Does My 4 Year Old Son Have Obsessive Compulsive Behavior?

I have a great catalog that I get in the mail that has all kinds of products for babies and toddlers. It is called one step ahead. Here is their website: http://www.onestepahead.com. Perhaps you will find some really great safety products that will help you keep him safe while he explores. Good luck!

A., ARE YOU AWARE THAT THERE ARE SOCKET PLUG COVERS FROM THE HARDWARE STORE OR WALL-MART, ETC. THERE IS NO NEED FOR ANY MORE FRUSTRATION. ALSO, SPECIAL BABY LOCKS FOR CABINETS TO PROTECT HIS CURIOUS, INTELLIGENT NATURE FROM HARM. YEP! THIS PHASE WILL PASS...JUST AT THE TIME, IT SEEMS YOU NEED TO 'OUTSMART HIM' A.. THINK OF WAYS TO BLOCK HIS HABITS. THIS MAY CAUSE FRUSTRATION, BUT JUST DIVERT ATTENTION TO SOMETHING MORE APPEALING. EXPERIMENT AND HAVE FUN DOING IT!
PLEASE DON'T EVEN THINK OF MEDICATING A HEALTHY CHILD! OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE IS NOT A FOUR YEAR OLD'S 'PROBLEM. NEITHER CONSIDER MEDS FOR ADT...IT'S PROBABLY THE FOOD HE'S EATING IF HYPER. Soda, sugars or anything, ANYTHING WHITE going into the food...not good for anyone. Bread, sugar in forms you don't even realize, (read the labels), too much sugar in fruit juices...give purified water. You will notice the difference in a few days. This includes changing your habits and not forwarding those thing untaught by other out of ignorance...that's not for you as a caring family director. Life is a business! Your business is to protect and have healthy growth by planting good seeds. Love ya!

A.-

OCD? I don't think so. He probably just has a very curious mind and will grow up to be a electrical engineer or an architect! Both my boys were adventuresome to the point of safety concerns, but I just child proofed the house and left them to their imaginations. I think toys like Legos, erector sets, blocks anything that can be taken apart and put together is a variety of ways fosters the imagination while channeling it to safe activity. Does he have any outside activities such as K-league soccer or building sand castles? I wouldn't worry too much and I would be careful of doctors eval. They tend to jump to medication regardless of what is wrong. I'm sure as an el teacher you know that children are not all the same and should not be treated all the same. Your son is just different but shows a lot of curiosity and resourcefulness. Enjoy him.

I wouldn't worry. Personaly I would put some saftey covers on the outlets. For things you don't mind he unplugs you can put a cover on that as soon as something is unplugged it covers the outlet holes, for things you want left plugged in like lamps they make covers that fit over the outlet and plug. Try making a toy for him to playwith, a box with outlets installed on it and an old plug with a very short cord attached through a hole and a knot tied in the other end to keep it from being removed. That may help give him some satisfaction. Kids can get obsesive about things. My sister was obsesive about her socks being perfectly straight, the part in her hair perfectly straight, the cut on her sandwich perfectly straight to the point she would fix it over and over and over again until she was satisfied and she grew out of it.

i don't think thats ocd, i think he's a curious little boy. mine is the same way. he's just looking for things to do.

My twin boys were always getting into trouble at that age playing with dangerous things, taking apart toys, dropping money on a partially exposed plug to see what would happen. (Lights dimmed and we ran upstairs to see a burn hole in the rug and both kids laughing hysterically.)
That said, my oldest grandson has mild autism, and from infancy he was completely obsessed with fans and machinery. There was a difference in that he didn't play the way his uncles did, or relate to us the same way. Because he didn't have what I considered classically autistic behavior, his pediatrician overlooked it. He was diagnosed when he kept having problems in school. Initially they called it ADHD, but finally thank goodness, a therapist in a group for social skills figured it out. I am not saying that your child is autistic or has Asperger's, only that you need to listen to yourself if you feel that there is more going on than curiousity because the earlier a child with asperger's or autism gets help, the better the prognosis. Also, just knowing makes it so much easier to understand and to be patient and to know the best way to respond.

Good luck. Whatever happens you are a wonderful mother to be so concerned with your child's well being.

Love from the proud grandma of an mildly autistic young man who is also funny, artistic, musically gifted, and sweet.

I would not be so quick to have your son evaluated and placed on medication. Doctors these days seem to jump in to medicating rather than education. I work with children ages 2 to 5 and have done so for about 7 years. I have had children that have these types of "fixations", however not something that is potentially dangerous such as electrical outlets, but things like trash cans, opening and closing things with hinges, etc. The answer to me would be to help your child learn safe ways to use the outlets. It has been my experience that the more you try to prevent a child from doing something, the stronger the compulsion becomes. Personally, when I find a child that shows strong preferences for things like this, I enjoy it better than the child who is apathetic and has no interest at all. I think it is a wonderful personality trait and it is somthing you can channel in positive directions, rather than trying to eradicate it with medicine. It is a part of who he is.

R.
Teacher, ages 2-3

I personally wouldn't be too worried, other then the fact that your outlets should be covered!!! My son is the same way if it has a plug it should be plugged in, if it has a screw, he should find a screwdiver and turn it. All buttons are meant to be pushed and inder no curcumstaces is something that is off not to be turned on.... Sound farmiliar? i would jsut make sure your house is "baby safe" and as teh proir message said get him some "life like toys" of his own. Kids love that stuff.

OCD is a pretty seriouse thing and I would think if he had it you would notice it in MANY other thing then just the need to plug things in, (I think that is jsut another boy gene).

For instance for cut the same way, not being about to move on to the next task untill everything is finished and set "just so". Things having to be done in the same order everytime, or the whole day can't move forwards, that kind of thing. Iam around my best friends son a lot and he has OCD, very mild, but it took me a very long time to learn all his "ticks" befor we couldget along...

Best wishes

H.

You should pu the safety plugs and DO NOT WORRY ABOUT HIM......

It seems to be normal as my son went through it as well. Talk to him and explain how bad he can get hurt, and how sad it would make you and daddy if that happened. It always amazes me how much they can understand!

R. Williamson
Stayin Home and Lovin it!
www.asparrowsfreedom.com

Childproof your home...It is not OCD.

He is just trying to find out how things are working. Just take care and let him learn make it fun for him.

Sounds like my boyfriend when he was a baby. He is now an electrician. They have those plug locks you can get from home depot that blocks him from getting to the plug when it is pluggedin. I also tried putting things in front of where something is plugged in if you can it really worked for us. Good luck

I personally don't think he has ocd. My brother was the same way when he was little, and he also looooooved to take things apart just to see how they worked.

One thing you could probably try is get him his own little versions of things. Little vaccuums (my daughter loves hers), little record players, little flash lites. Anything that resembels something that you use. They tend to love to have things that's their size. You also need to be strict and consistent with punishment and praise about doing things that are dangerous.

Oooo... there is a Bob the Builder work station at toys r us that would also be perfect because then he could have his own little tools, lots of things to keep him preoccupied.

Good luck!

It is normal for kids to be interested in plugs, outlets, etc. They are at eye level and easy to get ahold of. I would be very careful before putting such a small child on a medication that he will have to be on the rest of his life. OCD is a condition in which you HAVE to repeat some sort of ritual (turning the light on and off 4 times before walking into a room, scrubbing your hands back and forth until they turn red when washing, etc.) A curious mind is not OCD.

Hi A.,
Please reconsider medicating your son. It's a multi-billion dollar busines that's abused by even the best doctors.
Instead of looking at his facination with plugs as a problem...consider it an expression of his natural intelligence and gifts. Use your imagination and find some safe alternative play items he CAN play with. I had a client whoose 3 year old did the same thing. He found old cords, plugs etc. and mounted them to a piece of plywood (sanded and painted) and had a "special box" full of O.K. things. The kid loved to take the computer, printer, t.v. wires out and mess with them. That became off limits and the new "toy" wires were incouraged.
Being an elementay teacher you will have lots of opportunities to help kids channel their natural talents. Start with your own little guy. Who know, maybe Bill Gates played with wires when he was little!

A little eccentricity is part of being too young to know that you should pretend to act just like everyone else!

:-)

In a year or two your son will feel the pull of peer pressure and start to emulate other children's concerns and behavior more. And by the time he's 12 he'll be quite concerned about being "wierd"!

But if you really feel something's not right, talk to your pediatrician. And keep in mind that there is a condition called "Asperger's Syndrome". Children with this neurological condition have unusual difficulties in social interaction (just can't seem to interpret social cues), have strange obsessions and repetitive mannerisms. It is considered a form of developmental delay.

I have worked with children who have the disorder (in the preschool setting) and they are great kids, but definitely marching to their own beat. One little boy I worked closely with (personal tutoring) blossomed when his parents and I learned to humor his obsessive interests. When he was into sea shells, we got books and videos from the library, took a trip to the aquarium, etc. (Perhaps your son would enjoy a video or book about electricity and some kind of science kit.)

He showed tremendous ability to remember what he had learned, and he was thrilled by our cooperation. It turned out, he just learned in a different style than other children -- focusing intensively on one thing at a time. Then he would move on to a new topic.

Note that this behavior is not that uncommon among preschoolers (to be enthusiastic about a particular subject or character almost to exclusion). But with the Aperger's child, it persists much longer. And there are the odd mannerisms and social behavior along with it.

Fore more info:

http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/welcome/conditions/asperge...

Also, here is a page of science links and resources that I've put together. You can browse it for materials related to electricity. There's also a great "plasma ball" toy that might distract your son from the plugs. Maybe if he can find a safe and constructive way to satisfy his curiosity... he'll stop investigating it in dangerous ways!

http://www.earthskids.com/ek_science.aspx