Concerned mother discovers child's 'autism' is oddly caused by family dog

Toddler's disrupted sleep patterns causes mother to speculate on autism.

A concerned mother joined a series in search for a diagnosis as to whether her child has autism, because of the three-year-old boy's violent temper and tantrums. Having one older child suffering from the condition, Robyn, the mother, is afraid that the younger child may have the same condition and ultimately be branded as "naughty" at school. However, it was revealed that the child isn't autistic but has sleeping problems because of the family dog.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - Robyn shared instances where Billy's behavior was so out of control that he threw his bike at her, busting open her lip.

She noted other signs that could be autism, like love lining up his toys and having problems going to sleep with trouble winding down. "Billy will finally give in about 11, 12 o'clock but he will just keep getting up God knows how many times in the night," the 21-year-old mom from Monmouthshire shared.

As Billy grows up with older brother Aaron, diagnosed with autism, their mother began to speculate the same thing was occurring with her younger son until they monitored his sleep patterns.

What they found was the family dog stealing his pillow each night, causing Billy's sleep to be broken. Because of this constant disruption, Billy suffers from the delayed sleep phase syndrome - a disorder where sleep is delayed two or more hours past the conventional bedtime, according to the Telegraph UK.

With help from the doctors on the Channel 4 series "Born Naughty?," it was observed that Billy is distracted after the dog steals his pillow.

"It's no wonder with his behavior that sometimes he just erupts like a volcano. Sleep is vital for small children," said sleep expert Debs Sugden, as she observed the patterns and scenes from the video footage of Billy's sleep.

One of the doctors, Dr. Ravi Jayaram commended the little boy's aptitude in language, saying that he has "tremendous imagination," but it isn't linked necessarily to autism.

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