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OCD in Children?

kensbaby93

kensbaby93

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Any body familiar with OCD in children? We are pretty sure Evan (my 4 year old) has it. He is hopefully going to be evaluated for Occupational Therapy this week.
We first noticed something over the summer. Every time we could give him something to eat or drink he would ask 3 things....I eat this it makes me little.....I eat this it makes my tummy happy....I eat this it makes me little and my tummy happy. We didn't really think nothing of it because he started saying that shortly after we said he was getting too big and that we were gonna have to get him a big boy car seat. Then he started to take his shirt off every time he had something to drink. He doesn't like to walk on area rugs....he walks around them when he can. The newest thing is the worst (it was really bad in the car this weekend). If he saw you eat something and now wants you to open something for him or make his something to eat he has to ask, several times if its on your hands...I say what is on my hands and he says the thing you were eating. The past week or so when we sit down to dinner, he refuses to sit with us. Well, this weekend we drove to our cottage and had dinner in the car. I gave Jeremy (my 9 year old) his food and Evan kept trying to pile up the coats between them so he could not see Jeremy, didn't think anything of it. I gave Evan his food (he is very picky so it was just a mixed snack bag with Cheerios and nuts). I handed my husband his sandwich and then started to eat mine....HE FREAKED OUT that I was eating....kept asking if its on him....I said whats on you and he said that thing you are eating. No Evan it is not on you....he carried on for a good 20 minutes. I think it was so bad because he was in his car seat and could not leave the room....that's when we realized why he does not want to sit with us at dinner. I had to stop eating my sandwich so he would calm down and when he did calm down I had to sneak bites so he would not see.
When we stop at a place to eat and actually eat inside he doesn't want to sit in the chair because he says its dirty, even though it looks clean.
I am worried about the evaluation because he does not act this way at school ( I send him with a juice box and it has been coming home UN-opened....now I know why....he does not want to take his shirt off at school). He acts pretty normal at his grandparents houses too.
I am worried about him.
 
If he had OCD it would be occurring everywhere. It is not a voluntary self-control issue (at that age. It gets better with OT).

I think you live near Dragonfly. You should ask for the name of her ped and therapist she has for her new kids, from what she posts they sound awesome. I would have him assessed.

Good luck!
 
I have OCD. When I was younger it was very bad. And like Kathy said I did my compulsions everywhere, even though I knew I would get made fun for it and did not want to do it. It was like I HAD to do it no matter what. So the fact that he is not drinking his juice at school because he doesn't want to take off his shirt makes it sound as if maybe it could be something else. I use to wash my hands to excess to the point where they bled and I would pull on all my clothing because I wanted them to be tight on my skin so they wouldn't fall off. But, like I said before, I did it everywhere. It got better with time. I never went to OT but I took it under control myself once I hit high school. It was very hard to manage but I had to actually tell myself not to do my compulsions and at those times it made me almost sick because I wanted to do them so bad. Sorry this was so long but I thought maybe hearing someone else's OCD story might help. If you have any questions let me know.
 
However, with the cleanliness aspect of it, it does sound like OCD. He may have a lighter case than I did. I hope he gets the help he needs. I know from experience it sucks to have.
 
My kids are going to La Rabida in Park Forest for therapy. I think their new therapist only deals with traumatized kids, though. I can ask her if you'd like. She has an office at their Hyde Park location, too. The Park Forest locationis ok, but it's at a police station, which is normal for my kids, but I think would be strange for regular kids. http://www.larabida.org/

Is OCD neurological? I don't know. If so, I really like the neurologist we saw at Lurie Children's Hospital a few weeks ago. His name is Dr. Millichap. http://www.luriechildrens.org/en-us/care-services/find-a-doctor/Pages/detail.aspx?DoctorID=824

Our next stop will be the Children's Research Triangle. We were referred there by our new pediatrician. http://www.childstudy.org/about/ They do psychoneurological testing.

Is your DS only acting this way for you? If so, can your DH present his food to him & leave you out of it for awhile? Maybe it's just a quirk he has with you for some reason. If he's not doing it at school & is ok with his grandparents, it seems situational. Can you let him clean off his chair in restaurants, make him keep his shirt on, make him a "race track" out of carpet remnants so he WANTS to go on area rug type surfaces?
 
Has your son had strep throat recently? If so, do some research on PANDAS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PANDAS and discuss this with your doctor. It's a relatively new diagnosis and is a post-streptococcal autoimmune reaction that can occur in some kids -- new onset OCD and/or tics are classic for this. It is something that is treatable and should be ruled out for children with a new onset of OCD type behaviors/tics.

Good luck with your little guy, I'm sure this is incredibly stressful for both of you : (
 
AbbeyD said:
Has your son had strep throat recently? If so, do some research on PANDAS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PANDAS and discuss this with your doctor. It's a relatively new diagnosis and is a post-streptococcal autoimmune reaction that can occur in some kids -- new onset OCD and/or tics are classic for this. It is something that is treatable and should be ruled out for children with a new onset of OCD type behaviors/tics.

Good luck with your little guy, I'm sure this is incredibly stressful for both of you : (
Click to expand...

Dont think he has ever had Strep
 
Has he had any kind of considerable infection prior to the onset? Ear infection?? 4 is really young even with early onset OCD (not impossible but really early).

(Asks the following question very gently): Does it seem worse with/around you vs. anyone else in the family?
 
I dont have expierence with ocd, but i would think the shirt and rug thing could be a sensory issue. It may need therapy. My daughter has feeding/sensory/texture issues that were helped with therapy. Kids can do in mokena is an amazing childrens therapy place.
 
AbbeyD said:
That's good to know. It is a bit of a "controversial" diagnosis, but one that has been a true life-saver for kids when treatment has been started for it.
Click to expand...

:shesaid:

It is controversial, but with sudden onset, especially with a child that age it is possible particularly since it seems to be predominately related to eating. Severe cases have been known to result in anorexia. Is he prone to colds/upper respiratory infections? Anything?
 
Kensbaby, DS had a lot of what I would call OCD tenancies--putting books in lines, commenting over and over again about broken things, wouldn't take a bath because there was a chip in the tub, talked about batteries and smoke detectors all the time, would scream bloody murder if we turned the fan on in his room, etc. This was mainly in the 2-3 age range. A few months after his 4th birthday all of this stopped. Now really he only complains at night if his blankets aren't put the right way or a drawer is open and we do have to say the same thing to him every night we put him to bed. Hopefully, this is something that your son will grow out of, but if you think something is wrong, I would get a professional's opinion. I think early intervention is key.
 
icoupon2 said:
Has he had any kind of considerable infection prior to the onset? Ear infection?? 4 is really young even with early onset OCD (not impossible but really early).

(Asks the following question very gently): Does it seem worse with/around you vs. anyone else in the family?
Click to expand...

No infections.

He is the same with everyone in the house. Different with grandparents.
 
icoupon2 said:
:shesaid:

It is controversial, but with sudden onset, especially with a child that age it is possible particularly since it seems to be predominately related to eating. Severe cases have been known to result in anorexia. Is he prone to colds/upper respiratory infections? Anything?
Click to expand...

He gets colds but I dont think any more than the average pre-schooler?
 
2 more small things he does ( they usually start small and go bigger)

when his hair is wet...(right after a bath or in the morning after I wet it to comb it). He is obsessed with it not getting messy....asks several time is my hair messy?

After going poop, I wipe his but and he has started asking if i got all the poop...never asked before.
 
My DHs youngest had weird things/issues when he moved here. They were all sensory. Some he still has, but he pretty much keeps them to himself these days. My DH is also a bit OCD, he is unable to leave the house unless he "straightens" stuff first. He is ALWAYS late for everything because of this.

Anyway, Baby (14 now) will quite seriously try every single pair of underwear on to see which "feels good" that day. He also does this with socks, we don't even bother pairing them up anymore, he will try on 20 or 30 socks to see which combo of 2 "feels right" that day. I cut his hair (serious buzz) about every 2-3 weeks, he is very distressed if it goes longer than that. Stuff like that. It never got any worse than that for him so we didn't do any therapeutic intervention.

I would REALLY get specific with the grandparents and ask them to REALLY watch. Also can you "give him" to a friend with kids for some time and ask her to observe his behavior too? Grandparents can often have a rosy idea of their gkids plus they also can be enablers - they don't want to see anything odd with a grandkid, so they can ignore it/deny.

Good luck!
 
skincarekathy said:
My DHs youngest had weird things/issues when he moved here. They were all sensory. Some he still has, but he pretty much keeps them to himself these days. My DH is also a bit OCD, he is unable to leave the house unless he "straightens" stuff first. He is ALWAYS late for everything because of this.

Anyway, Baby (14 now) will quite seriously try every single pair of underwear on to see which "feels good" that day. He also does this with socks, we don't even bother pairing them up anymore, he will try on 20 or 30 socks to see which combo of 2 "feels right" that day. I cut his hair (serious buzz) about every 2-3 weeks, he is very distressed if it goes longer than that. Stuff like that. It never got any worse than that for him so we didn't do any therapeutic intervention.

I would REALLY get specific with the grandparents and ask them to REALLY watch. Also can you "give him" to a friend with kids for some time and ask her to observe his behavior too? Grandparents can often have a rosy idea of their gkids plus they also can be enablers - they don't want to see anything odd with a grandkid, so they can ignore it/deny.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

That's my husband!!

The first psychiatrist that we went to know his parents, she thinks he has mild OCD tendency, she said it's not a surprise since his mom is bi-polar and OCD, he didn't think so and refused to go back to see her. :-)
 
I will revisit this thread tomorrow because my hands hurt a lot and can't type too much. My ds has had OCD since about age 5 or so. It manifests different in every person. My son is a "collector" equals hoarder of sorts. Saves tic tac containers, gum wrappers, old post cards or slips of paper with something written on it by someone he likes. Doesn't sound too abnormal until the reaction comes if you try to get rid of any of it. He would break down and cry for hours on end. He also knows if we move anything in his room, even an inch and he would play 20 questions on why and would be really upset. We all have a little OCD but the real deal interferes with daily life. It's gotten much better over the years, but they try to hide it. They don't announce it but they break when you interfere with it. My ds also thinks if you do things in odd numbers, you are an odd person. He turns lights on and off, tv's, etc. in even numbers and we have learned to ignore it and most people don't notice. Ok, that's it for now. I'm beat.
 
HUGS! It is so hard when things aren't quite right and you can't pinpoint what exactly is going on.

I have some family members with sensory issues and this does sound sensory related as well. I would keep trying new things until you find something that works for both of you. Can he wear gloves while he eats, or can you wear gloves while you serve his food? What about hand sanitizer or using wipes before he eats? Are you ignoring what he is doing or drawing attention to it?

DS4 was recently crossing his eyes (he wears glasses) and telling us he was seeing double. We thought maybe he hit his head or something was wrong with his glasses. Took him to the ped eye dr and turns out he figured out that A. he could do a cool trick, and B. that we were paying tons of attention to him when he did that.

My little guy also does a lot of the repeating phrases. Asks a lot of the same questions over and over, and my answer has to be exactly the same as it was before or he will ask again until I get it "right." Also, once he starts saying something, no matter how many times he is told to be quiet (ex. because we are in church) he can not move on until he completes what he wanted to say. He also did some things like clenching and other weird things with his hands and we brought him to the dr to talk about autism. They brought up sensory with us and suggested that his hands were hurting and that's why he was doing it. About a week after we brought him in he stopped doing it and hasn't done it since.

If you rule out sensory and OCD maybe look at high intelligence. Some kids are so smart and things that seem strange to us are normal to them because their brains are simply wired differently.
 
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