Walking on toes all the time?Ask a Question!

Iridescent - posted on 03/26/2010

Exactly. It's totally appropriate to be concerned about a child. It is not appropriate to blame the parents for a disorder with no known cause. Parents of autistic children love their children very much, and provide so much more care than other parents even realize. We have two autistic children, and three without autism. Did we cause it? Nope. Did we help them improve? Sure did. And I found some info about society as a whole that makes me amazed and proud of my children with autism (not that I wasn't before, but now I'm in awe). Autism just IS.

Dree - posted on 03/26/2010

Amy Lea...I'm on your side with this. My son is nearly 15 yrs old now. He is on the Autism Spectrum. My partner does not like fish...therefore she did not eat it while pregnant. So tell me where else he happened to get it from??? Maybe there are a few people in here who seriously need to consider educating themselves on Autism before they decide to just spit out comments.

Dree - posted on 03/26/2010

Hope this helps you out a bit. Maybe print this off and high light the areas that you notice while watching the child. Print off another cop for the parents to highlight what they notice. Most parents these days are open to suggestion especially from their child care providor



Autism - Symptoms



Social interactions and relationships. Symptoms may include:

Significant problems developing nonverbal communication skills, such as eye-to-eye gazing, facial expressions, and body posture.

Failure to establish friendships with children the same age.

Lack of interest in sharing enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people.

Lack of empathy. People with autism may have difficulty understanding another person's feelings, such as pain or sorrow.



Verbal and nonverbal communication. Symptoms may include:

Delay in, or lack of, learning to talk. As many as 40% of people with autism never speak.1

Problems taking steps to start a conversation. Also, people with autism have difficulties continuing a conversation after it has begun.

Stereotyped and repetitive use of language. People with autism often repeat over and over a phrase they have heard previously (echolalia).

Difficulty understanding their listener's perspective. For example, a person with autism may not understand that someone is using humor. They may interpret the communication word for word and fail to catch the implied meaning.



Limited interests in activities or play. Symptoms may include:

An unusual focus on pieces. Younger children with autism often focus on parts of toys, such as the wheels on a car, rather than playing with the entire toy.

Preoccupation with certain topics. For example, older children and adults may be fascinated by video games, trading cards, or license plates.

A need for sameness and routines. For example, a child with autism may always need to eat bread before salad and insist on driving the same route every day to school.

Stereotyped behaviors. These may include body rocking and hand flapping



Symptoms during childhood

Symptoms of autism are usually noticed first by parents and other caregivers sometime during the child's first 3 years. Although autism is present at birth (congenital), signs of the disorder can be difficult to identify or diagnose during infancy. Parents often become concerned when their toddler does not like to be held; does not seem interested in playing certain games, such as peekaboo; and does not begin to talk. Sometimes, a child will start to talk at the same time as other children the same age, then lose his or her language skills. They also may be confused about their child's hearing abilities. It often seems that a child with autism does not hear, yet at other times, he or she may appear to hear a distant background noise, such as the whistle of a train.

Kate - posted on 03/26/2010

Thanks for the feedback everyone. When I tell this child to walk on their feet, they will and they were the first to talk before everyone, they make eye contact as well. This child was born with torticoulis and I've always told the mother that they would have trouble eating their bottle and that I think it might be reflux. I've voiced this concern to her several times, so now 2 yrs. later she tells me she thinks her child might have reflux. UGH! Anyway it's nice to know that these other behaviors are ok. Thanks

Janine - posted on 03/25/2010

Walking on tiptoes can also be a sign of mild cerebal palsy. This is especially true if the child was a premie. You can try laying him/her down and trying to flex his foot to a flat position. If the muscles feel tight, it seems painful or are difficult to flex, he may need to be evaluated. If none of the above it's probably just a normal stage of development that some kids go through and others don't.

Karen - posted on 03/25/2010

In my experience( 25 yrs early childhood care and ed) this is normal for some children. keep the lines of communication open with mom and document if you can when it started these behaviorrs will either change or become constant and mom will take kido for testing and need that info.

Iridescent - posted on 03/25/2010

Omg talk about ignorance. You do not make your child autistic, and when you have an autistic child, you deal with the symptoms. If that means you feed them and put them in pull-ups, that's what you do. I have no doubt it's not from lack of caring about her son. I can see why you "had" this friend and don't currently "have" them.

Alyssa - posted on 03/25/2010

I've had friend who walk on their toes but they dont act like that. I think it could be autisum. I know a boy who has autisum he doesnt talk very well and he take forever to eat. His mom babys him and I thinks she makes it worse. She spoon feeds him and lets him wear pulls ups and hes almost 5. She hasnt even tried to potty train him at all. She did it to him. She ate fish every meal when she was pregnant. Then she said it was the shots the doctor gave him it had mercury in it. I told her yeah that was it, it had nothing to do with you ate fish all the time that has mercury in it.

Iridescent - posted on 03/25/2010

Walking on toes is a separate issue than the rest; the fix is high top shoes. Honest. One of my kids also did this a lot and the specialists told me that is all it is, although an exam wouldn't hurt. Some kids parrot, some eat slow, and some just absorb their surroundings rather than playing in them. At 2.5 years, it's hard to say it's any one specific thing and may be fully normal.

Gemma - posted on 03/25/2010

My Daughter used to tiptoe all the time and copy me and take forever to eat, I never thought there was anything wrong with her. She only took so long to eat because she was so intrigued in everything around her. My son also tiptoes at the moment. Every child is different, the child you watch may just be a watcher taking in all of his surroundings and be shy, maybe he is missing his parent. Perhaps you should ask his Mum how he is with her?

Melissa - posted on 03/25/2010

Maybe he's autistic. He is showing signs of it. I don't know about how you'd tell the parents unless they are the type to open up to things like that but there is definitely something wrong.