Anyone have a child with similar characteristics?

by Erica Pare
(Windsor, Ontario)

My son is almost 4 and there have been some behaviours that just seem off. Starting when he was still an infant he would line up his cars, bottles of water, blocks ect.. He doesnt like his nails cut and insists on doing it himself. We cannot bring him to get his hair cut because he vomits everytime. He doesnt like loud noises, covers his ears or shushes people because their too loud. Also throws tantrums where he will hit himself or bang his head off the floor, dressers ect.. He is currently in speach therapy as he does not speak clearly and most of the time I am the only one who understands him. He is however extremely technologically advanced. He knows how to use a computer, change the channel on cable, ipads, cell phones, even can make his own folder on an iphone to include only his games.



Any insight would be greatly appreciated.



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May 08, 2012
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starstarstarstarstar 		Another suggestion
by: Anonymous

What you describe sounds like my 4 yr old exactly. Has to organize everything, poor coordination, difficulty cutting or writing, but very skilled with a computer. She loves starfall.com and is already adding and subtracting. Will organize items into multiples or 3's or 4's, etc. and will lay out 4 sets of 5 and tell you right off that's 20 without counting. She started speaking at 11 months and used to speak so clearly at age 2, that people thought she was 5. Around 3 her speech went the other way and now she doesn't speak very clearly at all. Many people have difficulty understanding her.

Her behavior’s also been getting worse. She throws tantrums for no apparent reason and is suddenly paranoid about all sorts of things - e.g. she loved dinosaurs and was so excited when we went to the museum, but the moment we went in she was suddenly terrified of them. We went outside for a 20 minute break and tried again to no avail. Her cries were of mortal terror as she fell to the ground. At home I even had to put up her toy dinosaurs it was so bad. This same has happened with other things as well. She also has insomnia and wakes in the middle of the night talking to herself.

When she was 2, we had a bad flood and our home became moldy. We moved and dumped all our stuff, it was so bad. She developed food allergies (a common side affect of mold exposure, I'm told). She is allergic to dairy, soy, wheat, and citrus.

A year later her dad became very ill. About six months ago he was diagnosed with Lyme disease and Bartonella, a Lyme co-infection.

A couple months ago we saw another Lyme specialist for a second opinion and he told of a story of a young boy he was treating, with similar issues as my daughter.

We never suspected that she had Lyme, but it turns out that she does, as well as the Bartonella co-infection. I'm told that the Bartonella causes all sorts of behavioral issues - insomnia, increased agitation to rage for no apparent reason, extreme paranoia, lack of focus, fogginess, etc. It can also cause hearing loss which might explain the poor speech. We are planning to get it checked. It can also cause many other issues.

Unfortunately it’s difficult to test for since there are many different strains and it can lie dormant in the body for several weeks, only being active when it reproduces. They're finding that it can be transmitted by more than just ticks – e.g. fleas, bed bugs, mosquitoes, etc.

If you wish to look into this find an ILADS DR. This organization is actively working with the most knowledgeable Drs doing the latest research on Lyme in the country today.

I wish everyone the best of luck finding the real reason / solution for your child's issues.
May 04, 2012
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starstarstarstarstar 		Continued...
by: Anonymous

I encourage you to find a really good neuro psychologist that does diagnosing. It will be beneficial to do it again when he is older. While my son's original diagnosis of Asperger's remains (after PDD-NOS for years), he has other diagnosis that will benefit him in obtaining services now that he is older.

He has a major underlying diagnosis of generalized anxiety that is considered an Axis I and will get him state services once he is 18 or older.
May 04, 2012
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starstarstarstarstar 		similar characteristics
by: marjory scotland

Hi me again just read the other comments, Yes my son has aspergers-he can also climb a tree, socialise and do everyday things. Maybe you dont know too much about this condition??? It is more a social problem than a climbing tree problem. If you asked your child to hold the door, would they know you meant hold it open???. "pull your socks up" etc. everything is literal. We get round this by teaching metaphors, hard work but getting their. How did you go with evaluation.
May 03, 2012
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starstarstarstarstar 		Update
by: Erica

Well we got his testing done with the behavioural therapist and he did have a delay in3 categories they are thinking possibly a processing disorder if they dont see much improvement in the next couple months they are going to send him to the child psychologist for a full evaluation
May 03, 2012
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starstarstarstarstar 		Trust your instints...
by: Anonymous

When my son was just a toddler I knew something was "different" about him. I already had 3 older daughters so I knew what I was feeling, but my pediatrician kept assuring me he was just a willfull boy. He met or exceeded all of the usual milestones. It wasn't until he was in the 5th grade that he was diagnosed with asperger's syndrome. I had never heard of it, but when I started to read about it, my son was there on every page. Don't wait, get him a neuro psych eval asap.
Mar 17, 2012
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starstarstarstarstar 		PANDA
by: Anonymous

I have a child very much the same. Please have your child strep level checked my son had PANDA please look it up and see if you should have it checked out.
Mar 16, 2012
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starstarstarstarstar 		feedback
by: erica

We have had him checked for food allergies including gluten as well. All those tests have come back normal. We are currently working with an OT for his behaviour and she is supposed to be starting his evaluation this upcoming tuesday. I will look into those different things mentioned and see how it goes. thanks
Mar 16, 2012
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starstarstarstarstar 		Very similar at 4 and doing great at 8
by: Anonymous

Hi - I saw your post. My daughter, now 8, was quite similar. In addition, she did not like escalators, elevators or in general getting her feet off the ground. She is also very math and science oriented. She does not, however, as another person wrote in have Aspergers. Rather it was sensory in nature. We did some OT around age 4, with a gifted OT who saw her hyper sensitivity as related to her movement patterns and an effort to limit her world as an attempt to control the overload of sensory input she was experiencing. In addition to intensive movement based OT, she did therapeutic listening (Vital Links - Madison, WI). She subsequently has thrived - today - she likes to play in the dirt, her room is, for better or worse, messy, she is quite social, she climbs, she still excels at math but not exclusively and all signs of OCD like behaviors are gone. In addition to good OT intervention, I strongly recommend a multisensory eduction - in our case, the Waldorf School but a Montessori approach would also be helpful. Good luck!!!
Mar 16, 2012
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starstarstarstarstar 		sounds like my son
by: marjory

hi, i just read about your boy. sounds the double
of my boy only he could speak very clearly from word go. he is now 8yrs old with newly diagnosed
aspergers syndrome, and around 2yrs ago reduced proprioception. If you read Temple Grandin's Thinking In Pictures. A hard book to read but the best and you have to stick with it. My boy is at main stream school in p4, he still has problems , we done listening therapy, tomatis, we have coloured lenses, speach and language therapy, useless, Find out as much as you can go to careers meetings thats where you get info. And most of all dont take no for an answere from anyone. I was told he was fine and would grow out of it. Good luck and let me know how you do.
Mar 16, 2012
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starstarstarstarstar 		rule out first
by: mj

when a child has behaviors you are describing you might want to start by 'ruling out' things - first, check out food sensitivities/allergies. These are less accepted as causes for behavior issues by the main stream medical community but there is a building body of evidence that a child's 'off' behavior is associated with food sensitivities, in particular - milk, gluten and sugar. I recommend to go this route first because it is not invasive or harmful to the child - and if by chance your child's behavior is caused by food and you find this out first you will save your child and your a lot of heartache. the other areas to investigate would be the autism spectrum and sensory processing. please rule out the food issues first so your child will not be unnecessarily medicated. good luck.

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