Question

Hi, is anyone else's kiddo on the ASD or sensory issues develop new routines or rituals being out of school? My son is obsessed with hair being in eye and spends a great deal of time picking at it in the mirror. Ive gone through two bottles of Visine in 8 days because he thinks something is in there. His eye is now red and puffy every day because he can't stop. Additionally, he has to examine his food for 5 minutes to inspect it for hair. His new way of life is hurting my heart. Sometimes he refuses to eat because he thinks there is hair in his food. He's over sensitive to any form of reassurance and replies to me combatively.  

Answer 1

Has he had strep recently or in the past year

Comments

@pigling no, but he did complain of a sore throat awhile back, we didn't go to the doctor because he was fever free and it seemed to go away after I gave him cough drops.  

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You might want to get him checked for PANDAS. It typically appears as sudden onset OCD after untreated strep throat. If not that, it still sounds like OCD, possibly from all the recent changes. Poor kiddo. Hang in there momma!  

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@fortyniner , I’d definitely start with a swab for strep. Even if he hasn’t had typical symptoms. Strep crosses the blood brain barrier and causes some strange neurological symptoms, OCD included. And oddly, food restriction is a major area where these “compulsions” show up.  

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I have a friend whose son has had compulsions”, like you’re describing from Strep. For them it was call PANDAS. Might look into this?  

Answer 2

Poor kiddo. We haven’t seen that here, fortunately. But this disruption is HARD.  

Answer 3

Is his hair long?  

Comments

I only ask because maybe he can wear a bandana to keep it out of his face till the ritual stops. Also I would use saline to rinse out his eyes. The visine could be irritating them more as well. My kiddo had an eye poking ritual that was not fun! And saline worked better.  

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@acaulescent no, his hair was cut a few weeks ago, we thought that would help.  

Answer 4

Oh no I am so sorry to hear this. Heartbreaking when they "pick up a habit" like this. We are not dealing with this issue but behavior has gotten way worse since we have been out of school. Routine, routine, routine! I am trying MY best to have a routine of sorts. He has much better days when we can stick to the routine. Hang in there momma, we are almost on summer break and hopefully things will settle down for us mommas with kiddos freaking out.  

Answer 5

This sounds similar to my cousins OCD. People joke about OCD but it's a real thing. My cousin would go through a bottle of soap a day from just washing his hands. He'd spend an hour in the bathroom just washing and rewashing his hands to the point of being raw. He was terrorized by the idea of other peoples germs. After a hospital stay and counseling, his fear levels have improved. We tend to joke about an especially clean or neat friend being "OCD", but real OCD is totally different. The person is terrorized by whatever it is they fear. be it germs or hair.  

Answer 6

Did he actually have a hair in his eye or food before that you know of? It could be a form of anxiety and or OCD. My daughter (5 years old) tends to have “episodes” we call them on certain things, mainly bodily functions, we once had a BIG episode for over a month! It was emotionally draining on all of us and very hard to sit back and watch her constantly struggle. There was really nothing we could do to get her to stop. (It was always being worried about throwing up, the month long one) it was constant panicking and obsessing over it. The best thing honestly was to just let her be and let her know ONCE each time she got worked up, that she’s okay. Anymore talk about it on my end would set her off even more and fuel the situation. It gradually got better over time. Every once in awhile it’ll get brought up and I tell her “she’s totally fine” (that saying is a comfort saying to her) and QUICKLY change the subject and attention to something else. I am sending you huge huge hugs because if it’s anything like what we dealt with it was ROUGH! I’m sorry I don’t have any exact recommendations, but it did get better with time and some calm quick reassurance. ❤️

Comments

Also, wanted to add. I know every kid is different so we did try a few different things with her (recommended by her counselor) to address and talk to her about what is actually happening and why she was feeling how she was. And whenever she would feel herself getting worried or worked up over it to find a special thing to focus on until it passed. My daughters is a container of kinetic sand. She sits alone and will do deep breath while playing with the sand until she feels better. Hope this helps some!