-OCD

[Guest guest]

Hi --I was thinking OCD certainly until I got to the bottom of your post

and realized you were already thinking this way. I'm the Mom of a PANDAS OCD

girl and certainly recognize this behavior, plus the " doubt " that is OCD--can't

choose the right cup. The kids get so very upset because the OCD causes

unpleasant anxiety that goes away when they--you--whoever's involved in the

ritual do the thing " right. " Only OCD knows what " right " is...and it may change

constantly. One so young will of course have troubles explaining what the

problem is.

Hugs to you if you are in fact dealing with untreated OCD, it is certainly

maddening and irrational, plus so very hard to watch your child in such

distress. My daughter had an abrupt onset at age 4 following scarlet fever.

She's 10 now and has taken an SSRI continuously since onset. I've heard of

other kids whose infection-mediated OCD goes away in between illnesses. OCD in

little kids can be hard to get a handle on, recognize it, get it diagnosed, the

whole thing.

Kathy IN

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Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 13:49:29 -0000

From: " melmeighen " <melmeighen@...>

Subject: OT -- long -- need help please

Hi everyone. I haven't been on the board for several weeks because

things have been very, very bad here. I'm sorry, I just don't know

where to turn and I desperately need some advice. Many of you know

where I'm at right now: exhausted, sobbing, turning to my enzymes

group for help... I guess I'll try to start from the " beginning " of

the latest problem.

This January two things happened to my son. First, he turned three

and started school. While he loved school immediately and has been

doing great while there (great attitude, loves to work, showing great

progress at home...), I recognize that this is a huge adjustment for

him. and I are very, very close, and up to that point we

spent nearly 24/7 together. A very short time after starting school

he began jumping out of his crib.

(Note: we have very fluid sleeping arrangements here. We try to get

him to sleep in his own bed, and he always started out in his crib

alone, but if he woke up and was upset, we would sometimes try to get

him to go back to sleep in his crib, but usually he ended up in our

bed, which worked well for us, because all three of us were sleeping

just fine that way.)

I moved him to a big boy bed and that's when the big troubles

started. When I used to put him in his crib, I would blow kisses and

say, " Night night. I love you. " He might cry for like 10 seconds

and go right to sleep. Well, when I moved him to his bed, I think it

really confused him. I started off sleeping with him to get him used

to his new bed, but he would still say " night night I love you " and

make me leave the room. But when I was out of the room he would jump

out of bed and come looking for me, bawling. This would repeat

itself over and over and over until he was so exhausted he would just

fall asleep. Finally one night I locked him in his room. He cried

for just a few seconds, seemed relieved he couldn't get out, went

right to bed and fell asleep. He still woke in the night, and I

would get in bed with him, but it was no problem. This worked fine

for several weeks. Then I don't know what happened, until this week

we have escalated to the point where I'm questioning every single

thing I've ever done with him. (By the way, no supplements were

introduced or taken away in the month leading up to this behavior.)

Now I'm talking, we're at the point where every time he gets upset,

it's " night night mommy " or " bye bye mommy. " (I just realized this

morning that I do the same routine when he leaves for school, so the

routing is obviously coming from the separation goodbye. It's blow

kisses, say night night or bye bye, say I love you.) He's SCREAMING

at the top of his lungs bye bye, so I go away, but then he screams

louder, but when I approach him again, he screams even louder, even

though I can't believe it's possible he can scream louder when he's

already screaming as loud as he can. This repeats itself for UP TO

45 MINUTES. Last night we had THREE 45 MINUTE SESSIONS of this. He

would fall asleep, then wake back up and start it all over. There is

no consoling him, there is no distracting him, it is relentless and

he can't be comforted. Now he's added a sippy cup component to the

routine. He says he's thirsty, he wants the red cup, you bring it,

no, he wants the blue cup, you bring it, no, he wants the orange cup,

so you take him to the cups to let him choose, but he just reaches

out and pulls away, reaches out and pulls away, screaming screaming

the whole time, the red cup, the red cup, but it's right there in

front of him. And oh yeah, part of the bed time routine now

is, " this bed, " " no, the other bed, " we walk back and forth between

beds for an hour. But it's not just bed time anymore, it's morning

before school, it's afternoon after school, it's weekend, I can't

find a routine to it at all. And being upset about something

unrelated will trigger this behavior. If he's not allowed outside,

or not allowed to go to Mc's, or not allowed TV, or whatever.

He's also becoming more and more upset about dirty hands, and

dropping things, and things getting out of order...

I'm sorry for this, I'm hoping the details might help you all find

something here for me. Is this OCD behavior? I should mention it

definitely gets worse when he's sick, lately it was way worse when he

was on steroids for RAD but I think they're out of his system now and

last night was simply out of control. When I checked my journal I

did see that he had strep in December, this behavior started in

January, I've read a bit about PANDAS but I don't really have a

handle on what exactly OCD is even though I've read the stupid sites

(sorry, I mean, they're great sites, I just can't figure this out),

none of them present a situation like this...

As ever, I appreciate your advice and support.

[Guest guest]

Hi our kids boht have OCD. What treatments have you tried with your daugheter

that has been good? I know what works for one might not work for another

child? What kind of SSRI med is she on? Do you recommnend behavior therapy with

medication. Both kids alos have ADHd it is combined with their OCD along iwth

other issues.

Thanks Migdalia (DEE)

Our dd is driving us crazy picking her skin all the time!!!