New Here! Eating changes

[azzuranotte]

The short story is that at the end of September my son had what we though was a virus. Was "better" and then started with school refusal, anxiety, rage, sleep problems, ocd. Through a series of events we were able to get a diagnosis pretty quickly of Lyme and PANS. After 2 different antibiotics, we finally saw improvement. We have a follow up appointment this week.

 

The sleep problems seem to be making a reappearance. I'm not sure if this is a symptom or not, he wants to be a vegetarian. He's 9 which is interesting to me because that's when I decided to be a vegetarian. (Was for 20 years, but not anymore.) My mother thinks in my case it had to do with control and in some ways I think she was right. I could see how the same would apply to him, but I know food issues can be a symptom too. He says its because he loves animals. So since this announcement he'll ask for meet, burger, chicken and take a few bites and then decide that he can't eat it. I'll definitely bring it up with the doctor, but was wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences.

 

Thanks

[MomWithOCDSon]

Hi! My DS didn't really experience a complete change in eating habits necessarily; he just became less willing to eat at all, and because his primary PANDAs manifestation was OCD, his fears began to take over at the dinner table . . . is this safe to eat? Is it healthy? Is the texture something I can deal with? Stuff like that.

 

I will say, though, your DS's behavior . . . asking for something he's traditionally liked to eat and then deciding, in the middle of consuming it, that he can't . . . sounds to me like a form of OCD behavior, potentially. A form of what's known as Scrupulosity -- being concerned with behaving with the highest moral and ethical fiber possible. More commonly manifesting as a concern with pleasing God when someone is raised with a strong religious background, Scrupulosity can take a myriad of other, less-traditionally-religious forms, but always has to do with doing what's "right." Since your DS has professed his love for animals, and has likely heard or read somewhere that if you truly love animals, then you won't eat them, he's torn between his known pattern of behavior when it comes to food choices, and this sort new body of "thought" that's invading his thinking.

 

I would just keep an eye on it as, as you've noted yourself, some kids fairly suddenly become vegetarians out of a sincere, non-OCD-based decision-making process. But maybe just be aware that Scrupulosity does fit within the OCD framework, and it isn't always about God, Christ or church dogma. If you see his "ethical/moral" thinking start to expand significantly beyond the food issue, then that might be a clue there's some OCD holding hands with the PANs/Lyme.

 

Hopefully, the abx will continue to make themselves known to his body and his brain, and any of these atypical behaviors will subside. All the best!

[monarchcat]

I would agree that it bears close watching. My son became vegetarian as part of a year-long progression of food restriction. Started with eating meat, but only grass-fed, organic, etc. That turned into vegetarianism, which progressed to restricting more and more "unhealthy" foods until it became full-blown anorexia, orthoexia, and body dysmorphia. In my son's case, his perfectionist/ scrupulosity ocd was at the root of it for the most part.

[azzuranotte]

I am inclined to think it is a symptom. After starting a prophylactic dose of azitrhromycin he had no problem eating chicken last night.

[MomWithOCDSon]

Glad to hear it! But yes, OCD is symptomatic of PANDAS/PANs for many of us.

[Wombat140]

That does make sense - I mean, his alleged reason for not eating meat makes sense (I'm a vegetarian myself, for the same reason), but it doesn't seem to chime with the way you describe him behaving. It sounds more as if it was completely the other way around, he didn't rationally mind the idea of eating it but when he tried it it repelled him too much - which is completely backwards! Good luck with the antibiotics. (And I hope the sleep problems soon clear up too.)