At 9 months old, I informed our pediatrician that I was concerned because Molly didn’t respond to her name or really turned when we talked to her, but I knew that she could hear. He replied with “the important thing is that she can hear, you have nothing to worry about”.
At 20 months old, I told the nurse practitioner that I was concerned about some behavioral issues Molly was having. She replied with “It’s very normal at this age, you have nothing to worry about”.
At 2 years old, I was concerned still about the length of temper tantrums we were having and the face that cutting her hair seemed to settle them. Again, I was told “you have nothing to worry about”
By 3 years of age, I said I was concerned that she didn’t tell us she was hungry or thirsty or communicating, wasn’t potty training, was screaming for hours on end. After spending 10 minutes with us, the pediatrician said “She’s not autistic, you have nothing to worry about”.
Only I did.
I had everything to worry about.
She is autistic. Her behaviors were not normal development and I was not being heard. So, I did what any sane person would do that was quickly losing their sanity and went somewhere else for help. But the words still rang loud “she’s not autistic”. I believed those words.
We spent 2 1/2 years in and out of therapies and met with multiple specialists, all who said the same thing, “I think she may be autistic”. I believed those words.
I was confused and honestly, I don’t think I wanted to know the answer. But we hit a turning point. We hit the point where we needed a diagnosis to know which therapy road to travel, which specialist to see and to get a lot of this covered by insurance. So, we went.
We traveled over an hour for several appointments to a wonderful pediatrician. One of the first to spend significant time with Molly. The one who gave us the answer we needed. The answer that Molly needed. The answer that seems to make our life harder, but ultimately will make our life easier.
She is autistic.
She is sensational.
We had everything to worry about.
sensationalfamily 
We went through the same thing! Our son was always verbal, and I think that kids that are speaking without issue are definitely overlooked by doctors when other areas are lagging for development. My son was 8 by the time he was diagnosed with ASD, and it took firing our pediatrician and getting a new doctor that would listen. Frustrating!
Our new family doctor is amazing along with our developmental pediatrician. Molly is almost 6, it’s been a long road.
I feel for you. It is a very long road, but it does get better. 😉
Thank you, “it gets better” seems to be my mantra a lot.
Its been even more harder to get a diagnosis since they changed the whole thing. Things that were counted as seperate things are now counted as ASD, and since the other things can be so different, theres now people who a) cant get a diagnosis b) can get support, but not the right support. Your post (they are called posts, arent they? Im new to wordpress) showed me that how even before it was all changed, it was hard to get a diagnosis. I guess where you live also contributes as well (both me and my brother found it easy enough to get both of our diagnosis’s, despite the years between both of the diagnosis’s). I think im just rambling now.