A Trip to the Doctor

Today I took Ethan to the doctor to get his 1 year shots. Yup, he's almost 2 and he still hadn't had them. The reason he didn't get them when he was a year old, like most kids, is because I'm scared of the whole "autism rumor," that after the 2 year vaccine, kids (particularly boys) get autism, and the vaccinations are the cause. Many people say "we all had vaccinations and we're fine," but apparantly the amount of vaccinations we received by the time we were one, is half the amount our kids recieve , so this is one of the reasons people think it causes autism. To make a long story short, this is why we decided to spread out Ethan's vaccinations. They weren't supposed to be spread out quite this far, but between moving and having another baby, this is just the way it went. Actually, I scheduled and cancelled them THREE other times, but not for any other reason than fear.

Now the reason I've been a little fearful of autism is because Ethan has some small, but maybe significant signs of it. One of the signs is that kids with autism don't answer questions, they just repeat the questions. For example, if you say "do you want juice?" they don't answer yes, they repeat "juice" if they want it. Ethan does this, he does not ever answer yes. However, he does answer "no" and he does answer questions such as "where is your blanket?" He'll look all around for it until he finds it, then say "there it is!" Autistic children will often just repeat your question. Another thing is that autistic kids will be really gifted in one area, often numbers. Ethan can count to 10 right now, but the area he's very advanced in is talking. By the time he was 15 months, he said over 25 words and right now can speak in 5 and 6 word sentences and asks "what is that" and "how come." He is only 21 months, and most 2 year olds aren't at this level yet, especially boys. Finally, a symptom is lacking social skills. Ethan is becoming more social, but I have noticed that compared to other kids his age, he's not quite as interactive with other kids. He often just plays and other kids follow him around. This being said, he does notice other kids and will smile at them, and he'll smile and talk to adults while I'm shopping. In the mall he'll wave and say "hi Santa" to the Santa. The way I notice it is that he won't laugh with other kids when they laugh or try to get his attention. But maybe this is his personality. We'll find out over the next year I guess.

I told my concerns to the doctor today and he said he didn't see any major warning signs, and to keep an eye on him over the next year. If his speech plateaus and doesn't improve, that would be a sign, but he is learning new words and sentences on a daily basis. I'm not too worried about it because he is very friendly and isn't scared in crowds. If anything, it might be very mild. So there's my dilemma with immunizations.

As for how the shot went, he SCREAMED when the nurse tried to measure his head, and SCREAMED when she measured him on the table, so I was quite nervous to see how the actual needle would go. Since the doctor and I were talking for quite a while and Ethan really liked him, he didn't even care when the doc was getting his arm ready, and when he got the actual shot, he just said "ehhh" and didn't care. What a goof! I guess he just didn't like the nurse (and I can see why, lol!) The doctor was very impressed with Ethan's talking and kept mentioning it, but I don't think he understands that I talk with Ethan ALL day, EVERY day. We don't have many entertainment options, so we talk. AND, Ethan LOVES talking and NEVER shuts up! Seriously, he doesn't ever stop. Chris took him for a walk yesterday and said he talked the whole walk about everything he saw and kept saying "thank you daddy." What a guy! Well this is getting long enough, bye!