Early signs your dc had OCD?? Also-is parent/child therapy at home enough?

[smilesonly]

I already know my little guy has anxiety and panic disorder. I've often thought he had OCD tendencies, but lately his behaviors seem to be more frequent and intense.

 

What age did it become smack-in-your-face obvious?

 

I'm also wondering if OCD has to be treated by a professional-or, is a well-informed parent(and family) enough?

 

Thanks.

[Misty]

OCD is a MONSTER and will get worse and worse if it is not treated properly. Of all the issues my children have had over the years, OCD is HANDS DOWN the most difficult we have ever dealt with.

 

My 8yr old daughter was diagnosed with severe OCD right around the time she was turning 5. My 13yr old daughter has been diagnosed with OCD since she was 8.

 

OCD cannot be reasoned with. The child's brain literally gets stuck and only therapy and/or meds can help. In our case, diet change helped more than anything. We did food sensitivity testing and found that my girls were sensitive to gluten. After pulling gluten, one year later my girls are both med-free and OCD-free. There are many causes for OCD though.. It's usually some sort of autoimmune issue. PANDAS is common so you might look into that.

[SkateLeft]

My youngest son's anxiety and panic attacks have morphed into OCD over the last 6 months, so I'd say around 5. :(

 

For us, the first indicators we had were his worries about things being "ruined," especially food. He reacted initially to smells. Then he thought the dog's presence contaminated things, and wouldn't eat if the dog was in the house. He would brush his teeth every time the dog walked past. He can't watch Spongebob, because he has to brush his teeth over and over. The list of potential contaminants has become longer, and includes things like which sibling sits in which seat at the table. He became obsessed with worrying about urine and feces in his food. At the pet store, he freaked out because he was convinced there was urine on the floor. He spits over and over whenever he sees or smells something that sets him off, and brushes his teeth a million times a day.

 

I really can't see how a parent could treat this without professional help. My older kids went through phases where they'd line up stuffed animals, etc., but this is way above and beyond normal little kid rituals. It's rapidly become the biggest controlling factor in our lives, and I've exhausted my bag of tricks. His current medication isn't helping, but we go back to his doc on the 21st, so I'm thinking we'll have to change things up.

[smilesonly]

OCD is a MONSTER and will get worse and worse if it is not treated properly. Of all the issues my children have had over the years, OCD is HANDS DOWN the most difficult we have ever dealt with.

 

 

OCD cannot be reasoned with. The child's brain literally gets stuck and only therapy and/or meds can help. In our case, diet change helped more than anything. We did food sensitivity testing and found that my girls were sensitive to gluten. After pulling gluten, one year later my girls are both med-free and OCD-free. There are many causes for OCD though.. It's usually some sort of autoimmune issue. PANDAS is common so you might look into that.

 

My bolding. I just dropped him off at the pool and it took almost 30 mins to convince him that the sunscreen chemicals wouldn't hurt him. If I would mention lack of sunscreen, and the possibility of getting skin cancer when older, he would never leave the house on a sunny day.

So, the reasoning isn't successful.

 

My youngest son's anxiety and panic attacks have morphed into OCD over the last 6 months, so I'd say around 5. :(

 

For us, the first indicators we had were his worries about things being "ruined," especially food. He reacted initially to smells. Then he thought the dog's presence contaminated things, and wouldn't eat if the dog was in the house. He would brush his teeth every time the dog walked past. He can't watch Spongebob, because he has to brush his teeth over and over. The list of potential contaminants has become longer, and includes things like which sibling sits in which seat at the table. He became obsessed with worrying about urine and feces in his food. At the pet store, he freaked out because he was convinced there was urine on the floor. He spits over and over whenever he sees or smells something that sets him off, and brushes his teeth a million times a day.

 

I really can't see how a parent could treat this without professional help. My older kids went through phases where they'd line up stuffed animals, etc., but this is way above and beyond normal little kid rituals. It's rapidly become the biggest controlling factor in our lives, and I've exhausted my bag of tricks. His current medication isn't helping, but we go back to his doc on the 21st, so I'm thinking we'll have to change things up.

 

I know my ds's behavior is definitely beyond regular kid-rituals.

 

I'm beyond overwhelmed.

[sbgrace]

I do think you need professional help.

The OCD foundation (online) has a list of therapists who specialize in OCD treatment and you can search for pediatric specifically. You want someone who specializes in OCD specifically. I would use their site.

 

Some things that are safe for kids and might prove helpful supplement wise if you want to try would be inositol (google inositol and OCD). It's a b vitamin and safe though a pain to dose. Also n-acytl cysteine has some efficacy it seems and is safe. I would use either with my own child. There may be a link with glutamine and OCD for some people. Gluten and dairy both are high in glutamines. N-Acytl Cysteine probably helps with that issue I think based on the research I've done. There is an article about it on the OCD foundation website under I think new treatments or something like that. It's been a while since I was on there.

 

My son touched walls as a young child in a ritual type way. He was very concerned the house would burn down. He now worries about dying--stopping breathing, poisons, aches and pains...asks for reassurance. But he lets go relatively easily even when I don't offer reassurance and doesn't do it terribly often so I'm not sure what to think. That said, I'm pretty certain he has OCD but right now it's mild and there are no therapists in our area.

 

OCD just gets worse and worse without treatment. It's hard to deal with. I'd get help if you can. :grouphug:

Edited June 9, 2011 by sbgrace

[Cynful]

I wish more than anything in the world that I had sought help earlier for my son's OCD. He's always been prone to anxiety and I suspect he's got Aspergers; he is also a preemie (10 weeks early). His anxiety started his first year and got worse from there. He used to tell me when he was around 7 that he couldn't turn his brain off at night time so he could go to sleep. He couldn't stop worrying about things. I just thought it was somewhat normal. Then he started this thing of needing to rub wood (the table, chair, pencils, etc.) but I'm not sure why. That was the first real time I remember a ritual.

 

This would also come and go in phases. I'd be just on the edge of thinking we needed help and then he'd seem somewhat better (though always anxiety ridden). It would then begin again. Puberty was the HUGE catalyst for us though. He started around 11-12. His major ritual right now is washing his hands or using hand sanitzer. We also have a new baby and he is terrified of him. He won't get close, hold or touch the baby or any baby things (germs mostly - but something else I'm not totally understanding as well). He has other smaller rituals and I'm sure some that he doesn't even tell me about.

 

All that to say, YES, please get some extra help on this. I cry frequently over this and regret so much not getting help sooner. You can even look back over my own posts here asking if I could treat this myself and we tried. It just spirals out of control. He's currently on Zoloft and needs to go higher on his meds though I worry greatly about this. We will be beginning therapy next month as well. We are also adding in Inositol but haven't gotten to therapeutic levels yet.

 

Ask away here, as I'm sure we all understand what you are going through. I had to smile several times while reading this thread because I know exactly what each one is talking about.

 

Good luck,

[Guest heatherhoney]

I do not have a child with OCD, but my husband used to have it. He spent his entire life suffering with it, was put on every med possible, saw every psychiatrist/psychologist his parents could find and suffered with this for over 30 years. One day I read a post online like Mindy's, by someone who claimed he cured himself by eliminating wheat and dairy from his diet (a now common dietary recommendation for many children with forms of autism also). Through a process we completed ourselves over a couple of months, which started with eliminating wheat and dairy, my husband no longer has OCD. It has been over 2 years. The year before that, after suffering an emotional trauma, the OCD had taken over his life so completely that he was no longer a functioning person. It turns out that he was allergic/sensitive to both gluten and peanuts, which we discovered ourselves with simple elimination diet (removing suspect and commonly allergenic foods for a week, then introducing one food back every few days to determine reaction). He now takes no medication whatsoever and has no OCD symptoms. While we were figuring all this out, a friend recommended a book called Good Food, Good Mood by Gary Null (it's old, but I found it on Amazon) and it was very helpful in understanding the effect that food/chemical sensitivities can have on people in all different ways. I found out that there are doctors that specialize in Environmental Medicine that you can go to for help with food/chemical sensitivities. I couldn't find anyone in our area, so we researched and did the best we could on our own.

I feel that this is one of the greatest miracles of our life - my husband is now able to be a fully engaged, happy father and partner. Some people we know think this is a difficult or perhaps sketchy solution (how do you go without wheat(?!) they ask), but removing foods from the diet has no side effects, no added costs, no stigma and does no harm. This is only our personal experience, but it has made a profound difference for our family.

[mcconnellboys]

Thank you for this info, heatherhoney! My OCD/anxiety son refuses most forms of dairy, but certainly gets some by way of cheese, ice cream, etc. and he definitely eats a lot of bread products. We may have to get him allergy tested and see what we can learn.

 

For the OP, my son began exhibiting clearn symptoms of OCD when he was about 3. While he began after a bout with strep, and there's some indication that at least some cases of OCD may result from such infections, there's also a clear history of OCD/anxiety in our family. He's worse than any of us have ever been, and I don't know if that could have been exacerbated by the strep or not....

 

We went through a year of therapy with him when he was 8. I'm not sure that anything was suggested there that really helped us with coping, but the process itself helped him be able to self-identify without difficulty and realize that we do need to talk/think things through. Last year was rough, as he hit puberty, but his Dad and I have played tag-team therapy all year with him and he's currently having a good summer.

 

We've used some natural supplements with him at times this past year, but the intensive discussions seem to be what have helped most. I'm not saying this is going to help with every child or with more severe forms of OCD or anxiety, just that it is working thus far for us....

[Misty]

and he definitely eats a lot of bread products. We may have to get him allergy tested and see what we can learn.

 

Traditional allergy testing will not show you anything so be careful with your testing choice. You need to do IgG allergy testing and most mainstream doctors do not yet do these. We tested through Great Plains Labs http://www.greatplainslaboratory.com . You need the IgG blood serum food allergy panel which tests for 93 different foods.

 

Celiac tests are also inaccurate for these kids.. Because these kids don't usually have full blown celiac disease.. It's usually non-celiac gluten intolerance. IgG testing is the only thing that will catch this. Your doctor cannot run this test and if he says he can, don't do it.. They do not routinely do these at local labs and the results will not be as good and accurate as they would be with Great Plains. You can also go through Alletess http://www.foodallergy.com if Great Plains looks too expensive.. But Great Plains takes some insurances so check with them first. Our insurance (Tricare) paid 100% of testing for all three of my girls through Great Plains.

[Laurie]

Aureen Pinto Wagner Ph.D. has written a children's book and a book for parents:

 

*Up and Down the Worry Hill: A Children's Book about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and its Treatment

 

*What To Do When Your Child Has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Strategies and Solutions

[Goldberryhill]

This is my first time posting on the Hive, after lurking on and off for years. Thank you for the recommendations on this thread! I just found a great workbook for OCD kids on Amazon that has been of help to my family. It's called What to Do When Your Brain Gets Stuck by Dawn Huebner. It is for kids ages 6-12, but my dd is 14, and it is helping her a lot. I did some research online about OCD recently because my dd's OCD seemed to have gotten worse with puberty. I read that cognitive psychology has a lot of success, and this workbook is very encouraging with a lot of hope. OCD can be cured very effectively, although it is hard, hard work. We both needed that inspiration.

 

Also, I want to chime in with the diet recommendations. Husband also had OCD, and it's in his family. We found out our oldest dd was gluten intolerent when she was young. A few years later husband develop IBS, and the OCD got so much worse. He went gluten free after seeing such benefits in our dd. Now he and all three dd's are gluten free. It really has made such a difference. Husband is not OCD at all anymore. Kids sleep at night. Everyone is healthier physically and mentally.

 

My husband also has a deep relationship with Jesus and has used Bible verses to overcome bad thoughts... which is a lot like cognitive therapy. My 14 dd is learning now to overcome her thoughts one by one and is having tremendous success. (We only started the wkbk a month ago); she's been gluten free for a decade. (So being gluten free hasn't cured her completely...) I would suggest (humbly) that a therapist who uses cognitive psychology would be most helpful if the OCD is too difficult to work on by yourselves, or using this workbook or other cognitive psy. with the treatment you seek. The other book recommendations sound great, too. My phil. is that our kids are so worth trying everything!

 

I did learn from research to investigate PANDAS and any possible kind of nutritional problems. There have been studies that show mental health patients show a lot of improvement on a gluten free diet. I don't think it's just the diet, though. It is getting the gut flora healthy again, so one can absorb the nutrients needed for a healthy immune system and brain function. Did you know that candida yeast break down the seratonin produced by your gut? Diet certainly isn't the end all, but it is a significant factor that is worth the sacrifice of doing it right. Sometimes I think it's hard to eat this way, but then I think the alternative of drugged up kids (their uncle lives this way), and risking their futures is much worse than changing our palets. Besides, I always wanted to eat healthy, but didn't have the self-control. Now I am forced into it, and it is more wonderful way to eat than I ever imagined! After we got over the experimenting stage, it got to be much easier. I also like the way it teaches us self-control. Perhaps eating this way will be a help in my dd overcoming her OCD thoughts!

[rafiki]

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