Should I talk to my friend about her son

[Missmom]

My ds12 is I guess what you would call a classic pandas child ( if there is such a thing). He is has just recently contacted strep and experienced his third pandas episode of OCD and tics but has greatly improved with antibiotics. He is currently taking a daily keflex in hopes preventing another recurrence. He was pretty easy to diagnose as his symptoms came overnight and were directly linked to a strep infection.

 

Here is my dilemma though, one of my best friends also has a 12 year old son who I am starting to suspect may have something else going on. She can't seem to find the answers even though she has consulted many doctors and specialists. I don't really know what to say to her because I don't want to lead her down a wrong path. Here is what is going on with her son.

 

He has consistently wet the bed almost every night since birth with the exception of about one year when he was about 5-6 years old. When she figured he was finally trained. Then it came back and has continued he is now almost 12 years old. His mom seems to believe he is not getting a signal from his brain to wake him up during the night.

 

He has been treated for add and ADHD.

 

His handwriting is a total mess and he often gets words on his spelling tests wrong because his teacher can't read his hand-writing. Even though he knows how to spell the words.

 

He struggles in math.

 

And he also seems to withdraw (shut down) socially when something makes him upset. He does get pretty moody at times and does not want to talk to her about stuff.

 

When he was smaller the family did not have medical insurance an so many times he would have a cough or a cold and they would just try and let the illness run its course. Unless it got pretty severe.

 

The thing that makes me un-sure what to suggest to my friend is that he does not display any typical pandas symptoms such as OCD, he does not worry excessively- in fact he does not worry at all. And he does not display any verbal or motor tics.

 

I know she would appreciate any advice I could give her as she is sooooo tired of washing and changing sheets on his bed daily. Until I learned about pandas I would have never guessed that all of these types of symptoms could be related in any way, but after reading so many of your stories it seems that they can all be related. She has already addressed these issues individually with a variety of doctors including urologists, pediatricians, psychologists, and family docs, but I am not sure if she has mentioned all of these issues as a whole. If you all have any advice for her I will let her read your responses. Thank you.

[fightingmom]

My son doesn't have any tics with the exception of excessive blinking that comes and goes and sometimes disappears for months at a time. He also doesn't have classic OCD type symptoms. Though, if you live with him you notice OCD like behaviors and many of them had disappeared and been replaced with new behaviors. For instance, my son gets very upset if I change things. Most recently, he was upset that I bought a different brand of cat litter, and he got upset with me a few weeks ago for offering him a drink besides water with his breakfast. Yelled at me for always changing things. Often times when I would explain his behaviors to relatives I was shrugged off and told it was normal preteen/teen behavior, but I always knew it was more than that. His irritability had grown and eventually he started having rages. - punching things, door slamming off the hinges, tossing furniture in his room, etc.

 

I think it really manifests in very different ways in many kids. The ADHD, handwriting, math issues, combined with some behavioral issues and bedwetting would sure make alarms go off for me.

 

It's a hard thing to approach with another parent. Depends on how comfortable you are with her, I suppose. My son's aunt flat out said to me "You need to see a PANDAS doc!".

Edited April 27, 2012 by fightingmom

[Missmom]

My son doesn't have any tics with the exception of excessive blinking that comes and goes and sometimes disappears for months at a time. He also doesn't have classic OCD type symptoms. Though, if you live with him you notice OCD like behaviors and many of them had disappeared and been replaced with new behaviors. For instance, my son gets very upset if I change things. Most recently, he was upset that I bought a different brand of cat litter, and he got upset with me a few weeks ago for offering him a drink besides water with his breakfast. Yelled at me for always changing things. Often times when I would explain his behaviors to relatives I was shrugged off and told it was normal preteen/teen behavior, but I always knew it was more than that. His irritability had grown and eventually he started having rages. - punching things, door slamming off the hinges, tossing furniture in his room, etc.

 

I think it really manifests in very different ways in many kids. The ADHD, handwriting, math issues, combined with some behavioral issues and bedwetting would sure make alarms go off for me.

 

It's a hard thing to approach with another parent. Depends on how comfortable you are with her, I suppose. My son's aunt flat out said to me "You need to see a PANDAS doc!".

 

She is a very good friend and I feel comfortable talking to her about it because we talk about a lot. She tells me about her frustrations. I want to help her but I also don't want to cost her extra expense of more doctors unless she can really be helped. In the past she talked to psychiatrist about add/ADHD issues, urologist about urinary issues, and teachers about math and handwriting issues. Etc..... I just have a feeling now it is all related. It Will help to have other posts to show her as our two boys are both very different with very different symptoms. It would be hard for me to say that they both have the same underlying cause of it all. Thank you I will share this with her.

[Mayzoo]

My son doesn't have any tics with the exception of excessive blinking that comes and goes and sometimes disappears for months at a time. He also doesn't have classic OCD type symptoms. Though, if you live with him you notice OCD like behaviors and many of them had disappeared and been replaced with new behaviors. For instance, my son gets very upset if I change things. Most recently, he was upset that I bought a different brand of cat litter, and he got upset with me a few weeks ago for offering him a drink besides water with his breakfast. Yelled at me for always changing things. Often times when I would explain his behaviors to relatives I was shrugged off and told it was normal preteen/teen behavior, but I always knew it was more than that. His irritability had grown and eventually he started having rages. - punching things, door slamming off the hinges, tossing furniture in his room, etc.

 

I think it really manifests in very different ways in many kids. The ADHD, handwriting, math issues, combined with some behavioral issues and bedwetting would sure make alarms go off for me.

 

It's a hard thing to approach with another parent. Depends on how comfortable you are with her, I suppose. My son's aunt flat out said to me "You need to see a PANDAS doc!".

 

She is a very good friend and I feel comfortable talking to her about it because we talk about a lot. She tells me about her frustrations. I want to help her but I also don't want to cost her extra expense of more doctors unless she can really be helped. In the past she talked to psychiatrist about add/ADHD issues, urologist about urinary issues, and teachers about math and handwriting issues. Etc..... I just have a feeling now it is all related. It Will help to have other posts to show her as our two boys are both very different with very different symptoms. It would be hard for me to say that they both have the same underlying cause of it all. Thank you I will share this with her.

 

Give her the web addy to here after you speak with her. She can see that there are many different presentations for PANDAS. She can start her research on the internet and here for free, and proceed with docs and labs if she feels this is a good fit for her son's situation.