Re: hand washing

[Guest guest]

Your daughter is only 5 yoa. OCD is a brain disorder. Five yoa was too

young for my daughter, now 10 to be able to talk back to OCD without the help of

prozac. At her peak, she was handwashing 35-40 times a day. My daughter would

hold herself together at school and fall apart at home. She would literally

save up her compulsions until she was in a safe environment. She also would

try really hard not to wash when she went to her dad's for the weekend. Again,

she would save up her compulsions for me, because it was a safe environment.

The OCD was not my little girl. At 10 yoa she is on 60 mg prozac and hand

washing is not a problem. Every so often she gets stuck on an idea or a

behavior and has a hard time moving on or focusing on her work, but she's doing

great.

Also, changing clothes may drive some moms and dads crazy, but you know it's

only clothes. Loving your child and taking on the battles you must for their

safety are really the most important, I feel. So what if my child wears the

same clothes to bed that she wore all day, or would not take her socks off to

get into the bathtub. (BTW, the socks eventually did come off before the bath

was over). We need to help our children for the long term, the battle over

the socks one night won't matter next week, or tomorrow. in Houston

[Guest guest]

I forgot to add that Cetaphil gentle skin cleanser is was the only soap I had

in the house for several months for everyone in the family to use. This did

not make my daughter feel like she was different and it was good for everyone,

because at the time we lived in Iowa where the winters are cold. My daughter

had a small bottle in her bag at school to use when she needed, and we had

one in the car. The cleanser does not require water, but does not have any

alcohol like toweletts which causes the red, chapping. It's by Galderma and

can

be found in most Eckerds, Walgreens, Targets, etc. in Houston

[Guest guest]

I forgot that they moved to the Texas Medical Center last year. I'll have to

check into it. Thanks, in Houston

[Guest guest]

Hi, I sometimes see increased symptoms when my child is ill with cold or

flu. Other times not, so I am unsure whether the virus involved is

actually, physically affecting her brain in some way to increase symptoms,

or if the fact that we all have less " coping power " when ill explains this.

There is something called PITANDS which is a broader idea of infections

causing waxing OCD (vs. PANDAS which focuses on the strep bacteria solely.)

In any case my daughter's symptoms slowly return to their former, lower

level once the illness passes.

In any case when symptoms wax, it is time to step up ERP. Perhaps see if

she can wait five minutes before washing or changing her underwear, then

increase the time period. Sometimes to " kill " a compulsion you have to go

over a line you would never think of if OCD were not involved. For example,

not washing hands on purpose following toileting, touching armpits, or

whatever.

When my daughter was obsessed with the idea that she had leaked a bit into

her underwear and they were wet, I remember once I dumped a glass of water

on her bottom and said, yes, I think they are wet, maybe you should change.

She was surprised that I would do such a thing, but we ended up laughing

over this and it was a big step toward helping her move past focusing so

hard on the dampness of her undies. At age five I found I really had to

make exposures fun and interesting wherever possible.

At one point my daughter also had a long list of words that we edited from

our conversations because they triggered such anxiety/panic in her. At the

time dh and I did not understand that by doing this, we were just

reinforcing OCD but in fact her " banned word list " grew almost daily. For

her to get better, we slowly began using the words again, each time her

anxiety reaction was less and less, until finally we no longer needed to

edit our conversations around her. This also helped her be able to watch

TV, be comfortable in the classroom and so on where she (of course) had *NO*

control over what words might be spoken.

I hope your daughter is feeling better by now.

Take care,

Kathy R. in Indiana

----- Original Message -----

> My soon to be 5 yod is washing her hands so much more than she

> usually does. She started it a couple of weeks ago and it has

> increased. Her hands are red and sore. I got some special cream

> from Kay that we are using. But I need to get her to stop this

> compulsion. She touches the floor, her arm pit, anything she has to

> go wash her hands. She has also started changing her panties again

> multiple times a day (they are wet she says). She got up Sunday with

> a runny nose and cough, which has probably made it even worse now.

> She is doing better though as far as the runny nose and cough,

> whatever it was never really got her down sick. Which we can not use

> the word " sick " around her.

> We ran out of the soft soap in the bathroom, so she came into the

> kitchen to wash her hands and I was able to stop her from doing it.

> (She didn't need to wash them, I ask her why she was washing them). I

> think I will not keep any softsoap in the bathroom and just in the

> kitchen and then I can monitor and maybe try to stop her again

> washing them so much. Anyone have any other ideas or think this

> might work?

> I can see she is having a hard time " bossing back " the OCD lately. I

> don't know why, but she is not wanting to like she usually does.