Little Man has been having a rough time lately. To be honest, I think it's a combination of a lot of things wreaking havoc on his mind, body and soul. He's 2, he's a BOY, he's growing, his 2 year molars are popping through, he wants to be a big boy, he's energetic, he's going through a vocabulary EXPLOSION and he's addicted to coloring. Mix all that together and the kid is a little conflicted. He can go from being the sweetest thing and melting your heart with his big brown eyes...to kicking and throwing and racing through the house like the Tazmanian Devil.
The hardest part for me lately has been hearing the reports from daycare. The teachers are always so nice about it, but the bottom line is he is wound up and aggressive towards the other kids most of the day...every day. The problem is that I'm not there, so I don't get to see what is happening around him that might be causing him to react a certain way. I don't get to see him in the environment that he spends 11 hours a day in. Is he bored? Is he reacting to how others are treating him? Is he overstimulated? Is he doing these things out of the blue and for no reason at all? Are there too many kids in the class and too much activity going on around him? None of the answers to these questions are very clear. Even the teachers who are observing this behavior can't fully answer any of them because in some cases only Will knows what is going on. As a parent, I think we feel a sense of responsibility to figure these things out...but I can't seem to do that. I get the same report almost every day and it's more negative than positive. I don't want them to lie to me...so if he's having a rough time I need to know that. I just wish that we were hearing more positive reports from school than negative. One thing that I AM certain about is that Will is a very sweet, GOOD kid. He might be wild and crazy, but he has a good heart and there isn't a drop of malice in anything that he does. Sure, he might get mad, or frustrated, or hurt, or upset...and sometimes he will have a physical reaction to those feelings before he even has a chance to think about things...but I know he's not TRYING to truly hurt others. We need to help him learn to stop and think about what he's doing before his body lashes out. It's not an easy task, but I have ordered a few books to help me. Next steps are to learn as much as I can and to get us all responding to him in a consistent manner. He needs to know that no matter where he is, the consequences will be the same.
Aside from some of the behavioral concerns, we are also dealing with severe eczema...all over his little body. It's so bad even the creams and lotions that previously seemed to work are no longer doing the job. Large patches of skin on his arms and legs are now puffy and red and he is growing molluscum. The worst areas are behind his knees and in front of his elbows. Several people suggested that we take him to see an allergist, which is exactly what we did this past Monday. He did great during the appointment...right up until the scratch test began. They made me undress him and then he sat straddling me, with his back facing the nurse. She scratched him with 10 of the most common food allergies and the poor thing clung to me like a spider monkey and SCREAMED. After 15 minutes the doctor came to give us the news...Will was not allergic to any of them. They gave us prescriptions for a new steroid cream, an antihistamine and told us to try Vanicream lotion and we were on our way. We did all of those things and the very next morning Will had a red rash all over his body. Great. So all this stuff prescribed to 'help' him is now adding to the insanity with a head to toe rash...lovely. Since then, we have stopped everything they told us to (since we don't know which of the 3 things caused the rash) and we are now using Burt's Baby Bee products. We purchased a buttermilk bath soak which we put in their bath every night and a lotion, which we put on twice a day. We haven't been using anything else and so far, it has not made anything worse...AND things seem to be improving! Wahoo! I have my fingers crossed that things continue on this path. This little guy needs a BREAK!!
1 comment:
We went through and still go through the same behavior stuff with Jackson from time to time at school and your post is like verbatim what my life was like at the stage that Will is at, and your thoughts echoed mine. The daycare also tells me "Jackson is all boy" I think that is their way of nicely saying "he is a handful" but that is how most boys are and I guess we would not want them any other way. I also struggle with not knowing what is going on when I can't see him in that environment as he is so sweet at home so what gives??!!
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