Not the typical OCD/tic response

[momcap]

We have strep again! DS7 does not get the typical OCD or tic response. He gets ANGRY and ADHD-ish. He gets really really aggressive and unpredictable. He threatened to run out into the highway and let a car run him over. He threatened to stab me with a pencil. Then he sobbed and sobbed that he doesn't want to have PANDAS anymore. So I knew someone had strep. Sure enough, I got a positive throat culture back on his brother who is now refusing to eat. The doctor had told me that his throat looked fine and I was overreacting.

 

So I just want to put it out there that not everyone gets the OCD/tic response. DS does have verbal tics and OCD issues, but that's not what spikes when he gets exposed to strep.

[butterflymom]

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Edited February 3, 2016 by butterflymom

[amyjoy]

Hi

Yes i have definitely heard on this forum, parents express this kind of behavior and reaction to strep, although my child would exhibit more tics and sheer anxiety with flares, also coordination deterioration. ocd not so much but there.

 

Is your son on prophylactic antibiotics and /or immune boosters, especially during the winter months?

 

I don't think these kids are ever "free" of strep, whether it is growing on their throats or embedded in the cells of the basal ganglia, or elsewhere.

Good luck this weekend with your children.

amy

[thereishope]

Yes, in subsequent exacerbations, once you know something (strep) can be off with your child causing atypical behaviors, you see the early signs faster. A meltdown/rage was the first thing that set the red flag up for my son. Unfortunately, OCD did always quickly follow for him. My son had a timeline of continuing to worsen for 3-5 days after starting antibiotics before I would some type of improvement. And that with catching the strep within 12 hours of first "off" behavior.

 

Amy, I do think some kids can eventually be strep free as some do go into remission without needing any antibiotics.

[Mary M]

My dd has definitely presented with rage and what, when you read the list, would qualify as ODD (oppositional defiant disorder) but she's a PANDA through and through...that's just part of the presentation for some. Additionally, her OCD can send her into a rage when "it doesn't work" or can't be made "right".

Mary

from Michigan

[EAMom]

We have strep again! DS7 does not get the typical OCD or tic response. He gets ANGRY and ADHD-ish. He gets really really aggressive and unpredictable. He threatened to run out into the highway and let a car run him over. He threatened to stab me with a pencil. Then he sobbed and sobbed that he doesn't want to have PANDAS anymore. So I knew someone had strep. Sure enough, I got a positive throat culture back on his brother who is now refusing to eat. The doctor had told me that his throat looked fine and I was overreacting.

 

So I just want to put it out there that not everyone gets the OCD/tic response. DS does have verbal tics and OCD issues, but that's not what spikes when he gets exposed to strep.

 

Yeah...for us mood/rage/tantrums (perhaps triggered partly by underlying anxiety and/or ocd?) were the first symptoms of PANDAS. FUll-blown OCD came later, tics even later than that.

[airial95]

My son normally gets the mood/anger, ODD issues when it's strep. As he's gotten older, we've realized that many of his rages were caused by OCD compulsions that were "messed up" somehow - but we just had no clue at that time.

 

This most recent infection that we've caught is the first time he's ever had straight OCD and tic flare ups without the mood/anger and rages - still tough, but we'll take it over the hours long tantrums any day!!