Help! 4 Yr Old Ocd

You need to get him to a professional, someone who deal with children and OCD's. In adults I know they can be reasoned with, their minds can process that they don't really NEED to do their rituals. I am unsure how a 4 year old mind would handle this...it's like the difference in dealing with pain. Give an adult a shot and they sit and take a deep breath...try and give a child a shot and all hell breaks loose. An adult can deal a child can not.

If your child is OCD then you need GOOD outside help.

What is your 4 year old doing exactly that has you concerned? Have you discussed this with your pediatrician or asked for a referral to a behavioral therapist or child psychiatrist? It sounds like you need some answers, but just going through books and finding descriptions that mesh with your son's behavior isn't enough. Your child needs to be evaluated and then hopefully you all can be given some tools to help you as a family work through this and get all of you the help you need.

It is unusual to get most diagnoses (except autism) at such a young age. I think you should take your child to a neurodevelopmental pediatrician since getting a diagnosis is serious business. He or she might alert you to things in your child or the family that you may have not considered and make reccomendations for treatment.

From what you mention, you may also consider Asperger's Syndrome. They are often very anxious and have very specific ideas of the way things out to be. They are also very inflexible and often have OCD-like symptoms.

Please get him to a professional who can assess his situation and help you to help him NOW.

My sister exhibited OCD when she was 4 also, my parents brushed it aside and she did not get help until she was in her late 30's, when she was also found to be bi-polar, but by which time she'd decided she was fine the way she was. She refuses to take her medication as prescribed or participate in any behavioral modification, has never been able to hold a job for any significant time, nothing longer than about 4 months. My parents lived to regret not seeking help for her, which they did out of shame and fear, they admitted not only did it hurt our family greatly, but first and foremost deprived her of the life she could have had.

Do what is best for your child, your family and your marriage, seek help now, you will learn how to cope with help. It is not a quick fix but will ultimately be worth it, God bless.

Can you provide some details?

My son was diagnosed with OCD at 5 and early onset bipolar just before he turned 5. This was after months of seeing drs and a few hospitalizations.

Have you looked at Sensory Processing Dysfunction? This is something often overlooked by pediatricians. Contact an Occupational Therapist for an evaluation and any therapy necessary. A 4yr old is difficult to diagnose for anything and is often misdiagnosed. A good book to read is called "The Out-of-Sync Child."

The kicker to all of this is that the American Academy of Pediatrics recently released their opinion that Sensory Processing Disorder/Dysfunction is not a diagnosis that they will support on its own. They like to see an additional diagnosis with it, which I personall think is kind of bogus. Their reasoning is that the AAP has not established a universal evaluation to determine the diagnosis, so they want it to be supported with another diagnosis. Whatever. In the meantime, SPD exists, and kids can be helped a lot through Occupational Therapy to treat it.

update: I see that you mention Sensory Processing not adding up, but things that you list as symptoms do add up to the potential to be SPD. Worth having an evaluation, as well as the neuro-psychiatric evaluations.

I was in a very similar situation. Getting the assessment ASAP will help.

Something that you might find helpful is keeping a "first, then", like "first you finish eating, then you can play with your toy". If he is able to calm down some with that, you can make it "first finish your meal with no crying, then you can play with your toy".

Making him a schedule might help. My boys really responded with a schedule; it didn't have to be complicated -- mostly let your 4-yr-old know what's going to happen or what to expect next.

This is very general. You are welcome to send me a personal note.

Take a deep breath!

People have asked what does he do. He is an obsessive hand washer and sanitzer user which is copeable. He cries and melts down a lot over the smallest things. He has to know answers specific or he challenges you and gets upset. He will tell you I don't like you and can be very hateful. Gets upset if certain things are not in the order he wants to be or can't find a specific toy. Hides toys or puts them out of reach of others. I will tell you we have come so far even since he was about 18months old. He now can sleep all night without waking up crying for hours. He is wonderful if he is one on one and no one else is involved. At first I thought it was a sensory disorder but those pieces don't add up. I know we have a long haul.

At one point I thought my youngest was OCD but it turns out she was just extremely anxious (from any early age she was a huge germaphobe and compulsive hand washer.)
I started the process of diagnosis by taking her to her pediatrician, got a referral to a therapist and went from there.
I suggest you do the same. Even if your pediatrician doesn't think there's anything "wrong" with him he should be seen and evaluated by a psychologist or psychiatrist, the sooner the better!