Lead poisoning can have lasting effects on a child's health

Joel Davidson, MD, FAAP, medical director of the Lead Clinic at Akron Children's Hospital, discusses the dangers that lead paint - and other sources of this heavy metal - pose to the health of young children, and what parents can do to keep their kids safe. Originally aired on wakr.net on October 12, 2021. For more information about the Lead Clinic, visit www.akronchildrens.org/lead.

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Ok, I would love someone’s opinion on this.
My home was built on undeveloped land (all new pipes) in 2015. I have 3 daughters and have never once been informed of this test. I have a son now, at 18 months his pedi is recommending I get him evaluated for autism because he isn’t speaking much. I tell him I’m not worried about that, kids develop differently and I’m more concerned about how much he vomits. How much? Every single day of his life. At every single check up, I tell him that the vomiting continues daily, he says “normal, I suspect autism”. Asked him to point to a fish and my son pointed directly to a photo of a fish on the wall. 2-3 more visits and still vomiting and he is still saying “vomiting daily is normal, but I think he is high functioning autism”. He’s been in speech therapy and made a lot of progress. He just had his 3 year annual and after cleaning up the puke, I am not entertaining his autism theory and demanding testing for anything that can cause him to vomit daily. He wasn’t there and we seen a new nurse practitioner. I explained how I’m not accepting this is normal and sick and tired of him saying he is autistic solely based on a speech delay. The lab posted his results in the portal and he was tested for lead, his results said 1.4. Low? Of course. But because he ignored the complaints of excessive vomiting for years now, no way to know how long he has been exposed, could this be why he has a speech delay? Could he be damaged due to his doctor not taking the vomiting as a sign and just prescribing Zofran in high volumes? I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I feel he should know that development delay and vomiting are both signs and he never tested? Did he neglect proper care and preventative measures? I know you can’t speak for him, but as a doctor, if a patient has these symptoms, would you have tested him before 3 years old?