u/osebag

Sorry for the long read but a tldr is at the bottom

At my son's 2.5-year well-check, we saw a Nurse Practitioner (CRNP DNP) instead of his doctor. She did a 5-second oral check, wrote his mouth was 'clear,' and then blamed his speech delay on autism. She also apparently told the other nurses in the office that my son had autism. As I was leaving one of the nurses who helped give him a shot said oh my son is autistic too. And when I asked her why would you think he's autistic she could not give me an answer.

She then referred me to a specialist and ignored everything that I said about the fact that he had swallowing and latching issues and I suggested that he might have a tongue tie.

I didn't mind getting my son a evaluation for autism. However before I could even get on the list to do that I took him to a pediatric dentist to immediately identified a severe lip and tongue tie.

Now every time I have to interact with his new pediatrician's office... Which also has a nurse practitioner she keeps talking about autism. Our last visit I informed her that he is in occupational therapy and sees a speech language pathologist weekly who has assessed his abilities as exceeding expectations given the circumstances.

However she keeps pushing this idea that he's autistic simply because he does not like the doctor's office and refuses to speak to her. Even though he will speak directly to me in the office.

Outside of that she never gives me any information on why she believes this other than he doesn't seem to have enough words in his vocabulary currently. When I pointed out he has to learn how to articulate and he has had full conversations with me and others and has limited access to other children because I am currently unemployed and he is not in daycare she completely ignores that and mentions the fact that she has a 3-year-old at home.

Additionally I mentioned to her that he is on the list to be assessed for autism but based on the criteria for autism he doesn't seem to meet any of the requirements other than speech issues which stem from his tongue tie and lip tie which have recently been corrected a few months ago.

Currently I am looking for a new pediatrician's office that does not make patients see a nurse practitioner. This has been an exceptionally frustrating experience. Aside from constantly being dismissed for objective issues that would affect someone's speech.

Im finding that when I go to specialist they identify what I initially thought was the correct understanding of the issue e.g. pediatric dentist identifying severe lip and tongue tie, speech therapist noting that speech can be delayed due to said tongue/lip tie, and occupational therapist who has questioned why he is being referred for autism when he does not have any other symptoms.

I just find that the majority of my experiences with pediatric nurse practitioners has been abysmal. They are quick to refer children to different programs but when asked for further context or reasoning which I will have to provide to the programs they can't tell me anything and instead get defensive.

Has anyone had any experience like this?

TLDR:

Two different pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NPs) have completely ignored my son's severe, structurally verified tongue and lip ties (which were later confirmed and surgically released by a pediatric dental surgeon). Instead, they used a standard office questionnaire and his situational clinic anxiety to label him as a "medium autism risk" on his chart. His weekly Speech-Language Pathologist and Occupational Therapist both say his delay is strictly mechanical/rehabilitative and that he shows zero signs of autism.