OCD in young children

[Magpie]

My cousin is autistic, with a side diagnosis of OCD. My best friend is diagnosed OCD (and depression, too).

My friend says whatever your habits are, no matter how odd, they don't meet the criteria of being a disorder unless they're somehow interfering with your basic functioning.

For instance...

Toddler One is a neat-freak. He loves lining his toys up in orderly rows and gets mad when you "mess up" his stuff. But when he cries, you can pick him up or distract him fairly easily. Even if he has a tantrum because you put his toys away, he typically can't remember the trigger by the time he's done crying. He plays reasonably well with other children.

Toddler Two notices that the latch is undone on the kitchen cupboard. (This latch, BTW, is up near the ceiling out of his reach - he can barely see it.) He begins to cry. You don't know what's upsetting him, so you pick him up and take him out of the room to try playing with him. He runs back to the cupboard and now he's screaming and trying to pry it open. Thinking he wants something to eat, you offer him food. He throws it away and runs back to the cupboard. He's pointing, but nothing he points at seems to be what he wants. Of course, he's pointing at the latch, but you don't realize that yet. You still think he's pointing at something inside the cupboard.

Nothing will calm him, not toys, treats, distraction or discipline - he appears to be in genuine pain. He may even be causing himself harm, banging his head or pulling his hair. Finally, after an hour of this, you suddenly realize that the latch is undone. Leaving your hysterical child on the floor, you go and do up the latch. Just like magic, your toddler's tears instantly disappear and he's happy again, smiling at you with a puffed up face and red eyes.

Toddler One is a perfectly healthy child, who happens to love order. He's a little eccentric. Perhaps he'll be a mathematician or an artist or a musician!

Toddler Two has OCD. My cousin was Toddler Two, and I saw some of his meltdowns. The ONLY thing that made him feel better was returning order to his world. He would fixate on things.

I feel sorry for anyone whose OCD is so bad it can be diagnosed in toddlerhood. I feel sorry for their families, too!

 

[kirstenb1]

Magpie and Mystery Machine, your posts put together sum up our daughter's OCD.

1. she does get anxious if she can't do whatever it is

2. the OCD is just so pointless. Everytime she is obsessed with closing doors is time she could be spending doing something productive. As I said, some of her obsessions have gone away, and she is gradually doing things more "on purpose" rather than these random unconnected obsessions.

 

[sparklynails23]

..If for example something was "out of place" in his room, let's say he had to leave quickly before completing his rituals, will he become sick with anxiety away from home to the point of total distraction or not being able to function normally or lashing out because all he can think about is that thing out of place in his room.

That's why the diagnosis is inappropriate for a toddler. They don't have the memory capacity to stress over it for days. If they get upset, the cry themselves into a nap, and all is good and well when they wake up.

It's pointless to include a diagnosis of OCD with autism. An autism diagnosis contains the tendency to repeat actions, exhibit anxiety over small issues, etc. Adding OCD as a diagnosis is repetitive. It adds no value. It just gives parents one more thing to worry about and psychologists an avenue to justify their time with a client.

 

[Magpie]

That's why the diagnosis is inappropriate for a toddler. They don't have the memory capacity to stress over it for days. If they get upset, the cry themselves into a nap, and all is good and well when they wake up.

It's pointless to include a diagnosis of OCD with autism. An autism diagnosis contains the tendency to repeat actions, exhibit anxiety over small issues, etc. Adding OCD as a diagnosis is repetitive. It adds no value. It just gives parents one more thing to worry about and psychologists an avenue to justify their time with a client.

That was my whole point! A NORMAL toddler cries themselves into a nap, and all is good and well when they wake up. An OCD toddler crashes due to exhaustion and then wakes up and keeps crying.

A NORMAL toddler can be distracted. An OCD toddler can't be distracted.

It's not pointless to include it with autism, either. OCD and Autism are not always linked (look it up!). For instance, an autistic person without OCD can have intense interests that don't cause him any particular anxiety and aren't compulsions.

My cousin's autism is mild (as you might guess from the fact that even as a toddler he was trying to communicate with his parents by pointing). His OCD is severe. And his ability to remember the things he'd fixated on was astonishing, even when he was two.

 

[sparklynails23]

That was my whole point! A NORMAL toddler cries themselves into a nap, and all is good and well when they wake up. An OCD toddler crashes due to exhaustion and then wakes up and keeps crying.

A NORMAL toddler can be distracted. An OCD toddler can't be distracted.

It's not pointless to include it with autism, either. OCD and Autism are not always linked (look it up!). For instance, an autistic person without OCD can have intense interests that don't cause him any particular anxiety and aren't compulsions.

My cousin's autism is mild (as you might guess from the fact that even as a toddler he was trying to communicate with his parents by pointing). His OCD is severe. And his ability to remember the things he'd fixated on was astonishing, even when he was two.

Even with your stressed out definition, so many 2 and 3 year olds fit into the OCD category, that diagnosing it is pointless. At an older age, like school age, it may be meaningful, but most toddlers would probably meet an adult definition of OCD. It's silly to waste resources on an issue they are likely to outgrow. From the stories here, that seems to have been the opinion of professionals until now. Why would they suddenly start diagnosing toddlers with OCD? There must be money to be had.

 

[sparklynails23]

Here's a quote from an article on OCD in toddlers. I googled. It's the first article I opened:

" The OCD in toddlers cannot be assessed and diagnosed completely at this stage because they are in the learning process of life. Their habits and behaviors tend to change in course of time. The parents have to keep an eye on them continuously as they are grow. If the symptoms persist, say till the age of eight to ten, then they must seek a good psychiatrist."

Link:

http://www.helium.com/items/737500-assessing-obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd-in-toddlers

 

[sparklynails23]

Here's another link:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Parenting-Toddlers-Infants-2066/2009/4/2-year-old-OCD.htm

 

[kirstenb1]

That's why the diagnosis is inappropriate for a toddler. They don't have the memory capacity to stress over it for days. If they get upset, the cry themselves into a nap, and all is good and well when they wake up.

It's pointless to include a diagnosis of OCD with autism. An autism diagnosis contains the tendency to repeat actions, exhibit anxiety over small issues, etc. Adding OCD as a diagnosis is repetitive. It adds no value. It just gives parents one more thing to worry about and psychologists an avenue to justify their time with a client.

OCD does not go with autism 100 percent of the time. Your information is incorrect. It is not a repetitive diagnosis. It only gives me "one more thing to worry about" if I think it is not able to be changed. DD has dropped some of her OCD behaviors, so I am optimistic.

 

[sparklynails23]

Did you do something to help her drop the behaviors? Was she in therapy? Maybe the behaviors weren't part of her autism, but just normal development.

OCD-like behaviors are extremely common with kids on the spectrum. OCD-like behaviors are very common in normal toddlers. Did you read any of the links?

 

[sparklynails23]

OCD does not go with autism 100 percent of the time. Your information is incorrect. It is not a repetitive diagnosis. It only gives me "one more thing to worry about" if I think it is not able to be changed. DD has dropped some of her OCD behaviors, so I am optimistic.

So, your daughter DOES have autism. I'm sorry. I missed that. Is she a toddler, or was she diagnosed as a toddler? Did the doctors say her OCD was unrelated to her autism?

 

[kirstenb1]

So, your daughter DOES have autism. I'm sorry. I missed that. Is she a toddler, or was she diagnosed as a toddler? Did the doctors say her OCD was unrelated to her autism?

She was diagnosed with autism at 22 mths. Actually at that time she was unable to focus on anything for more than a few seconds, so her OCD wasn't apparent until the last year (she's 5 now). No one has ever diagnosed her with OCD, nor would I pursue a diagnosis. Nothing against someone who would, but for us, there's enough on her plate.

The OCD behaviors, like I said, have just come out in the last year. Maybe they were always there, but since she had so many other issues I missed them? Anyway, another example is she would lay out a dozen small objects around the room and could not pass by even one, without putting her fingers on it, and only her first 2 fingers. She'd do this several times a day. Very random, non-productive activity, but important to her.

She of course has sensory issues. These can appear OCD-like, but are not. For example, 2 years ago, she couldn't stand to have anything touching her fingers. Her teachers and I de-sensitized her to this by having her finger paint everyday.

I've never had any luck reducing a true OCD behavior with her, vs a sensory issue. With the OCD issues, she just seems to need to drop them on her own. Again, I've never pursued help with the OCD, but if her autism related conditions improve to where the OCD is more noticeable than they are, then I will. That would be a really good problem to have, at that point!