I haven’t posted in here since my June ‘21 baby was born, but I’m curious about other people’s experience with a baby a similar age. By baby just turned 1 and had his 12 month pediatrician appointment. He has always been a little behind with physical milestones as compared to what I’ve seen other babies his age doing and according to Google. I’ve tried not to put too much stock into that, and people have always reassured me babies do things in their own time. Now at 12 months, my kiddo still doesn’t scoot, kneel, or crawl. He can’t even get up on hands and knees when on his tummy. He is however trying to walk, he can stand with support and walk his feet if we’re holding onto him, but can’t walk along furniture or bounce while holding onto something. He is attempting to pull to stand but can’t quite do it yet. I’ve been so focused on physical milestones, I didn’t realize he was also behind in communication skills. When we went to the pediatrician, she asked about communication skills and was apparently not happy with his progress. She immediately started talking about autism. She never said flat out she thinks my son is autistic—but she was talking about autistic babies, what it may look like at this age (and comparing it to my baby) and saying we can evaluate him at 18 months. It really felt like she was trying to say she thinks he’s autistic without saying it outright. Communication wise, he does not say any words yet. He babbles “dadadada” a lot but I don’t think he knows what dada means. The pediatrician was concerned he doesn’t have any words yet, and also that he doesn’t play “with” us, as in he doesn’t try to show us things or hand us toys. He doesn’t really respond to commands, and it doesn’t seem like he understands us when we point things out either. Otherwise, he has great eye contact, he smiles at us all the time and plays peekaboo. His fine motor skills are excellent.

I’m not sure what to think here and I guess I’m looking to see what other babies this age are doing, to see if he’s really as far off as this pediatrician apparently thinks he is.