Matthew has autism!

Matthew is my first baby. He was diagnosed with failure to thrive when he was 9 months old, and as of today still is. The doctor we were seeing at that time tried to blame it on me. She told me I wasn't feeding him enough. We ended up moving (military) and got a new doctor. He said that Matthew was just small and not to worry about it. Matthew's speech also wasn't developing much, but we thought he would talk when he was ready. We moved once again a few months before Matthew turned two. This time we were seeing a military pediatrician who was fresh out of school. She was very concerned about his weight (did not blame it on me), and his delay of speech. She put in a referral for speech therapy and put in a referral to get evaluated by a feeding team at military hospital 2.5 hours away. Well, we started speech therapy in January of 2010. We didn't get in to see the feeding team until March 2010. The feeding team consisted of a Speech Therapist, Social Worker, Psychologist, and a Developmental Pediatrician. The Developmental Pediatrician took us into a room and wanted to evaluate and observe Matthew. The doctor listened to his heart, checked his ears, looked in his eyes. Then he just sat and observed him and asked him questions. The doctor stepped out of the room to consult with the rest of the feeding team. They brought us back to the room and the doctor told us "I think your son might have autism". I started crying. No one wants anything to be wrong with their child. He talked to us about it and gave us a bunch of information on it. He wanted to see us back for a more in depth evaluation so he could test him for autism. We went back in May for the evaluation. There were a lot of things Matthew couldn't do that the doctor tried to get him to do. After about an hour and a half, the doctor knew. He told us that Matthew did have autism. He told us that Matthew would have a great success with ABA (applied behavioral analysis) therapy. He told us Matthew had moderate autism. It was hard to put a label on what kind of autism Matthew has because of his age. We were also told that we would have to move because the closest ABA therapy was 2.5 hours away. Our small town didn't have that. We were relieved that Matthew got the autism diagnosis, because we found out why he was so underweight. He was given a behavioral feeding disorder diagnosis along with the autism. His speech therapist looked up ways to incorporate some ABA techniques in with her sessions. She has worked wonders with Matthew! At his diagnosis back in May, he was only able to say about 10 words consistantly. He is now using 3-4 word sentences. We will be moving in a week to Arizona so Matthew can receive ABA therapy. I am very sad that we have to leave his speech therapist behind. I feel that Matthew has progressed so much because she cares so much. She is an amazing person! Matthew will also start school after Thanksgiving since he will turn 3 Nov. 20. I'm so worried he won't get what he needs from the public school system. There is a school for children with autism in the Phoenix area, but it's way too expensive for us. I have thankfully met someone on facebook that has a husband stationed at the same base we will be moving to. Her oldest son has autism. It will be so nice to meet someone that goes through the same thing I do. She is going to give me her son's ABA therapists information, and she even let me know what developmental pediatrician to go to. Matthew will need to go back for another evaluation in May. We think he will end up with an Aspergers diagnosis since he is able to randomly read things. He has an incredible memory. He remembers things an average 3 year old would not. When we go to San Antonio, he knows we are in San Antonio because he remembers what it looks like. When we go to visit my mom, as soon as we turn down her street he knows we are almost to "Gigi's house". He is so incredibly smart! We are still working on trying to get him to gain weight, but we aren't super worried about it anymore. In March 2010, he was at 20lbs, and now he is 35 months old and finally at 25lbs.