Frustrating behavior

[Wickedmaineah]

Our son was only recently diagnosed and is on his second dose of antibiotics.

He has been whining, crying over everything, and hateful. He will tell us and his younger sister that he hates us, we are awful, etc. It just comes out for no reason. Is this a normal behavior? I try to not get frustrated because I know it may not be in his control, but he has already done these behaviors multiple times this morning and he has only been up for an hour.

Any insight would be helpful as this is not our little boy.

Christina

[smartyjones]

Our son was only recently diagnosed and is on his second dose of antibiotics.

He has been whining, crying over everything, and hateful.

 

wicked -- i read your other post where your ds seemed to be helped with abx the first time -- is that corrrect? is he on a different abx this time?

 

we did expereince something similar with the first abx my son was on. he had sudden onset of behavioral symptoms only. he had high titers and a positive culture. in trying to discover what was wrong, we had gone to a naturopath and had seen some improvement with treatments for his gut. then we discovered the strep and he was put on a prefunctory 5-day course of aztih by our useless ped. it was terrible. behaviors that had improved returned with a vengenane. extreme whining, easy upset, separation anxiety. i was so happy when that abx ended. he did improve off the abx -- with symptoms seemingly brought on by abx, but not generally. we switched peds and he was put on 30 days of keflex. he had 100% remission in about 3 days. unfortunately, he relasped after about 30 days off the abx and we've since been on our journey for health.

 

what do i think about this? i don't know what to make of it. at first, i thought it was an adverse reaction to the azith -- although he had been on it previously in his life. i thought some abx are better and some are worse for different kids. along our path, we have found lyme. it is common for people with lyme to have an adverse reaction to azith -- a herx -- a worsening before bettering. was it this in his case? it does make sense and add up, but i really think there's no way to know for sure. would he have improved if we left him on the azith? i knew so little back then and it would have been a long haul in dealing with that behavior even if i thought it was beneficial! why did he have such good results with keflex and not azith? i don't know too much about abx -- perhaps the keflex targeted the strep which was causing the presenting problems without engaging lyme, which has actually for him seemed to be more of a 'dormant' infection as far as symptoms - ?

 

so i don't know that i can really help you other than to suggest that if this is a different abx than what you had success with before, perhaps you could switch back - ? i would also say that in retrospect, i wouldn't have taken him off abx after 30 days without a good plan of action. i know a good plan is hard to get in the beginning -- even further along -- but if you could investigate what dr you will see and create a plan while staying on an abx, i'd vote for that rather than going off and seeing what happens.

 

good luck.

[Wickedmaineah]

He is on azith, but that is also the medication that helped the first time. It completed stopped the tics which were extreme and cauing problems in his daily life.

He has been tested for lyme and that was negative. Only the 41kDa band.

I pulled his old records, this all began to get extreme in 2007. Back then it was joint pain, severe aches, headaches. He went through many scans looking for juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, which they did not find. He did have high WBC, high C reactive, and high ESR, but no one could figure it out and no one did a strep test at that point. He was completely miserable, screaming, in pain, constants ER visits. I am now thinking this is all related, though I know I could be wrong.

The behavior right now is frustrating as it seems that he is only happy for about 1/2 an hour a day. Otherwise he cries, has great anxiety that no one want to play with him, and no suggestions offer him any relief.

Two more days of the azith and then we will see what happens to the behaviors. He is allergic to penicillin and augmentin so those are not a possibility.

He sees Dr. Price on the 11th, so hoping we can make it until then.

[Tamistwins]

I am so sorry for what you are going through your son sounds just like mine. It is heartbreaking that they can't allow themselves or anyone else to be happy. My son is clinically being treated for bartonella also has clear cut pandas symptoms. I don't know what's the best treatment plan but I just wanted to let you know that after numerous antibiotics and ivig I stil did not see improvement behaviorally. I wonder if pex will help.

All the best,

Tami

[Tamistwins]

I am so sorry for what you are going through your son sounds just like mine. It is heartbreaking that they can't allow themselves or anyone else to be happy. My son is clinically being treated for bartonella also has clear cut pandas symptoms. I don't know what's the best treatment plan but I just wanted to let you know that after numerous antibiotics and ivig I stil did not see improvement behaviorally. I wonder if pex will help.

All the best,

Tami

[smartyjones]

He is on azith, but that is also the medication that helped the first time. It completed stopped the tics which were extreme and cauing problems in his daily life.

The behavior right now is frustrating as it seems that he is only happy for about 1/2 an hour a day. Otherwise he cries, has great anxiety that no one want to play with him, and no suggestions offer him any relief.

Two more days of the azith and then we will see what happens to the behaviors. He is allergic to penicillin and augmentin so those are not a possibility.

 

wicked -- so sorry -- i remember that time being difficult. at the time, we also believed my ds to be allergic to peniciilin. later, when i actually looked it up, he had had rash reactions to omnicef and amoxicillin. unfortunately, there is confusion btwn the dr's notes and pharmacy notes -- dr says augmentin was okay, pharmacy says amox -- 6 mths later amoxi is a problem. the only thing that is really clear is he was reacting to more than one abx. i know many say they're the same things but i think there must be slight differences.

 

just now as i look it up -- he was actual on zithromax with no reaction and then the azith was 2.5 years later. perhaps there's something different in the generic vs. real? or additives? i don't really know much about abx and what is good for what. but perhaps, you could discuss w/dr or phamacist. at the time, our pharmacist was surprised to hear his reaction and didn't think it was anything in the abx to cause the trouble.

 

i know we are in the minority, but i believe i've seen others on this forum that have also been helped with keflex.

 

i think i remember at that time, he seemed to be happier if he was engaged in something repetitive, either by himself or with one other person-- like coloring patterns or matching color patterns (the wood color discs to a picture) -- he was 4.5 at the time.

[Wickedmaineah]

I now cant leave him alone in the room with his 2 year old sister. He is being completely mean and unsafe with her. The vocalizations have increased greatly this morning. Wondering if it is the antibiotic, but why this time when it worked last time? This day seems to get longer and longer with every passing minute.

[Wickedmaineah]

Our son also has an Autism diagnosis since the age of 5. He loves repitive stuff. His separation anxiety is bad too. He was supposed to start a tech camp yesterday, he was very ill first thing in the morning. Stomach aches, lots of trips to the bathroom, and then said he couldnt go. Later on he was asking to go outside to play. Yep, that was clearly anxiety!

I am also wondering about rheumatic fever in 2007. It was not diagnosed but had all the signs, could that be related?

 

Hoping there will be a better time, but right now it's minute by minute.

[jenbug]

I am very new to all of this, but my son has similar behaviors when he is sick. Dr. T said he fits the PANDAS criteria with Mycoplasma trigger (and had strep about 6 weeks before that). he will go around the house constantly whining and nit-picking and being mean repetetively ALL DAY LONG for months! He is on day 8 of his first round of azyth and is about 80% better! Even my husband is noticing the difference this time! Could your son's body have become resistent to your drug?

[Kaviar]

*hugs* Sorry to hear it.

 

FWIW, whenever my son is first placed on antibiotics, it's like his symptoms exacerbate significantly (which doesn't seem possible before the antibx) for the first week, and then *flick* it's like a light switch turning off and he's wonderful again. Typically. Until the next bout.

[Wickedmaineah]

Next time I am definately asking for something else. Our options might be limited due to his allergy, but the stress he goes through while on Zith is absolutely ridiculous!