Pandas

[Mishie99]

I am new to this so I hope I am doing this correctly. I live in ohio and have a 7 year old daughter. She has battled strep when she was younger, and was told by my pediatrician that she might have to get her tonsils out since she had strep so many times in such a short period of time. This was about 2 years ago, she has really always had such a high pain tolerance so when she said her throat hurt a little we took her to the doctor and she ways had strep. Since this time, we didn't seem to have any problems with strep that we knew about. She has recently in about the last 6 months started with ocd like behaviors and seems to be very hyper and not a very good listener. We took her to the doctor and he sent us to a psychologist who told us that she was too young for therapy to do any good that she would need to see a psychiatrist and start medicine. We put her on Zoloft for about 2 1/2 months and things just seem to get worse. In the meantime she got an ear infection and was put on Augementen 500mg twice a day for 10 days. We also took her off the Zoloft since that didn't seem to be helping and I asked the doctor to run blood work. We got the blood work back and her strep ASO was 787. I asked the doctor if he could prescribe a longer dose of antibiotics because of the high strep ASO and he said that he felt the high ASO was just from her ear infection and this is where my question comes... If I ask the doctor to run another strep ASO will it be lower if antibiotic really worked? Do you think that this could be causing the OCD or maybe is it a coincidence? I just worry that the antibiotic may not be enough and she really has a high pain tolerance so she wouldn't tell me if things are hurting anywhere. Is there any other tests that can be done?

 

Thank you for any input you might be able to give. I appreciate it.

[Chemar]

Hi

I moved this over to our PANDAS forum for you as you are likely to get more replies here.

 

hope you find the answers you need to help your child.

[thereishope]

May I ask what section of Ohio you are in?

 

7 is definitely NOT too young for therapy. Search out new therapists and/or psychologist. Also, look into some books on your own. They will help you understand a little more what your daughter is feeling and will tecah you some skills you can start working on at home. Here is a link to some books

http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=6616&st=0&p=52242&hl=+tamar%20+chansky&fromsearch=1entry52242

 

I personally like "Freeing your Child from OCD" by Tamar Chansky.

 

I agree she needs a longer script of antibiotics.Also, you can try Ibuprofen. Some kids will have an easing of symptoms with it.

[airial95]

I agree with Vickie, she is NOT too young for therapy. My son isn't quite 3 yet and he's doing fairly well in CBT for his OCD behaviors.

 

I think that her history of strep is fairly suspicious. I'm not an expert at the whole blood testing, when to get it done, etc... but I would seriously push your pediatrician for at least a 30 day course of abx and keep her off the Zoloft at that time. If you see improvement on the abx alone, it could be a real indicator of what might be going on with your daughter.

 

I wish you the best of luck!! And I'm glad you found this forum - it's really a great resource for information and just support when you need it!

[Mishie99]

May I ask what section of Ohio you are in?

 

7 is definitely NOT too young for therapy. Search out new therapists and/or psychologist. Also, look into some books on your own. They will help you understand a little more what your daughter is feeling and will tecah you some skills you can start working on at home. Here is a link to some books

http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=6616&st=0&p=52242&hl=+tamar%20+chansky&fromsearch=1entry52242

 

I personally like "Freeing your Child from OCD" by Tamar Chansky.

 

I agree she needs a longer script of antibiotics.Also, you can try Ibuprofen. Some kids will have an easing of symptoms with it.

[Mishie99]

We are in the Cleveland area. The therapist said she will not be able to help her with CBT because she moves from subject to subject with her worries. She doesn't just worry about one thing.

[Megs_Mom]

We are in the Cleveland area. The therapist said she will not be able to help her with CBT because she moves from subject to subject with her worries. She doesn't just worry about one thing.

Does she consistently ask reassurance questions about her worries? If so, that can be the compulsion that u start with. Does ur therapist do ERP therapy? A lot of therapists have trouble doing rep and cbt in kids. We did rep at 3,6,7, etc. Great coping tool, although not a "cure" if pandas -just a great tool to help. Did u see the thread in how cod manifests in kids.

[EAMom]

Here's a link to some helpful threads http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3928 . Be sure to check out the link to Frequently Asked Questions. There is a also a flowchart, and a thread on helpful docs.

 

Do you have other children? I would rec. getting everyone in the household cultured to check for carriers. Also, change your dd's toothbrush a few days into her antibiotic course. Also, give her a new toothpaste which she doesn't share with anyone else.

 

Will your doc give you 30 days of Augmentin? I think it could be helpful in determining if PANDAS is at the root of your dd's OCD. Explain to him that a 30 day trial of Augmentin makes more sense than just simply putting her on years (or a lifetime) of psych. drugs (which don't tend to work very well for PANDAS kids anyway).