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| Fri, 02-03-2006 - 5:38pm |
Hi. I'm Debbie with one daughter, Stephanie, age 7 /12. She has epilepsy and has been seeing a neurologist for over 2 years. After that she has been showing signs of aspergers and OCD (Obssessive-compulsive disorder), anxieties and who knows what else. Her neurologist recommended she see a psychologist and recently a psychiatrist. Also, for over a year now she had pain in her vaginal area and after an MRI and many tests, they don't see anything physcially wrong with her. Most doctors feel it is in her head and that her anxieties and her brain is making her feel the pain, but there isn't anything wrong with her physically. We saw another pediatrician for a second opinion since we weren't getting an answers. But after reviewing her background, he agrees with the neurologist that she needs to see a psychiatrist and maybe see someone in the school district for therapy. She seems overwhelmed in large groups and overstimulated. She misses social clues. She has trouble following things and commands. But she is friendly and can communicate, but sometimes is hard to understand and doesn't let all she wants to say out of her head so most people don't have a clue what she is talking about. She is homeschooled though so we aren't sure what is availible from the school district.
After that background, my questions are: have any one of your children seen a psychiatrist? If so, what do they do? We see hers on February 21. Also, the second pediatrician said she will need extensive therapy to help her deal with the aspergers. What do they mean extensive therapy? Also, the doctor held her hands the whole time we were at the office because she would keep grabbing her crouch, which is embarrassing. He feels she does that for comfort like people twirl their hair or whatever. It is weird though because the pain seems so real to her. But she is an anxious/fearful child and when stressed says she has to pee, but she really doesn't. She still wets her bed most nights and asks many times, but not always, if there is a bathroom where we are going. She seems worse with DH because he is a bit stricter than I am.
Thanks.
Debbie

Hi Debbie,
It looks like your daughter has social/emotional issues. Are you home schooling for this reason? The reason I ask is my son also has major social/emotional issue and also sensory issue. He does hold his crotch when the underpants come in contact (sensory again). We are trying to correct this. We are in the process for getting a diagnosis for asperger. Before all this diagnosis, we did see a phyciatrist and he said he would prescribe anti-anxiety medication. We declined. Also under asperger umbrella, typically kids have ADHD, anxiety, OCD, LD etc. So I was glad we declined and we are in the process of finding a good speech therapy for pragmatic speech. He is also undergoing OT.
take care and hope you find answers to all you questions.
Anandhi
We use a lot of biomedical & sensory approaches for our kids. So my reply will be based on that. I'd suggest having you dd check out by a good chiropractor. If there is any nerve impingment in her lower back region that could lead to the night wetting and groin pain. You can have nerve impingement without any back pain. People often think chiropractors are back pain doctors but that's not really true. Some due specialize in back pain though so you do need to look for one who works with other conditions. Medical doctors don't think to check nerve function which baffels me as our whole body is controled by our nerves. The other thing doctors often miss is yeast overgrowth. My daughter used to do a lot of grabbing herself and rocking of her pelvis. She was also often in pain and looked rashy. She never tested positive for yeast at the doctors office though. But when I treated her with probiotics and natural antifungals all of those symptoms disapeared and her behaviour and emotional state improved dramtically. Like someone else said the grabbing could also be a sensory issue. Most kids with Asperger's have sensory issues. That can be address through OT.
For anxiety, I've found magnesium supplements to be helpful.
I hope you find some answers and help for her. And I hope you stick around here.
Samantha
Thank you ladies for your answers and advice. The thing about the nerves in the body is a very good point. I'll mention that to the pyschiatrist.
Thanks for the welcome.
Debbie