. By 18 months old my youngest was showing obvious signs of autism, and he was diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder when he was 3.
My first two pregnancies were uneventful but I had diet-controlled gestational diabetes with my third child. Throughout that pregnancy I was constantly told that I was "two weeks too big for dates" and that I'd have a big baby. A scan at 35 weeks showed that the baby was at the expected size, and 5 weeks later I gave birth to a 6lb bag of bones. My son had the cord wrapped around his neck 4 times, and while he didn't suffer oxegen deprivation I think that he wasn't getting enough nutrients during the last weeks of pregnancy and didn't develop properly. He's now 10 and is still a bag of bones, and though he was constantly sick and weak as a baby and toddler he's now healthy and strong, despite his small size. With his level of autistic spectrum disorder I doubt he'll ever be able to live independently, but he's made tremendous progress from where he was during those awful toddler years where he'd throw a massive tantrum if anyone so much as looked at him, never mind spoke to him.
And yes, might as well follow the metaphor trough 
