Ocd?

I wish i could help, let us know wht the doctor says!

My personal trainer's nephew has Tourette's syndrome. He was recently featured on a new televsion show, "The Doctors." The mom had footage that she had videotaped from a birthday party that her son attended when he was about the same age as your son, and one of the doctors said that was extremely helpful in diagnosing his condition, because with Tourettes the symptoms come and go, and change from one day to the next, so the diagnosis cannot always be made readily at a scheduled appointment. By the way, the boy is brilliant, and at age 14 has published two children's adventure books. This may or may not be the case with your son, but the sooner it is diagnosed, the better chance he has of being helped. There is also a recently published book, "Against Medical Advice," about one son's battle withthis condition. Good luck!

Hi Tammi,
It's a tough call but you've done the right thing contacting the Pediatrician. Don't let him/her blow it off though. The thing that caught me is that you mentioned it starting to get red aroundhis mouth. You don't want him to rub/wipe so much you end up with open sores and then when he does it again dirty fingers get something in it. I don't think it is to panic over but continue to be vigilant as you have been. You're doing great! Let me continue by starting with I am in no way making diagnosis but based on my background in teaching and my son's autism the biggest advice I have is to not try to hold his arms back,etc. If there is an internal motivator causing this such as tourette's or OCD or anything else, this will only cause the situation to be more difficult and stress him out more. I HIGHLY recommend looking at his diet. So much in what is going on with kids can in some way be connected to their diets. If it is an allergy believe or not it could start as topical. If he eats something that his hands have been all over and then touches his face and the allergy is topical, that is what is worsening it. If it is internal it too can cause this reaction. My daughter has 14 food allergies in addition to environmental allergies so we've been down this road many times. Look at his diet. First looking at the topical, is there any food or foods that he eats on a regular basis that tend to get messier than others. If so, take this food out of his diet for a week. You need to remove the food for at least a week to watch for changes and then reintroduce it slowly. As you are doing this keep a detailed journal (day you remove the food, what food it is, how often he had been eating it, changes in behavior, etc). Then do this as well with some of the major foods such as dairy, eggs, soy, nuts,etc. Start with one food at a time. If you are looking topical and remove something that is messy and say it is a dairy food - remove all dairy for a week. It will NOT hurt him nutritionally. I'll find the site for the Food Allergy & Anaphallxis network and send it to you but there are some great articles and such on there. Wheat/Gluten is another big one but be prepared because it is NOT easy to go without and it takes about 3 months to remove gluten fully from the system. (Can you tell I've been down this road before - actually with both kids). Your pediatrician may or not send him for allergy testing. There are two kinds. One is blood work called RAST testing. It is fairly accurate most of the time but some pediatricians don't believe it is accurate with you children. I don't agree. My daughter had this at age 1 and it was right on with the results. The skin testing my allergist told me can have false positives. It did for our daughter. But most of them again were right. The best thing is to pair the two, testing and food aviodance. I don't know where you live but if on the Treasure Coast I recommend Allergy Associates of the Palm Beaches. They are in Martin County and Palm Beach County. They're very nice.
Please let me know if you have more questions about the allergy side of things or behaviourally. I'm not an expert in any way but this is the life we live (allergies and odd behaviors). Again, you are doing great and being vigilant. Don't panic and be patient. He'll feel your stress.
Side note for part time work - I'm only throwing this out because of the difference this has made for me to tend to all of my children's needs - Pampered Chef! I've been with them for 8 years now and never intended to be. I could not imagine teaching right now. I've replaced my teacher's salary and work my own hours. If you want more info, let me know and I'm happy to help. No worries if not but wanted you to know the option is there.

Hi, a student in my class does this. She has Asbergers Syndrome. Check in to that. Good luck!

While I would have it checked, it might make you feel better to know that my middle son has gone through every "tic" in the universe before kindergarten. It started with blinking. He constantly blinked to the point we saw an eye doctor...nervous habit. Then he started picking his lip. Again nervous habit. He talked in his sleep. He chewed his food using his hold head bobbing up and down. We thought he had Tourette's or worse. All just "nervous habits of kids going through growing up" according to the nuerologist. So be assured that some things are just quirks and they outgrow them. We learned to ignore them and eventually they have all gone away and he is a well adjusted kindergartner.

Hi Tammy,
The only thing I can think of is taking him to his pedriatician see what he says or go to Early Steps/Part C program for children with disabilities, they have them all around Florida. They give different assistance for babies and toddlers until the age of 3. They test them for everything and all free of charge. I don't know if this could help. But they helped us w/my just turned 3 little boy. Unfortunaly, I found out about it when he turned 2 and the time it took to process he only took about 7 months of speech and occupational therapy for his delayed. But eventhough we had insurance, they paid for all and were very nice and understanding. Now he turned 3 they refered him to Child Find where they placed him in pre-kinder w/special needs at the local elementary school. Hope it helps! good luck!

I am so glad you are noticing the subtle changes in your young child that many parents would overlook. It may be something very simple or it may be the beginning of a disorder that with proper treatment and therapy will allow him to function more normally as he grows. I would request to see an occupational therapist at Neumors and contact ChildFind. There are people out there who can help you fully evaluate him, but your WILL come across many who tell you there is nothing wrong and to just ignore it. Be your childs advocate no matter what. If you are unhappy with a doctors diagnosis, seek out a second opinion. Research a LOT on the internet, not to diagnos him yourself, but to possible find doctors out of our area that might be more willing to help. For now, I may be wrong, let him pick out something that he likes the feel of, a new stuffed animal with different or very soft textures. Put a little benedryl cream or hydrocoritsone cream on his face to help soothe any itch that might be there. And consider offering him an oppurtunity to wear a tight fitting beanie with a shin strap that covers his ears. Maybe the pressure would help alleviate the feelings he is having regarding his face. Try it, if it works, let him wear it even if he looks goofy. He may outgrow this and this. Let him carry the stuffed animal with him always to be able to fiddle with the "fur".