auntie, breezy, skittles etc

dar12

I have a question

Did any of you go to ./were you referred to a pediatric neurologist ? We are very happy with our doctors etc so I'm not questioning, just curious if it's more common to be referred or not.

As auntie predicted my husbands cousin asked his mother if ds has seen a pediatric neuro.. which I know was his way of saying did anyone notice he doesn't respond to his name every time, which was fine.

Anyway if you did go did they do MRI etc. What was the process, if you didnt did you consider it.

Thanks!

Glendi2.0

just posting so I can check back; DD#2 is scheduled to see a pedi. neurologist in August in additional to a dev'tal psychiatrist next week, and I'm not sure what to expect...

breezy0629

I never had anyone refer DS until I asked for it. Once we started figuring things out a bit better and were looking forward to making the transition from EI to Preschool services, I really wanted a professional diagnosis to support his needs to go along with what the EI did a year ago.

Our appt isn't until July 15, it is with a Developmental Pediatrician... but at a Neurology Practice. I am not certain the difference. I went with who the local Autism Society highly recommended/took my insurance & she is a Develp. Pedi.

I'm looking forward to any other responses as well.... I'd love to know what to expect. Right now, I am just making sure I have all documentation/examples/concerns in hand on that day so it will be a beneficial appointment.  

bugmommy

We were referred to a ped. neurologist and it ended up being the only thing my incompetent ped. did that helped us.  The only thing that the nero. did was a C.A.R.S worksheet (asking me questions and observing him for only 1 visit) but since she gave him a diagnosis as PDD-NOS it was the magic key to have our insurance recognize his condition and cover his therapy.  Even she stated that while she was happy to give him that diagnosis to make sure that he got the help he needed, he was borderline.  We didn't qualify for any sort of paid therapy through EI due to DH's income so this was a god send.  I know I shouldn't complain, we are very blessed to have a good income, but at $300+ per week, therapy all on our own would have been pretty difficult.

skittles_123

We weren't ever referred to anyone, we did it on our own. But, we saw a developmental pediatrician. My second cousin's dh is a highly regarded pediatric neurologist at Northwestern in the Chicago area, and we did talk to him over the phone about ds once. We spoke to him after we had seen the developmental pediatrician. He didn't see the need to really do any additional work/testing on ds, as he thought what the pediatrician did with ds was sufficient in his case. But again, it is a case by case thing. It may not hurt to talk to your relative and get his expert opinion on things, as much as you may not want to. He is a valuable resource to have in the family.

Karalyn44

Jackson has a consult scheduled with a pediatric neurologist on July 17. We were not referred by anyone; our reason for scheduling is the same reason that bugmommy mentioned. We have coverage for ASD diagnosis and services (ST, OT, PT, ABA, etc) through our health insurance, but they (obviously) require a medical diagnosis to get access to that coverage. The only "diagnosis" that Jackson has received is through the school system. Our local CARD director recommended a few different drs and centers that we could go to, and this dr happened to have the first available opening.

Thanks for the other replies-- it helps to know beforehand which additional tests we should be pushing for and which ones to verify the necessity of before proceeding.