8 yr old son with OCD-help

[momof4]

Hello I am new to these boards and have been avidly reading and absorbing all the info. I have been a counter my entire life and also count letters in words when people are talking to me. It has never bothered me and so I never considered it to be an OCD thing. I do have a cousin with OCD and Tourettes however. My eight year old son has always been a very neat boy, never had to tell him to clean his room. He has always liked things "a certain way" and he goes through stages where certain things bother him and then he gets over it. Like for about a month he would get annoyed if all the dining room chairs were not pushed in all the way so he would push them in all the time but then he got over it. Now though about two months ago it all got a lot worse. He has multiple things bothering him and gets very upset about it which he never used to. He wipes things a lot for no reason except he says he thinks he scratched it. He checks the toilet lid all the time to see if it is down. Etc. He has been very grumpy about it all since it got worse which I can understand. I homeschool him and so that suddenly has gotten difficult as well because we are constantly being interrupted by something bothering him. Also around the same time he started getting very clingy. He attends a homeschool program one day a week and now gets headaches (I am guessing from anxiety) every week which never happened before. This all began around the time our newest baby was born. My 8 year old is so excited about the baby and not an ounce jealous and has been super helpful but still maybe all of this is related to some kind of anxiety due to the changes? I'm not sure, he did not react this way when his two sisters were born. Anyways his doctor recommended we wait on referring him because maybe it will go away or lessen as things calm down. In the meantime I feel helpless and so I am trying to find anything I can do to help the situation. I have been researching all the natural remedy stuff and he is taking a multivitamin and an OMega 3 fish oil supplement now. I would like to start him on Inositol from what I read and St John's wort but his doctor doesn't seem to know anything about any of this stuff. I have no clue what dosages would be okay to give him or what things are okay to combine? He weighs about 50 lbs. Any advice on behavioural therapy type stuff I can work with him on at home would be appreciated along with recommendations on natural remedies to give him. His anxiety levels seem normal to me at home but are obviously not when he is at school one day a week so any recommendations on something that might help with that as well would be appreciated. Thanks so much.

Alaina

[Chemar]

Hi

 

from what I have learned INOSITOL is the safest way to start supplements for OCD for a young child

[CarolynN]

Hi there,

 

I wanted to respond to your post because I have dealt not only with OCD with myself, I am now 38, but also high anxiety with my son who is 8. My son also is dealing with Tourettes. I have to share with you the amazing difference that certain supplements have made for us regarding the anxiety. Mainly B6, glycine, magnesium taurate, and GABA. These things have GREATLY, GREATLY reduced the pain of anxiety we had been dealing with.

 

I wanted to share with you a post I did a while back explaining how I am using these supplements. The first part of the post might be a little confusing because I discuss my theory behind why I think Daniel's body is reacting like it is. But as you go down in the post you will see I explain what I have done with the supplements. I also have links to other posts I have done regarding what I have discovered regarding the root issue of Daniel's Tourettes and the anxiety. Anyhow here is the link http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?...Carolyn\.N http://

 

I also wanted to say I mention a product called TS-Plus which is a multi-vitamin for people with Tourettes and OCD. I have to tell you Daniel has been on it for some time now and the longer I have him on it, at the right dose for his weight, the better his body is tolerating things. I mean it is definetly making a big difference. In the post I reference above I mention quite a few vitamins I have Daniel on. I have been able to back off on a lot of those because the TS-Plus is doing so well for him. It has taken a long time for it to build in his body to make the difference but over time it has certainly been very beneficial. I do know a few people can react poorly to the product because of certain B vitamins in it. But the long and short of it most people would benefit. Just for a quick reference here is the website http://www.bonniegr.com/ . Also Bonnie has been real helpful when I have e-mailed her with questions.

 

I just wanted to let you know there is hope and there are so many things you can do for your son. I know how painful, as a parent, it is to see your child suffer. It is so relieving when you start seeing results with the supplements.

 

I also have to tell you I had Daniel in counseling to help overcome his biggest anxiety which is firedrills. He is doing so amazingly well and I just thank God for that.

 

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions. I know there is a lot to read if you follow all the links I reference in the above post.

 

Have a great week!

 

Carolyn

[EAMom]

Hi,

this is my 2 cents...it wouldn't hurt anything to check your son for strep. Have them do the 48-72 hour culture if the rapid is negative. He could have PANDAS which is exacerbating his OCD tendancies/anxiety.

 

I should add that lots of PANDAS kids get strep with no other symptoms other than behavior change (in other words, no sore throat, no fever). Your son's age, the OCD, grumpiness, anxiety, headaches...all sound quite PANDAS-sy to me. (Have any other household contacts had a sore throat or fever recently?) IMO it also wouldn't hurt to culture his 2 sisters to make sure one of them isn't acting as a strep carrier. When we first learned about PANDAS we cultured the whole family (adults too). Both our girls (PANDAS dd and younger sister) were positive (no "strep" symptoms, PANDAS dd's OCD had been going on for 2 mo. at that point).

 

If you have more questions PANDAS you can post on the PANDAS forum...there are lots of folks that will help you out there. Good luck!