4 year old ds with possible asd picking at himself please help

[moo842]

my 4 year old son we beleive has an asd and after nearly 18mths is stll undiagnosed, but my big worry at the moment is that he is picking at his own skin, he has two huge patches on his face that i can't stop him picking at he has blood all over him all the time, and hes picking the skin on the tips of his fingers. who do i go to for advice, my hv said it was too specialist for her.

[mum22boys]

Hi moo842 and welcome <'> <'>

 

I have no great advice i'm afraid as we've not had anything like that but i'm sure someone will be along soon with advice. Hang in there this forum is great for advice and you will soon be hooked.

 

Have you approached your GP? I take it you are in the system and under a pead or CAMHS? Can you ring them?

 

Hope someone comes along soon with advice

 

mum22boys

[Bagpuss]

Hi moo842

 

Welcome

 

Have you been able to establish when he is doing this? Are there certain situations that trigger it or environments? Does is calm him ie when he is anxious? Is he aware that he is doing it?

 

Take care

[Zemanski]

Get him to the GP and ask for an emergency appointment with CAMHS - this could be either self-harm (which may be compulsive or due to distress or senory issues) or a symptom of obsessive compulsive disorder which is a common comorbid with ASCs, either way your HV is right, he needs to see a specialist and soon before it becomes a long term thing.

 

This sort of behaviour is usually associated with stress, anxiety or self-esteem problems so in the meantime do everything you can to reduce demands on him and stress.

 

Don't panic though, he will get better with support and there are people who can help sort it out, a lot of ASC kids go through this. Com does it from time to time and it started at about the same age, the periods don't usually last long and I see the behaviour as a sign he isn't coping and it's time to change something for him, usually the environment he is in as that is what he is most sensitive to.

 

Zemanski

[moo842]

sorry what is camhs?

[jb1964]

Moo842,

 

My daughter doesn't pick her skin but she bites her finger joints - this gets worse when she's stressed/anxious/trying to conform etc - as for helping this - there's nothing I can suggest as my daughter struggles to stop it even though her fingers are sore/bleeding/infected etc.

 

Is your son under CAHMS already? or a Paed? - contact them - if not as the others said you need to see your GP and be referred.

 

Take care,

Jb

[jb1964]

CAHMS - is Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service - which a GP/Paed can refer you to.

 

Take care,

Jb

[moo842]

hi there

 

yes we're under a pead, but its almost impossible to get an appointment, could you please tell me what cahms stands for?

[moo842]

sorry cross posted, do they have a cahms in every area, and is it just my gp we need to refer us? if so i'll take ds down tomorrow and beg for a refferal

[jb1964]

Hi Moo842,

 

Yes I believe every authority has a CAHMS unit. When you say your son has possible ASD and after 18mths still not diagnosed - has your GP not referred you already?

 

Take care,

Jb

[lil_me]

Every area should have a CAMHS unit, schools can refer aswell as the GP. You could ring the paed's secretary and ask her to forward a request to him for a referal to your local CAMHS unit, you don't necessarily need to see him/her, just ask if they can organise a referal, and maybe an urgent appointment with the paed aswell.

 

With hand picking, it's usually about breaking the ritual of it and figuring out why. Some children are helped by carrying round something to twiddle with instead, my son has a little flashing rubber ball he uses, kind of like them koosk balls or whatever they were called. Some I've known use gloves or plasters to stop/discourage them. Some use rewards for not doing the behaviours. Depends on the child and what they react best to. The main thing is trying to reduce why he does it.

 

Is there any specific time, place, situation etc he does it in ?

 

Welcome to the forum by the way <'>

Edited June 28, 2006 by lil_me

[Elouise]

Nathan has done this for years.

 

The others are correct to say push for an appointment with CAHMS.

You can also ask to go through the CDC too.

 

Nathan has to have a twiddly in his hands all the time otherwise he literally picks his poor face off.

 

Its also worth going to the GP, Nathans cannot stop him harming himself like this but we have the following arrangement with Nathan,

 

Red raw bleeding and sore, use the special anti-infection creams from the doctor to stop getting impetigo in the wounds (again!)

 

Your HV should be able to tell you the symptoms to warn you if he develops a skin infection. Those can be hard to clear up if you miss the early warning signs. One of Nathans took two blasted years after I thought 'oh well leave it till tomorrow I am tired, surely it cannot be that bad by tomorrow morning' WRONG...I had to take him to E&R after I saw him the next day.

 

Keep Nathans nails short and scrubbed to reduce the risk of bacterial infections of deep guages rather than wounds to the surface of the skin. The latter leave scars.

 

If Nathan ever over does it he comes to me and I use the hospital issue wound dressings to clean and patch him up. If its still bleeding after 10 minutes we go to casulty and if he has removed an area of skin larger than the size of the palm of his hand I ALWAYS take him to casulty (thats a good rule of thumb for anyone else out there with skin removers)

 

Thanks to NICE guidelines hospitals are becomming more understanding towards kids who harm themselves from anxiety and distress. *sighs* it also spends up your referral to CAHMS, Nathan is so well known I am allowed to self refer him and he gets seen whenever I suspect he needs to see them. (That is not a good thing to have it means they think he is risk to himself)

 

Repeated self injury leaves 'lichification' (makes the skin toughen up and go lethery) Nathan has some darn good specialist creams from the consultant dermatologist to help sort out his worst goes that involved removing the skin from the fronts of both his legs with scissors...and yes that WAS a casulty job BUT he did not do this till he was 11 and the removing skin response to stress had become deeply ingrained.

 

CAHMS have helped Nathan find less destructive ways of dealing with stress and anxiety, as others have said watch for when he doies this and see if you can see anything leading up to it.

If you can get in and break the stress/harm cycle by earlier intervention go for it.

I wish I had been able to get in before Nathan hit 7, everything he was still doing after that he cannot break from doing.

 

The best thing I can do for Nathan is treat this form of self injury in a matter of fact and calm way, if I worry about him doing it, he worries more then harms himself more and we get stuck in a cycle.

I KNOW he pickes so I point him towards eating holes in his clothes or hlding a block of ice to melt in his hand or write over himself with a washable pen or go play with his 'twiddle' lights in his room. Heck he can have his gameboy in his hand 24/7 if he leaves his face alone.

 

The important thing is to work out what works for your son and for you.

 

People can share ideas and things that have helped them but your the one who deals and lives with this and you know your son better than anyone else.