How We Discovered Our Child Has Autism by Kamau Austin. Post 2.

In my first post in this series I discussed the hindsight is 20/20 revelation that my daughter is autistic. It was when she was first born how she was hypersensitive to light, and responded really harshly to her first rough washing from a nurse.

You can read the first post in this series here: First Autism Post

After my daughter was brought home from the hospital she seemed very mellow for an hour or two. Then as I remember it -- all hell broke loose.

My wife's efforts to feed her naturally and console her didn't calm her constant crying. Actually it was like my daughter was yelling at the top of her lungs. And she wouldn't stop.

Not only wouldn't she go to sleep on a regular schedule - she really had no normal sleep pattern at all. My daughter would sleep 30 minutes and then stay up at 6 hours at a time. Then go to sleep another 30 minutes and stay up 6 or 7 more hours.

At first we thought lack of sleep was something normal for most parents. It took a while, we had heard, for babies to sleep through the night. But my wife said "there is no way this can be normal"! It can't be humanly possible for a baby to only sleep 30 minutes to an hour at a time then stay up 6 to 8 hours to paraphrase her concerns.

I told my wife that she was already starting in with her negativity and dismissed her concerns. However, we now know that autistic children many times sleep much less than the average child.

This type of behavior went on for about 15 - 18 months. It turned me and my wife into zombies who couldn't function. I had to let go of my business at the time and try to learn Internet design and marketing skills. Needless to say this was on of the most challenging things in my life, becoming a parent and later a caretaker of an autistic child.

In my next post we will discover more early indications that my daughter is autistic.

Kamau Austin is a stay-at-home dad and Internet marketer who is the parent of an autistic daughter.