laurie51
06-27-2008, 01:50 PM
My grandaughter will be seeing a psychiatrist as she may have either OCD or sensory integration. They will be evaluating her to see what the problem is. In the meantime, my daughter does not know how to handle her. She has to repeat her bedtime ritual over and over and over again. She wakes up screaming at least twice during the night because her covers are wrong, there's a wrinkle, or something else and it takes her forever to get her back to sleep. Her 1.5 yr. old sister sleeps in the same room and wakes up as well. She recently started a new thing in the bathroom where she pees, then has to go again & again & again & will stay in the bathroom for an hour or more. She'll pee, then get up, throw a tantrum, pee again, wash her hands. She always asks if the tags on the underwear, clothing, shirt, etc. are right and down and not sticking up, if her shirt and clothes are straight, not wrinkled, etc. She said she hates to go to the bathroom. My daughter could not get her out this morning, she finally got her to come out by telling her to put on a pull up, so now she went to the bathroom in her pull up. Then the only way she could get her to eat was by feeding her yogurt (she had to feed it to her), then she did eat a banana by herself. She's taking her to her doctor this pm. she doesn't know what to do, she screamed at her last night and started crying. I don't know how to help her. Any suggestions or advice as far as what she can do when my grandaughter does these things. She also counts when she wipes herself, doesn't think she's dry. She checks between her fingers thinking there's still soap on her hands. There's much more. PLEASE HELP!!!
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purplegirl1
06-28-2008, 12:53 AM
Well, I think bring her to the doctor is excellent!! That is the best thing that your daughter can do at this point b/c you really don't know for sure what her Diagnosis is...I am sure they will do some tests on her. How was your daughter's pregnancy w/ her? Was she full term, etc.....I think right now your daughter should step back and see what the professionals say and suggest.
GatsbyLuvr1920
06-28-2008, 01:21 AM
I have both OCD and Asperger's Syndrome (Sensory Integration Disorder, or SID, is part and parcel of Asperger's), and my OCD started around age 3 (became severe at age 11 1/2), so I can sympathize with your plight. OCD is all about fear and doing things until they "feel right." Sensory issues are all about sensitivity to things that most people find normal (such as tactile sensitivity to shirt tags). The tricky thing with knowing whether it's SID or OCD in young children is that some children with SID may wash their hands a lot or check a lot, in order to rid themselves of the sensory issue. But with OCD, it's all about fear/feeling "right"/preventing something "bad" from happening. For instance, in SID, a child may wash their hands over and over again, because they hate the feeling of them being messy; in OCD, they may wash them to prevent somebody from dying of a disease or something of that nature.
In your granddaughter's case, the symptoms that will need to be analyzed are ones such as the tags in her clothes: Is she upset because they need to "feel right," in order to prevent something bad from happening? Or do they need to "feel right" simply because she has tactile sensitivity, and the feeling of the tag makes her highly uncomfortable? Your granddaughter's counting, in my opinion, sounds like straight OCD, as counting is not usually associated with SID. I have always had horrible tactile sensory issues, ever since I was a baby. My OCD always took a clear-cut "pure obsessional" form, even as a preschooler, so there was never any suspicion of overlap between my two disorders. However, I wasn't diagnosed with either OCD or AS until adulthood. AS simply wasn't known about during my childhood, and my type of OCD isn't as well known as other subtypes, so it was never suspected. Good luck, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask! :angel:
-GatsbyLuvr1920-
In your granddaughter's case, the symptoms that will need to be analyzed are ones such as the tags in her clothes: Is she upset because they need to "feel right," in order to prevent something bad from happening? Or do they need to "feel right" simply because she has tactile sensitivity, and the feeling of the tag makes her highly uncomfortable? Your granddaughter's counting, in my opinion, sounds like straight OCD, as counting is not usually associated with SID. I have always had horrible tactile sensory issues, ever since I was a baby. My OCD always took a clear-cut "pure obsessional" form, even as a preschooler, so there was never any suspicion of overlap between my two disorders. However, I wasn't diagnosed with either OCD or AS until adulthood. AS simply wasn't known about during my childhood, and my type of OCD isn't as well known as other subtypes, so it was never suspected. Good luck, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask! :angel:
-GatsbyLuvr1920-