Struggling with anxiety - 7 month old
I will preface this by saying that I definitely think I have a level of postnatal anxiety/depression, which has been pretty intense since my son was about 2 months old. He is now bang on 7 months. We are due to start Parent Infant Psychotherapy soon but I’m struggling to manage in the meantime. I am going mad with worry about his development. The things that make me think this are:
\- He does not babble at all. A couple of weeks ago he was saying ‘muh’, ‘mum’ and ‘muh muh’, but he has completely stopped now. He has never made another consonant sound that I’ve heard, and no reduplicated babbling. He does make sounds - shrieks, squeaks, squeaks, vowels - but he’s not the most vocal baby. A lot of his vocalisations sound like hums/moans/groans.
\- He has never blown a raspberry in his life
\- He doesn’t imitate facial expressions or actions. He sometimes imitates a sound but not often. He smiles back at us but not consistently.
\- He laughs but never belly laughs, more chuckles. Sometimes in response to games/us making him laugh, but mainly in response to being tickled.
\- I don’t think he responds to his name. If so it’s very hit and miss. Sometimes looks over when I call him, sometimes I can be right in his face saying his name over and over and it will be like he can’t hear me
\- He doesn’t reach out his arms to be picked up
\- He can’t roll back to tummy. On his tummy, he is still not very mobile and doesn’t like holding his head up. He is nowhere near crawling. He still has a mild head lag when pulled to sit.
\- His sleep is pretty bad. Usually half hour naps during the day. Waking every 2 hours to feed at night.
\- No separation anxiety
\- No particular response to me as his mum as far as I can tell
\- Very large head circumference relative to his body (100th centile vs 20th centile)
\- Seems unsettled a lot of the time. Grizzles a lot, not a ‘happy baby’. Not easy to take places. Cries in his pram unless asleep. Just not contented.
\- Puts everything - EVERYTHING - in his mouth all the time. Doesn’t play with toys, just mouths them. This morning he was on a swing in the playground and just wanted to chew the bar.
\- He often looks at people, smiles, then immediately looks away. He then looks back, then away again, as if it’s a game
\- Usually has one finger (index finger) on each hand pointing out
\- Flaps his arms when excited
Reassuring things:
\- Has been sitting unassisted since 6 months
\- Feeds well, has taken to solids brilliantly - almost too brilliantly, usually wants to eat and eat and is upset when food is finished
\- Often gazes at people adoringly
\- Goes down to sleep easily at night
\- Enjoys the bath
\- Sometimes looks between his toy and me
\- Seems to recognise familiar people
Can anyone shed any light on whether this sounds very worrying? Or within the realm of normal? He is under a paediatrician for his head size but I won’t be seeing them for another month and we are in the U.K. so options fairly limited.