I'm shocked at how many stories I read about parents being told that their children knows they are fine, when they aren't. As a mom, I know how powerful our instincts are. Here's one mom's story about how her son was diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder, from iparenting.com:

"I would write things like, Matthew smiled at me today, Matthew sat up, Matthew held a spoon, Matthew crawled," Ain says. "... And then one day at 10 months old, he stopped talking and was very aloof and non-responsive to his name. Basically, he was regressing instead of progressing forward. In all of the books and magazines I had, I couldn't find any information that could tell me what was wrong with my child."

Ain called the pediatrician several times, explaining that Matthew just wasn't acting like himself. The pediatrician assured her that everything was OK, and that she was overreacting and being a neurotic parent. Ain persisted, calling other medical professionals because she knew there was something wrong with her child and that he needed help. She called several top neurologists in New York City, and they informed Ain that they rarely evaluated children younger than 2 years old.

"At 15 months, we flew to Florida and I found a top professor who was a behavioral analyst, and she evaluated him and diagnosed him with a form of autism, known as Pervasive Development Disorder (PDD)," Ain says. "When we came back to New York we knew we had a child with PDD, which we knew very little about."

What's your story? We'd love to hear it.