Worried about the meltdowns

[Guest guest]

I'm listening to J., 8 years old, screaming in rage in his room. He bites

and scratches when he gets that angry and so he has to go into time out, to

protect everyone. We've just recently had to install a lock on the outside

of his door as he often refuses to stay in during a rage and immediately

begins biting and scratching when he comes out. Yuck. We're very careful to

only use it when he is enraged and won't stay in his room of his own accord,

but still, yuck. He is an extremely well loved and probably a bit too

pampered only child. I wonder if by being permissive parents, we have

allowed this behavior to get out of hand.

I've been talking to his mom about possibly starting him on tegretol to help

with the impulsiveness and rages, both of which seem to be getting worse.

Anyone here have any other ideas they would like to bounce around? I don't

like what we are doing now and I don't see it solving the problem anyway.

As far as what is being done so far - GF/CF diet, claritin for his

allergies, working on getting chelation started (long story there. not

pertinent) and melatonin for sleep as he has the worst sleep pattern and the

rages get worse when he's tired. Oh, and he gets babysat at school but I am

pushing for him to be moved to the same class he was in during the summer -

he actually started communicating a bit and the tantrums went down.

Terri