Different take on "fear of germs"

[Phasmid]

This is kind of curious, and I'm not sure (like everything else!) if it is part of PANDAS but interesting.

 

My son hasn't had the classic "hand washing" compulsion associated with fear of germs. However, he is unwilling to take a shower in a hotel bathroom because others have used it. Lately, he is concerned with whether or not his grandmother has washed her hands! He asks me if she washed her hands upon leaving restroom, if she washed her hands before handling his food, emptying dishwasher, etc. This morning, he barked at me because he saw me (out of the corner of his eye) drop the pat of butter on the counter while buttering his toast! BTW... we are waiting approval for IVIG.

 

Is this THE "germ fear" or is this just good health consciousness?

Edited December 10, 2010 by Phasmid

[dcmom]

Sounds like pandas to me.

 

Funny, we get used to the little quirks,

 

I notice, some things I have gotten used to- once I say them out loud or write them down, I see them for what they really are.

 

Since the fear doesn't seem overwhelming, it is probably a good time to work on it with ERP therapy....

[KaraM]

I can totally relate to this. My daughter wanted us to wash our hands before touching her - would ask if we washed them before getting stuff for her...If we dropped anything, it became contaminated. When she was really bad, even washing it wouldn't help - had to throw whatever it was away....She didn't want to stay in a hotel because other people slept in the beds (so that blew our little mini February vacation last year). It's definitely germ fear. ERP helped a little, but it didn't really go away until after we started abx.

[thereishope]

Sorry, but it sounds like PANDAS. My son did the same. We were constantly asked if we washed our hands after doing things. If he even thought we touched our face or anything, he'd freak and tell us to wash our hands.Along with hand washing, he would walk with closed fists, refused to holds hands (had to hold his wrist), wipe his hands on his pants after touching something (this became such an instinct to him he didn't even know he did this), and he would use a long sleeve shirt as a sort of glove to pick things up. If you look close, you may see even more signs of germ/dirt fear.

Edited December 10, 2010 by Vickie

[emmalily]

Does he understand how his PANDAS works? Is it possible he is actually afraid of people not washing their hands and then touching his food because he thinks they may have strep on them that is being passed to him?

 

So difficult to distinguish because of the OCD involvement, but a wariness of germs when you have an autoimmune disease only makes sense.

 

For instance, and I assure you this is not OCD-driven, I do use my sleeve to open public doors. I will ask people if they have washed their hands before they touch my food. If someone picks up a fork for me by the tongs I will wash it. It may be overkill (ok it definitely is overkill) but it's at least rational in comparison to OCD.

[peglem]

I wonder how many kids have this going on w/o being able to express it and it is assumed it is a sensory thing (not wanting to be touched) when its really germaphobia?

[thenmama]

xxx

Edited March 26, 2013 by thenmama

[laure]

We have major contamination/germ fears-- we have ever since dd started having these episodes. Hers are about, well actually pretty much everything mentioned above: what's touched what, food issues (is it safe, clean, is something in it, etc.), germs, dropping things and needing to get rid of them, fear of people touching her, clenched fists, and so on. Dd has done the constant hand washing thing in the past- to the point of severely chapped/raw skin on her hands.

 

We're dealing with lots of contamination, dirt/germ fears in this current exacerbation. Lots of trouble getting her to eat or go out in the world right now. And her sensory defensiveness is through the roof, too, so she has only one pair of pants she can wear out right now-- and the poor thing dropped her sandwich on them at lunch today: spoiling both the pants and the sandwich in one swoop!

 

Can someone with more knowledge about this help me understand-- is the germ/contamination fear in PANDAS somehow different than that of typical OCD? Or is it just that it is one of the OCD symptoms that seems to occur frequently with the kids whose OCD is due to PANDAS?

 

TIA!

 

TH

 

This sounds exactly like my dd9 sounded one whole year before she had the true overnight PANDAS episode...she always asked her friends if they had washed their hands when they came out of the bathroom, wouldn't sit on toilet seats, even at home (and she is the only one using her bathroom most of the time) and had chapped hands from using the hand sanitizer at school for about 2 full years before any of this came to light. So she was functioning just fine day to day, and we never realized she had PANDAS/lyme at that time, just thought she had her oddities like we all do. I t does sound like a lot of the kids start out the same way...

[MomWithOCDSon]

Can someone with more knowledge about this help me understand-- is the germ/contamination fear in PANDAS somehow different than that of typical OCD? Or is it just that it is one of the OCD symptoms that seems to occur frequently with the kids whose OCD is due to PANDAS?

 

TIA!

 

TH

 

TH --

 

No, the germ/contamination fear in PANDAS is really not any different from "typical OCD." For the most part, the distinction between "standard OCD" and PANDAS OCD as of now is about the OCD behavior surfacing on the heels of bacterial or viral exposure, and/or knowing that your child has an auto-immune condition and displays OCD behaviors, versus OCD which manifests completely devoid of any such infectious link or auto-immune conditions.

 

And, of course, if your child's OCD behaviors are due to PANDAS, then medical treatments like abx, anti-inflammatories, IVIG, etc. will improve that behavior or sometimes eradicate altogether. If there's no underlying PANDAS condition, however, those interventions are not effective against the OCD.

 

But the OCD behaviors themselves are identical, in our experience.