Almost at baseline but...

[beckspanspandas]

My daughter has been on augmentin for several weeks now and within 36 hours of starting it, almost all of her PANS/PANDAS symptoms went away however there still are some lingering...if she was at a 10 at her worst, she is at a 2 now. She was a normal 5 year old kid before temper wise and obviously disagreed with things at times but was always reasonable and apologetic when wrong. Now she is very defiant at times and there is no reasoning at all. She says mean things in the midst of her temper tantrum as I'll call it and I'm just wondering if this was a symptom for anyone else? Is it a normal symptom? Have you seen it resolve itself? I feel like she has a 13 year olds hormones or even a two year olds temper tantrums at this point and it all started with the rest of the symptoms and for some reason is not going away. Any thoughts or experience with this is appreciated. Thanks in advance

[dcmom]

Hi. The great news is that she is almost back to baseline. It may take longer to see a final resolution of symptoms, even another month. During this time I would slowly start reigning in behavior with appropriate parental response. We have found, that during a pandas episode, lots of rules go out the window just for the family to get through the day. Once the bulk of the most debilitating symptoms go, its time to actively work on the remaining. As a parent, you definitely need to stay calm, and model calm, because of course scolding someone in a temper tantrum is not productive. I would consider talking to her at a good time, and making a plan for temper tantrums. She might still have trouble controlling this- but if she can be taught to go to her room, and punch a pillow- or go outside and swing- something away from people, safe and calming- until the anger passes. I know there is a good workbook on this- I will look for it. You could also institute a "time out". Again I would tell her at a good time, that behavior is not allowed, and if/ when it happens (she should first use a calming technique), but if she misbehaves during a tantrum, she will have a time out after ward. I would not give the timeout until it resolves. A timeout should be about 2-3 minutes sitting near, but away from you. We used to use our staircase. When the timeout is done- all is done and forgiven.

 

You really have to go with your gut on using these techniques as to whether she is ready.

 

My daughter, age five at onset, now 12 had a lot of these types of issues when she had pandas. We learned these methods from our psych and they worked wonders. Later on, in 4/5th grade, when she had some mood issues (short fuse, anxiety) that wouldn't clear even after obviously much better from pandas, we put her on low dose prozac, which immediately cleared these issues up. While she still has pandas flares, since on prozac, no mood/ temper/oppositional type stuff at all. I am not advocating prozac for a five year old, but just suggesting you keep it in mind. If we had put her on it two years earlier, we would have saved a lot of heartache for all, esp her.

 

Good luck. She will get there.

[MomWithOCDSon]

A number of us here on the forum have found that the strategies in Ross Greene's book "The Explosive Child" can be really helpful in getting through these behavioral "hangers-on" once our kids have healed well enough to put the strategies into play.

 

Congratulations on coming this far, and all the best on the rest of your journey!

 

Nancy

[dcmom]

Here is the book I am talking about. I have not seen it, but we have several copies of the OCD version of this- and it is the best book I have seen for kids with ocd, so I would be hopeful on the one regarding anger. It is a workbook, and it will probably be simple enough to do with your child.

 

http://www.amazon.com/What-When-Your-Temper-Flares/dp/1433801345/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458140689&sr=8-1&keywords=what+to+do+when+your+temper+flares

 

It is "What to do when your temper flares"

[beckspanspandas]

Thank you both for your insight! I appreciate it so much. I just started reading the Explosive Child book and the book for my daughter about what to do when her temper flares was really helpful when we sat down together to go over it. Again, extremely grateful for you sharing this info with me. Thank you