to take an hour nap during the day, and would wake twice in the night, still does gets up at night. HE is 12 with Asperger's syndrome. Mine was the quiet version unless he needed something (food, diaper change, etc)

Cried all the time in the hospital unless he was with me. At home Never cried for the first 3 weeks. From 3 weeks to 3 months sever colic, from 3-6 months irritable most of the day from 6-12 months back to happy most all the time. At age 2 1/2 it all started with the meltdowns and the biting(himself and us). It got worse from 3-4. 5 was bad. He is better right now at 6 but we started him on Pro EFA. I hope it lasts.

Hi all-
My 12 mo old son is in the process of being diagnosed with an ASD and I wonder what your experiences were with your child as an infant, young toddler??

My DS basically cried every moment he was awake from birth to 6 months old.. He would scream! He was very tough, basically impossible to comfort or soothe and had trouble falling asleep, staying asleep. We had to very vigorously bounce, swing, sway him to get him to fall asleep. ( I am now figuring out he is sensory seeking in the vestibular and proprioceptive areas).

When wakes from sleeping, he usually cries/gets very upset. He still sometimes wakes in the middle of the night and cannot self soothe... gets very upset. If I go to him and pick him up from the crib, he actually gets worse and freaks out. He seems to want to be asleep but cannot calm back down.

It got better around 6 mos but DS still cried alot and basically fussed/was not content most of the day.

He is still this way. He has low muscle tone, so has not been mobile until now( started crawling this week!!) and some of it is probably frustration or boredom. I actually have not seen a lot of improvement since he started moving this week..

But he whines or complains almost all day long, after 2 min on the floor by himself. He doesn't seem to be comforted by me and will not let you hold him unless you are carrying him somewhere.

Are your kids this way or the opposite?? So many people seem to describe their babies with an ASD as quiet, sort of calm. Why is my son so miserable all the time?? Could this be a symptom of autism? (We have already ruled out medical issues... no illnesses, ear infections, reflux is controlled...)

Just wondering if this sort of 'behavior' is common or a symptom of autism or if I should search for something else...

thanks for your thoughts,
denise

My daughters were like that. I've also heard the calm, quiet variety. Comes in all flavors, I'm sure.