The Crew - Miss Fabulous, Lil Bro, Big Sis and Mr. Man

Friday, February 13, 2009

Ain't Misbehave'n

We had M's appointment with her psychiatrist yesterday afternoon. We had the whole gang with us as usual and unknown to us C had food dye in some juice drink. He was bouncing off the walls, asking the doctor a billion questions. The doctor told him to turn the sound off on his didj. C said "why?" "Because the noise bothers me. I hear noise all day and it is time for some quiet." C, "How can noise bother you? You are a doctor. Hey that is a computer. I like to use the computer." "Yes but this is my computer C." "Why does your computer have a flower on it? Where did that flower come from?" "That is a rose C. It is in San Fransisco. Do you know where San Fransisco is?" C, "Of course." "I bet you know a lot of things C. And I am glad that you feel so at home here but this appointment is for M." C, "Yes that's right."

He never actually looked at the doctor just kind of talked at him and he was definitely on super hyper drive, even for C. Then V and C had an exchange of words. She needed to correct him while doing her homework sprawled out on the floor in the doctors office. Next E starts running the toy car all along the wall. The doctor says, "Not on the wall. Put the car on the floor. Thank you." All the while we are trying to discuss M and how much better things are.

The doctor tried to talk to M who is not going to talk to him. He ask questions like, "how is school?" "Good." Are they teaching you anything there? "no." "Do you like school?" "yes" "What did you do at school today?" "Nothing" He has some other questions to which the answer was "no" "no" "no". Then he ask "Do you know anything else to say other than no?" "No." That one made me laugh out loud.

We explained that she had not raged since the Abilify dose had been increased. That she had a tantrum while her CBA was at our house Tuesday but it was a 5 year old tantrum and nothing out of the ordinary. He asked if we wanted to continue on the same course of treatment and I said "well yes!" So that was that. Then it was time to go and the kids all said "we just got here." And C said "why was the visit so short?" The doctor said "because when M is doing well the visits will be short."

Then our whole loud troop headed down the hallway into the lobby and wanted some loot. M said to this doctor she doesn't want to talk to "do you have any stickers?" So he went and found some Disney stickers and they all lined up like baby ducks for stickers. Little Mr. E was right there too. So funny.

After that Nan and I took the kids to Boston Market. C was in super hyper over drive by this point. He was so disruptive that I could not order. I excused myself from the order taker person and said "every body march outside now." The boo-hoo's began of we did not get to eat yet. I sat them down outside and explained that C's behavior was not acceptable and that they all needed to be still while we ordered. I asked if they could behave at school in the lunch room like they were behaving in that restaurant. They all answered no way. Right. So you are not going to behave that way with Mom either, got it? Got it. We marched back in and did much better. C was clearly still struggling but holding it together better. He lost computer for the evening because of his misbehavior.

When we got home he went and got on the computer while I was putting M in her bed. She was already asleep at 6:30. So I instruct him to get off the computer. Major tantrum. He ends up ripping up a special note that V had given me. He was sent to his room, would not go. It took a while to be able to safely get a hold on him that I could move him and not drop him. He then through things out of his room into the hallway. I instructed him to sit on the bed and then I would come in and talk with him. He did, eventually. He was coming out of his skin squirming and wiggling and saying "calm me down, calm me down. what can you do to help me calm down." I sat with him and put on his music. He asked for his PJ's and started to relax. I brushed his teeth and then read him a story and laid down with him. He went right out.

This morning when Nan dropped him off at school she went in to speak with the teacher. I had asked her to see what they had for snack yesterday. Sure enough they drank juice with red #40 in it. Nan explained the major tantrum and we decided on bringing juice boxes for him to have at snack time. Poor kid lost computer for a week.

This is why I entitled this post "ain't misbehave'n" because C's behavior was greatly influenced by a chemical substance. Here are a few sites that talk about food dye reactions in children.

http://www.cspinet.org/new/200806022.html
http://www.fastq.com/~jbpratt/recipes/allergiesintol/blproblems.html
http://www.allergicchild.com/food_dye_allergies.htm

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