At wits end!?

by Clark
(Peoria)

For about the last 4 yrs, my 8yr old son has been battling many of the items on the checklist. My wife and I have not taken him to a doctor because we felt he would outgrow this as would a normal child with the different phases that occur throughout their childhood.

Background:
Motor skills are weak, but he has no cognitive problems in school. He has great grades and is a complete angel at school or while playing with other children at their homes. At our home, he does fine, but will have an occasional tantrum that lasts up to 2 hours. Sometimes he has 3-5 tantrums per week.


Commonalities occurring are his defiance with clothing. Socks do not always feel right. He won't wear his underwear and pants can be troublesome at times. He wears shoes with velcro straps, but complains they are not tight enough. Many of these items are right on according to the checklist, but he has one very disturbing addition. He will continually repeat he wishes he were dead when things seem at their worst. As a parent, this is the absolute most difficult thing to hear. We are both professionals. She teaches 2nd grade and I am a firefighter. We spend a great deal of time with him and his 3 siblings (ages 12, 5, & 5). He gets a great deal of 1 on 1 time because we thought that might be a piece of the puzzle. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to have much effect. We are setting up an appointment with the family physician to explore diagnosis' and treatments. My fear is medications and/or psychological problems, but we won't jump the gun just yet. We are taking this one step at a time and thus far the hardest part is just taking the first step.