Help me Obi wan! LuLu’s OCD has manifested itself in the last 6-12 months in a very troublesome new way: food obsessions.

She will literally get “stuck” on a new food and negatively obsess on all the foods she can’t have (dairy). Then will insist that she can only eat the one food that she’s stuck on. This week it’s hummus.

Now there’s nothing inherently wrong with hummus. It’s just that serving it for every meal seems a bit problematic. And, ultimately what happens, is that she burns herself out on the obsessed food, refusing... more

Obsessions are a wonderful thing. Or at least they are very interesting. LuLu has been “Mufasa” for quite some time now, obsessed on everything Lion King. This particular obsession lasted a long time (6+ months). Long enough that LuLu was lobbying very hard to have her actual birth certificate changed to reflect Mufasa as her “real” name.

But just as quickly as it came, this obsession was overridden by Mighty... more

Do you have a special needs child that is obsessed with personal possessions, even if they belong to someone else? Does your child actually cry if you throw something away that hasn’t been touched or brought out of the toy box in a year? Do you have to purchase certain toys or movies again if they become broken to keep your sanity?

According to Wikipedia “

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric disorder most... more

LuLu carries both Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder in her alphabet soup of labels. Some doctors label the ODD more as Intermittent Explosive Disorder, but regardless of what you call it, the combination is deadly.

LuLu gets stuck, so stuck that if you try to dissuade her she becomes increasingly agitated until she explodes. Or if you try to ignore her she persists on with incredible defiance. If you try to reason with her…well she usually ends up raging then too, or engaging you in an endless game of “Let’s Make a... more

One of the most apparent, most chronic, and sometimes most frustrating symptoms that LuLu exhibits is “getting stuck”. She is always stuck on something. Oddly enough, most of the things change periodically. Although her obsession with all things medical and with bugs have been life-long.

Her latest obsession is Lion King. And a major part of the obsession is Mufasa (Simba’s father). She wants everyone to call her Mufasa. This has become a bone of contention, mostly for Super Dad. At first I tried to discourage... more

It happens every day. Sometimes during her typing practice, sometimes when we’re learning a new math skill, sometimes if the words begin jumping around on the page of her reading book – LuLu gets frustrated. What happens next? Well that depends so much on what LuLu does next.

“You can do it, you can do it,” she sometimes chants to herself. “Don’t make me eat Styrofoam!” she sometimes whines loudly. (I have no explanation for why she says this, but she does, often.)

Sometimes her verbalizations sound... more

It is quickly becoming my personal opinion that inositol may be a well-kept secret when it comes to helping Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Inositol is described as a member of the Vitamin B family, although it’s not really a vitamin at all. It is made by the human body and has been shown to be effective in managing anxiety and depression.

One study showed that people with OCD and panic disorder had symptoms drastically disappear when given a dose of 12 grams of inositol a day.

Often in pursue of the right biomedical answers for LuLu, I feel like a dog chasing my tail. Inositol is one of those moments. Before we consulted with our awesome DAN! doctor, who knows more about... more

I’m interested…very interested. So much of what parents are given by professionals in terms of parenting advice for any and all children are reward/consequence based strategies of behavior modification. But what if it doesn’t work? What if there isn’t a consequence out there that will stop your child’s negative behavior? What if there isn’t a reward they care a thing about?

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is different. It focuses on self-regulation of thoughts that trigger... more

An article in last Friday’s New York Times explores the idea of teaching parents behavior modification skills to help manage their children’s mental disorders, especially ADHD. The whole article can be viewed here.

The article cites that many parents of children with ADHD (and other disorders) greatly desire to avoid medicating their children, or to at least lessen the amounts of medication their child needs. It is fairly comprehensive look at... more

LuLu’s storms from last week appear to be subsiding. When I dissect what we see before, during and after her present-day rages, I can see the improvements. She’s able to verbalize prior that she’s starting to feel overwhelmed. And with the right support she is, sometimes, able to pull it together and avert the storm. The rages are of shorter duration, and afterward she is able to calmly discuss, quickly make restitution, and go on with her day. It is so much clearer to me now than when she was little and before I understood all of the incredible... more