We saw the Paediatrician today.

Both Jeremy and I have prepared ourselves for the worst but it wasn't as bad as we would have thought. We spent about 1 hour and 30 minutes with Dr Irani this morning. Started off with answering some questions and then he examined Alex, the usual, ear scan, chest, stomach and reflexes. All of which seemed normal and then he interacted with Alex asking him to stack up blocks, name body parts, understanding of verbs etc. Whilst doing all these, Alex displayed all his hand flapping, teeth grinding and quirkiness.

Dr Irani explained that some normal children may display some autistic symptoms but they will eventually lose them as they mature. Alex displayed all the signs of autistic mannerism. He said that Alex definitely falls in the autism spectrum but on the mildest scale. He said that he is confident that Alex will eventually talk and attend mainstream education. He is highly intelligent and can do or understand more than his peers. He lacks social interaction and I can't recall the actual term he used but something along the line of socially impaired. He will give us a thorough report and then meet in four weeks time to discuss in detail after all the other assessments have been completed. The people at Margaret Wells are very attentive and very positive as well.

When he told us that Alex tick all the boxes for autism spectrum on the mannerism aspect, I felt nothing. Because I knew that he will eventually talk and that he is getting help from people who knows what to do. Dr Irani did mentioned that a lot of Autistic children on the mild scale grows into normal adult and one cannot actually tell that he is autistic. I just hope what he said was true but somehow deep down inside, I know Alex is not. We have another appointment to see another Paediatrician next week and a second opinion would be welcomed.

Based on an hour and a half is not sufficient as Dr Irani said and as parents we know him better than anyone as he may not always co-operate with the assessors.

He excelled in gross motor skills but fine motor skills impaired. Socially, he does not always engage with an eye contact and he excelled intellectually.

To us, Alex will always be our little baby - we will love him and move mountains for him. No label will change that.