Completely and utterly fobbed off!!

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So I took Jack to my GP today.

She didnt even LOOK at him!! !! !

I told her all the things that Ive mentioned on here previously and all I got was 'well he cant be diagnosed till he is 5'

So I said, are you trying to tell me that my son could go another 3 and half years POSSIBLY with Autism and nothing is going to be done. And her response was, 'weeelll, when he starts pre-school things will be picked up then if somethings not right, but hes still too young and the stages of developement at this age are just too broad'

She didnt even check for one of the most basic signs, eye contact.

Well, me and Jacks dad are separated, but have come together on this one. We are going back tomorrow to see a different GP. We are going together.

I am also going to see a Health Visitor on Thursday.

x

Oh dear! When I saw this thread title I suspected it might be from you. I knew you were going today.

Are you in the UK? I'm in Scotland.

From the information you've given about your son, and my own son's habits at that age I definately think he may be autistic and most definately should be assessed.

Contact NAS (the National Autistic Society) if you are in the UK, explain what is happening, what your GP said and find out what your rights are in relation to this.

GPs are not experts, but hold the key to referrals. I think you should be able to push for a referral to the Community Paediatrician at this stage. It was this person who did the first assessment of my son and she referred him for autism assessment and to Speech and Language Therapy.

How helpful your Health Visitor is will depend entirely on what kind of person they are, and how experienced, open-minded they are. I spoke to mine about my son, whom he'd never seen because he'd not long started. At the time, hand flapping and head banging were concerning the school, my son was 5 by then, and the HV admitted he hadn't a clue, BUT that he'd look into it and find out who WAS the right person to speak to.

NAS first, and also I think there are patients charters and other information about your rights in the NHS on-line.

Don't be disheartened. That first step in going to the GP was a difficult and emotionally hard thing to do, which makes it all the more horrible when you get dismissed like that, but you keep going!

Thank you for the info. I just called NAS and lady on the phone said the way the GP was, was not right at all. She said most of the time it more their lack of knowledge about autism.

Back i go tomorrow with my CHAT and info etc.

Time for assertive Faye to come out!

Just imagine all of us here at WP standing behind you. Professionals know a lot, but they don't know everything. And a good professional is humbly open to learning something new and changing their opinion accordingly.

I am not knowledgeable about how this works in the UK, so bear that in mind.

That ,I would expect it is similar to the US in the sense that the first line pediatrician/GP is a crap shoot in terms of getting someone with real specific knowledge. The next level, will hopefully have someone more specifically knowledgeable. I do not know how rigid that 5 yr rule is, but I would also expect that their are other sub diagnosis possibilities. In other ,even if they are not comfortable giving out a a spectrum disorder until age 5, I bet you can get something for speech and/or sensory issues etc. That is probably what the hedging was about a school diagnosis. You can probably get an "early" diagnosis that consists of subsets of autism without the umbrella diagnosis, or something.

I had exactly the same from my GP! I just began to mention the behaviour problems and the GP cut me off mid-sentence to say "We cant diagnose autism until the age of 7"...! !! I never mentioned autism once, just behavoural problems and hadn't even started to list them!

What I did was to go elsewhere, I spoke to the school, who pointed me in the direction of the school nurse, but was then told she was only in nursery class so wasn't under the school nurse. The I tried the health visitor, who referred me to the child development centre, who referred me to CAMHS who have referred me back to the child development centre so that they can refer me to Midlands psychology as none of the above deal with ASDs......... OMG! Its a year down the line but we are getting closer to a diagnosis.

Pre-school was equally dismissive, they are not trained in spotting ASDs. I got told "we had an autistic boy once and your daughters nothing like him". Well obviously all children are different and equally all autistic children are different. It can present differently in boys and girls. You can't be that black and white about it, grrr! Also it was a large class and because it wasn't "proper" school they didnt do much real learning so I wouldnt expect them to see any signs.

I cant believe GPs can be so dismissive. Its exactly what you don't need at that time It makes you doubt yourself and think you are doing something wrong as a parent. Then it puts you off going anywhere else or mentioning it to anyone else incase you get the same treatment.

Dont let it put you off, keep at it and some one will listen! I have spoken to other mums and they all seem to say the same thing, a lot of mums have to go through 3 Drs to get it right. Its a long road but its worth doing to get understanding and help when the child needs it.

Good luck and keep at it!