Sorry for the long post but I am a bit frustrated.
I took my 5 year old to the pediatritian yesterday. For the past 2 months we have been battling with a few patches of excema that just won't heal. He scratches all night and wakes up with blood smeared sheets. He has 2 new prescriptions (Do any of you every feel like you could run a pharmacy out of your house?) and we are supposed to come back in a week if he doesn't improve.
He also ended up being referred to a developmental specialist. The pediatritian didn't feel that his behavior at the clinic is age appropriate. He is a perfectly normal child when he is inside our house. When we leave the house it is a different story. He is usually fine around people that he knows well but strangers (even
strange children) scare him. He turns into what I call "Velcro Boy". He is stuck to my leg or he demands to be held. Once we were at a yardsale and he was distracted looking at some toys. A woman noticed him and told him he was a cutie. He actually dove head
first into the basket under the stroller to get away from her. We have stopped going to church because it was too overwhelming for him. At church he would climb into my lap and moan loudly until I carried him out into the hallway.
As strange as he might act in other places it is SOOOO much worse in a clinic or hospital. For example yesterday he was okay in the waiting room. Then we were taken to the room where they get his height and weight and vitals. I tried for a while to get him onto the scale. He just wouldn't stand there. I ended up weighing myself and then weighing myself holding him. Then the nurse subtracted to find his weight. We didn't even attempt to get his height this time. I held him on my lap on the chair so the nurse could get his vitals (or rather try to get his vitals.) She touched his ear to take his temperature and that is when things went a little crazy. I ended up with a bleeding lip before we got him pinned own enough to get a temperature. (His temp. was normal by the way.) She tried to get the pulse/O2 monitor onto his finger. There was another wrestleing match and she got scratched. She decided that it wasn't worth the fight. She didn't even attempt to get his blood pressure this time.
She took us back to an exam room. I got him all calmed down and held him in my lap. The doctor came in and he was fine at first. She tried to ask him questions and he hid his face and kind of grunted. She talked to him trying to calm him amd let him get used to her before she tried to examine him. Then she got out the stethoscope and tried to listen to his chest. He squeezed himself against me so she couldn't touch his chest. so she decided to listen to his back. As soon as she touched him he threw himself backwards and started to scream and grunt. I can't imagine with all of the struggling and screaming that she could hear anything. We forced one of his arms straight so she could look at the excema. It is getting tough for me to struggle with him because I am 31 weeks pregnant. The doctor rolled her chair back to the other side of the room and my son went limp. The doctor and I talked. I put him in his stroller (Yes, he still rides in the stroller even though he is 5.) The stroller is a pretty safe place and he wasn't worried that the doctor would try to touch him there. Since he was calm she tried to ask him questions. He wouldn't look at her and grunted everytime she tried talking to him.
We stopped at the pharmacy and then left. About 30 seconds after we walked out the door he regained his voice and was my normal happy child again. I don't know why he acts the way he does. The doctor says that although his behavior might be appropriate for a toddler it is not appropriate for a 5 year old. My husband says that he acts the way he does because I baby him too much. I will admit that I baby him but I don't really know what else to do. I mean it is hard to do anything other than treat him like a baby when he is
hugging my leg and the only word he can get out is "Mama." When we go to the neighborhood park he will play with the other kids just fine if they are kids that he knows pretty well. If there are people there that he doesn't know though I will end up carrying him around on my hip with his head on my shoulder. It is either carry him or he will have a meltdown and end up on the ground kicking and screaming. He will refuse to walk and will eventually start to drag hismelf across the ground towards me.
Somehow I did get him to go to Bible school over the summer. I promised that I would be there waiting for him when he was done. After a little coaxing he went along with one of the preschool teachers. There were a few other moms with toddlers who decided to
ang around the church playground while we waited for the kids. I took my daughter out to play with the other toddlers. He was okay and participated with his class until the teachers took them to a different room. He saw that I was not in the foyer where he had left me and flipped out. One of the teachers had to come find me. He was so upset about it that he threw up. Needless to say he didn't rejoin his class.
I am really not sure what to do with him when he acts like that. I don't know why he does it. I hope that the developmental specialist can help out a little.
Does anybody have any advice or encouragement they can offer me? ↓
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