OCD and Food Issues

[Suzan]

I was wondering if you could help me to understand OCD and how it could relate to food. Does this sound like it could be OCD? I am just learning about it so I'm a beginner!

 

My daughter is 6 and she has always been a picky eater. She is highly gluten intolerant, has sensory issues and behavior issues and is a PANDAS suspect. I have her on a gluten free/dairy free diet since September 2008.

 

She is slowly eliminating anything she will eat. She will get hooked on one thing (hashbrowns, pancakes, rice, pasta, french toast, eggs, chicken, anything) and ask for it breakfast, lunch and dinner. In the beginning, I was so happy that she was eating so much and so happily that I would make her what she wanted. But then I realized after a while, she'd burn out on it and decide whe doesn't like it any more and won't eat it again. She's a carb-a-holic but she's even eliminating junky stuff like chips and popcorn. She's hungry, she wants to eat, but nothing sounds good.

 

She doesn't like her food to touch. She'd rather eat one type of food at a time so she'd eat her chicken, still hungry, eat some veggies, still hungry, eat something else.....

 

There are so many things she doesn't like. When I get lists from people of all the great things you can pack in lunches, easy dinner ideas, etc. I can usually illiminate most of them as things she won't eat.

 

Right now she gets a lof of her nutrition from nuts. Soon she won't like them either. She won't eat chicken or eggs any more. I'm so worried about her. She has lost weight recently and is still under 40 lbs. I got annoyed with her this morning because she would not find anything she wanted to eat since I would not make her french toast (the only thing she wants to eat lately but we were running late). So I got annoyed and she started crying saying "what's wrong with me? Why don't I have any taste buds left?". She was so pathetic and desperate that my 7 yr old and I both started crying. She won't drink any of the protein drinks that I have found that are gluten/dairy/soy free. The one I have is egg protein and it is really good.

 

Other things that seem OCD - she has a "boyfriend" who she hasn't seen in 2 years. His mom doesn't return our calls so I doubt she will ever see him again but she cries that she misses and loves him and she often plays imaginary games that her dolls are the girl and this boy.

 

If she gets something in her head that she wants to do (make clay pots, go to a jump house, go out to eat) she'll talk about it every day, morning and night until we do it.

 

I'm sitting and waiting to hear from our Neurologist about our possible PANDAS diagnosis. The waiting is killing me and I get more and more stressed about things I see in her.

 

Thanks,

 

Susan

[Chemar]

Hi

we went through a lot of that when my son was younger. his food phases. they would usually cycle round again tho so things that were out could come back in

 

he is much better with it but still has specific rules re his food. when he goes off something he refers to it still as having "funny tastebuds" on it

 

I do think it has an OCD component as well as related to the sensory integration dysfunction that my son has

 

 

one thing I can guarantee is if he likes something and I stock up on it....it will soon be a no no. something about seeing lots of a thing puts him off

 

have you had PANDAS testing done re the throat culture and antibody blood tests?

[Suzan]

Hi

we went through a lot of that when my son was younger. his food phases. they would usually cycle round again tho so things that were out could come back in

 

he is much better with it but still has specific rules re his food. when he goes off something he refers to it still as having "funny tastebuds" on it

 

I do think it has an OCD component as well as related to the sensory integration dysfunction that my son has

 

 

one thing I can guarantee is if he likes something and I stock up on it....it will soon be a no no. something about seeing lots of a thing puts him off

 

have you had PANDAS testing done re the throat culture and antibody blood tests?

 

I had to laugh about stocking up on a favorite. This happens to us too. I used to get so excited when I'd find something she loved I'd stock up and then spend months trying to get rid of it!

 

Thanks for your reply.... I just got my antibody test results back today. I posted them on the PANDAS board. We are getting them redrawn tomorrow since she's struggling so badly right nowl, he wanted to see some results during what I would consider an episode. She had vag. strep at the end of January and again in February or March. I think she just had it again 2 weeks ago but I didn't have her cultured....

 

Susan

[EAMom]

Hi Susan,

I would get your dd cultured right away (throat culture and also do vaginal if she has that history). If those are neg (and she's been on abs recently) I would repeat the cultures in 3 weeks (since being on abs recently could cause a false neg, if you culture too soon after stopping the abs).

 

For throat cultures, do the 72 hour if the rapid is negative.

[colleenrn]

Susan,

 

I just wanted to add that there are two ways to send a throat culture (labs grow them out in a different way- look for more pathogens).

 

One way is to just send the swab as a culture for strep A.

 

The 2nd way is to send the swab as an upper respiratory culture. This looks also for non-A strep, as well as other pathogens, such as mycoplasma pneumonia. The swab is done the same way in the throat. It may be more expensive to do it as an upper respiratory culture, BUT I think it is important to do it that way with PANDAs children b/c if you keep getting negative throat cultures, you are just finding out they don't have strep A, BUT they can have other streps (B,C,D,G,F...) or other pathogens that are triggering PANDAS symptoms. I really think this may be occuring in some kids with PANDAS.

 

The advice that people have given to make sure it is grown out for 72 hours is very true! You can have a culture that is read negative at 48 hours, which is when most cultures are read in a lab, but by 72 hours the culture reads positive. If your lab is reading the culture before 72 hours you may be getting a false negative.

 

Colleen