out of control giddy behavior

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Registered: 03-31-2003
out of control giddy behavior
7
Mon, 08-28-2006 - 11:23am

Lately Sylvia (4.5 y.o.) has been sooooo giddy -- like out of control manic, hyper, laughing hysterically, bumping and crashing into people, making very loud nonsense sounds, etc. This is somewhat new, beginning this summer. I can think of all sorts of reasons for it (10 days of vaca before summer school, summer school held in different building than preschool, 6 days visiting my parents in Boston after end of preschool, and now we're in the middle of 2 weeks of vaca before preschool begins again.) So lots of changes happening here, plus she was potty trained in June, so that's a huge new thing. However... the giddiness is driving me CRAZY!!! When she's in this mood, she intentionally bothers her brother just to get a reaction from him and from me -- poking him, getting in his space, and occasionally grabbing him and pulling him to the ground. When we're out anywhere, she'll periodically run away from me, screaming "STOP!" at the top of her lungs and laughing hysterically (this was a HUGE problem when we were at the airport flying to and from Boston). And sometimes she'll deliberately bump into random strangers (particularly old ladies for some reason) and laugh and say, "Oops, sorry!"

I can usually handle these things okay -- heavy lifting helps, putting her in time out actually works these days, making her sit in the shopping cart if she starts running away, telling her she can bump into me all she wants if she needs to bump into someone but she may not bump into anyone else. But clearly she's looking for a certain kind of input that I don't know how to give her. We try crashing on the bed and couch but she's not that into it. We do things like wheelbarrow walks, pushing the full laundry basket, lifting milk jugs, and we also do things like holding her hand and letting her run in circles around me while I gently yank her arms to pull her back -- she loooooves this, I think she really likes that yanking motion. But while these things might work in the moment, none of them seem to be helping to moderate the giddiness in general. Can anyone think of other things I can try with her in order to help give her the input she's needing? The best thing of course is to take her outside to the playground etc. and just let her run around like crazy, but it's been rainy here lately and this is a child who freaks out if she gets a drop of water on her clothes, so we have to stay indoors when it's at all damp out...

Jennifer

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Registered: 09-09-2005
Mon, 08-28-2006 - 11:27am

Hmmm, Liam has always been like that, esp when he is manic.

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Registered: 03-31-2003
Mon, 08-28-2006 - 11:57am

We do have an indoor ballpit, but she's never been that interested in it. Sebastian enjoys it far more than Sylvia does. We used to roll her up in blankets and for some reason we haven't done that in a while -- will give it a try. Thanks!!!

Jennifer

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Registered: 04-11-2003
Mon, 08-28-2006 - 1:00pm

Ds will get that way if he has yeast overgrowth. From what I gather on the other lists I go to its a very common symptom of yeast overgrowth.

Samantha

Samantha
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Registered: 03-31-2003
Mon, 08-28-2006 - 1:58pm

Wow, I've never heard of that. How would you go about treating that? Do you just load him up on probiotics, yogurt etc.?

Jennifer

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Registered: 04-11-2003
Mon, 08-28-2006 - 3:09pm

We use probiotic & natural antifungals like GSE (grapefruit seed extract) & Oil of Oregano. Some people use prescriptions like Nystatin (sp?) or Diflucan. Our new DAN NP gave us a script of difulcan for dd if she gets a yeast flare from introducing B vitamins, her typical reaction to B's.

Samantha

Samantha
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Registered: 03-31-2003
Tue, 08-29-2006 - 1:26am

My son used to get like that when he was younger. I never really knew how to describe it, because it was way beyond the scope of "normal" behavior. A lot of 4.5 year olds get giddy and goofy, but it was quite worrying and disturbing with him. He'd get all wild and start splashing his foot into the toilet bowl, or something like that, laughing manically and shouting weird things. And he could not, would not stop. His brother was an infant, and there were times, like diaper changes and baths, when having David get all wild like that was very unsafe, so I actually had to put a little lock on the outside of my bedroom door to keep him in there while I did those things, which is generally considered a no-no, but it was the only way.

That kind of stuff stopped once we got him on a therapeutic dose of a mood stabilizer. (We kept pretty good records of the odd behaviors, and ended up with a dx of Asperger's and mood disorder NOS.) We also realized that, in his case, if we yelled at him or spoke in an angry tone, the wild, giddiness got much worse. As soon as we began to treat him as if it were an illness that was making him misbehave, as opposed to willful disobedience, that helped a lot too. He has always loved books, so we discovered that giving him a book to look at in a quiet room REALLY helped him switch gears. In fact, it was the only thing.

Perhaps there is something that would work like that with your daughter? Books, coloring, listening to some soft music? If it seems like nothing works, that's a really big hint that she can't control herself and needs some help. Don't miss the hint, like I did for so long.

The yeast thing sounds like it's worth investigating. I'll admit, I've never heard of that before.

Evelyn

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Registered: 03-31-2003
Tue, 08-29-2006 - 2:35pm

Thanks, Evelyn. Having her play alone in her room definitely helps calm her down, and she will play alone for hours. But that's partly the problem: if she's playing in there for too long, I feel like I should get her out and among people so she can get some social interaction, KWIM? One thing that definitely helps calm her down is for me or DH to play alone with her in her room -- either a board game, or some pretend play with her dolls, or drawing a picture, etc. She really craves that. Sometimes, though, it's just not possible for me to spend hours and hours alone with her in her room, since Sebastian is also in the house and he also needs my attention. Or if we're out somewhere -- like the airport, someplace really overstimulating, it's difficult to find a quiet place to go. But I've definitely noticed that in the past week, since we got back from our vacation, she's been spending a LOT of time alone in her room, and wanting to spend a LOT of time alone with me. So my guess is that she knows what she needs to do... I just feel so guilty when she spends so much time in there!!! (Jewish guilt -- you can't rival that!)

Jennifer