OCD in Toddlers…yep…I said it!

“Wait, Momma! Put here!”

Those words I hear all too frequently from my now 2 year old as she meticulously places her animals, blocks, books, you name it in its proper place. At first I was excited to have such a “clean” kid who had a spot for EVERYTHING! Before we would leave a room, it needed to be set up JUST right, before going to bed, we needed to go through JUST the right routine, while reading books, we needed to stack them JUST right, yada, yada, yada…you get the point.

Our sweet baby girl…

It wasn’t until the temper tantrums started that I started to wonder if her OCD tendencies were part of a bigger picture. We took Delise to the pediatrician and the doctor immediately started asking questions that made me feel like she was pegging Delise as autistic. The knot formed in my throat and I dreaded going further with any evaluation.

“Time Out” is utilized frequently in our household

My heart was telling me there is no way she had any type of autism tendencies and my mind was telling me I needed to investigate all aspects of the disability…every spectrum…just in case. I went home that day and dove into Google (the one thing you aren’t supposed to do) and let Help Me Grow know there was going to be a new part to Delise’s developmental journey. They asked me similar questions the doctor did and then gave me action steps to help get her back on track. We have since been using the action steps that were given to us and have seen a lot of improvement in her obsessive tendencies. We were told to “Brush” her, make a mess of her cleanliness (she despises this), and come up with a better solution to the word “no!”

Keeping busy…ALWAYS

My point in all of this, It isn’t about the end result…but all about the journey. Our road is long to figuring out what makes Delise do the things she does but I am confident that with the help we are receiving and staying dedicated to helping her, we will have a beautiful end result to a story worth sharing with so many struggling with the same things.