There were issues with Jacob before he was even born. Not autism related, but more physical. In the ultrasounds before he was born, when they checked his organs, it was soon found that there was something wrong with one of his kidneys. He was diagnosed, in utero, with multicystic dysplastic kidney disease. In laymans terms, one of his kidneys was covered in small cysts. One obviously worked correctly, but we didn't know about the other til he was born. It turned out the other kidney did not function at all. In hindsight, it was a good thing, because if the malformed kidney HAD been working, there is likelihood of it pushing infection into the other kidney, and that would cause life threatening problems. Luckily, that did not happen. As of now, the nonfunctional kidney has been absorbed into the body, and the other one has grown larger to take over for the both of them, and he hadn't had any problems with them so far.
He was born a few weeks early, because of my wife having gestational diabetes, and having high blood pressure and lots of agony from a very large and active baby. My wife described her insides being used as a trampoline. Unfortunately, he had problems breathing a little when he was born, but they got better quickly. He did not tend to cry much like most babies, and actually growled and grunted a lot instead. He's always have gastrointestinal problems, as many people with autism have. And he the way he stared in a trance at lights (and still does), there were already signs that he was different.
He had a lot of difficulty learning to walk, and never crawled at all. Even pulling himself up, it was like he was afraid and balance was very difficult. His big brother talked very early, but Jacob only made grunts and growls. He also writhed his hands together, violently, and would suck and chew on his hand. Not fingers, not thumb. His entire hand. In his mouth. All the way.
He had extremely obvious symptoms of autism, and as soon as he got old enough, we put him into the Tennessee Early Intervention program, giving him speech therapy and occupational therapy. We already felt guilt for not realizing sooner that Joshua was autistic, and we were not going to wait around until it was too late to give Jacob the early help he needed.
Today, Jacob walks pretty well, and his occupational therapy is really paying off. His core strength and balance is extremely good. You should see the acrobatics he does balancing and holding himself up with nothing but his shoulders on a ball and his feel propped up on a table, using nothing but his abdominal muscles. It's unbelievable.
Still, he does not speak, and still grunts and growls. Although sometimes he will say one word or so, he has never spoken more than 5 words, ever. He does have a sparkling laugh that is adorable, and sometimes a musical tone to his grunts and cooing. Heck, he even grunts out Nickelodeon intro music, perfectly. He slows improves day by day. We've been giving him plenty of flax seed for omega 3, and probiotics as well. I believe they are actually doing some good.
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