advise needed please……

[Anonymous]

#4264

Hi all,My name is Michael, I serve with the British army in Germany and I’m married to Rosh. We have two daughters, aged 13 and 2. At the moment, we are having issues with my youngest, Ellie. She is 2 years and 9 months old. She is showing little signs of talking and shows little response if any when called or spoken too. Ellie was born in 2008, in Germany, with no difficulties what so ever during child birth. 3 weeks later I deployed to Iraq, leaving Rosh with the kids in Germany. 5 months into my tour I learned that Ellie had been rushed to hospital. Basically, Rosh had put Ellie down to sleep at 7 o'clock as usual. At ten o'clock, Rosh went up stairs to say good night to my eldest, whilst doing this, she checked on Ellie. She saw that Ellie had lost all colour, had a faint pulse and faint breathing and was non responsive. She was taken to hospital and had a MRI scan, CCG scan, blood samples, blood oxygen levels and constantly monitored for her stay in hospital. On my return home a couple of days after this; she got released from hospital with the diagnosis of near miss sudden infant death syndrome. For the next 6 months, Ellie had to sleep with the pads on her torso, monitoring her breathing and heart rate and a blood oxygen sensor on her toe. At the age of one, the sensors were no longer needed; we substituted them with an angel care monitor. By the age of two, Ellie had had visits to a deep sleep unit and was given the all clear.Since this episode, Ellie has had what she wants, i.e. TV on demand and her select food, this being chicken nuggets and smiley faces.At the age of 12 months old, Ellie was coming out with the normal baby words like mama, dada and general recognisable baby babble. This never progressed and by the age of 18 months she had stopped talking all together. At this point Rosh saw a paediatrician who, because of the ongoing situation with the near miss SIDS, passed it down as Ellie being a late developer. Since this appointment she has had numerous referrals to speech therapists, hearing specialists, further blood samples and has a key worker assigned to her for two days a week whilst at nursery.Rosh began to read online about conditions that would effect a toddler’s development. She read that low iron levels could affect this and looking into Ellies diet with horror, coupled with the recent blood test results showing that Ellies iron levels were low; Rosh did a complete turnaround of her diet to include high iron foods with a well balanced diet. The TV got switched off for good and while Ellie is awake, she has full attention and productive play.because of Ellies age and lack of co-operation, the hearing specialist could not perform a full exam on her but due to the fact Ellie responds to words like 'ice cream' and really low level noise from games etc, he determined that hearing lose was unlikely. He also mentioned that we should get her checked out for autism. This is not the first time this has been mentioned to us; doctors in the past have mentioned this, along with other learning disabilities. My mother, who is a nurse, has also told us to explore this route. I know it’s unusual for me to be writing this on here, but at present, we have to wait a further month for a paediatric appointment as she is on leave back in the UK.Ellie remains in her own little world, with limited engagement with the other kids at nursery. She also hums tunes she hears from her sister or from her nursery rhyme CD in the car. She constantly selects when she wants to listen and only engages when she wants. She can talk, as I have heard her say the words Peppa pig when she is talking to her toys. Ellie has also learnt the alphabet and can stack her letter blocks in order starting from z and working backwards. she can also count to 26, but this is more of a grunting sound, if her number blocks are arranged in order, and I mix a couple up, she will 'grunt' the numbers until she gets to the mixed up ones and then rearrange them back in order.I am due to deploy yet again in the next few months so really need to ensure Ellie is going down the correct path of care. Any suggestions or advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated as we seem to be bouncing off specialists with no outcome. I realise this is just a discussion group and the person who I need to discuss this with is Ellies paediatrician but I would also like advise on what to ask or suggest to her.Yours, Mick

[Anonymous]

#5599

Hi,Yes the paediatrician is the best person but from what you have said i would look into autism, also look at The Autism Trust as they are very useful and the national autismtic society. Your daughter may just be a bit delayed in her development as it sounds like she has gone through alot in her young life. Id recommend keeping a daily log of her achievements and milestones.Good LuckCatherine RNLD

[Author]

Posts