Gratification Disorder » Findings

What the Dr. said …

admin — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 03:01:56 +0000

My daughter had her visit with the Pediatric G.I. specialist on Fri. According to the Dr. many children around her age (who are learning about the “potty”) hold in there bowel movements. She believe’s this is what my daughter is doing. Which is dead on to what the OT had said she felt was going on. That bowel movements are a sensory (tactile) issue. Of which she had already found her to have tactile stimulation – sensory issue’s anyway. So, all of this together makes perfect sense to us! In other words my daughter holds in her bowels movements because of either the feeling/sensation of bowel movements or fear of them.

So, the Dr. has prescribed that she takes a daily laxative to try and help move things along sort of speak. So she had started this laxative on Fri. and has had two teaspoons every day since. There has been VERY little GD these past couple days. A few seconds here and there after waking and that’s it. Then today she had a real flare up just prior to moving her bowels (TWICE) and then NOTHING!! NO GD for the remainder of the day/night. So, I really feel in my heart of hearts that this is strongly connected to her bowel movements. We’ll see …

We’re still working with a behaviorist who has suggested that we redirect her to her bedroom when she begins the GD and also to stick to a tighter schedule so she knows what to except every day. That way there won’t be any surprise’s for her. Since we’ve started aggressively potty training her we run her to the bathroom instead of her bedroom. But 99% of the time she’ll tell us “mommy pee-pee potty”. The only time she won’t is when she has to move her bowels and that’s easy to figure out b/c there’s GD like crazy.

It’s all trial and error …. if at the end of all this craziness nothing comes from it at least I can say “I TRIED!!!!”

admin — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 03:18:41 +0000

O.K. so I promised to post the results of the Early Intervention Evaluation below is a list of that … ( remember she is 22months old)

Tactile Sensory issues

Cognitive Skills (thinking, learning & exploring): 20-23mos. - The evaluator didn’t test any higher than that because she didn’t see any problems. In fact she stated that had she done further testing my daughter would have have qualified higher in this area.

Physical/motor skills: – fine motor - 15mo., gross motor – 18mo. She showed difficulty in supporting herself while sitting on the floor, she didn’t grasp the crayons strongly or push rubber pegs into a rubber board firmly. Technically called ‘imature grasp’. All things that, per the Occupational therapist who did the testing, are easily overlooked unless you are the one looking for them.

Communication/language skills - (understanding and use of language): Receptive & Expressive 20-23mo. Again she would’ve qualified higher in this area too had the Teacher tested her at a higher level.

Social/emotional skills (interacting/getting along with others, feelings, coping): 20-23mo

Adaptive/Self-help skills (doing things for him/herself): 21-24mo

Suggestions/strategies for meeting outcomes: Well this part is new to all involved parties. No one around here has heard of Gratification Disorder and obviously as a result there is nothing in terms of strategies that are already in place. So we’re all exploring as many avenues as possible to try and come up with something that works in easing the behavior. The current list (which will be changed many times I’m sure) is as follows:

1) Attempt a diet change – gluten free, yeast, dairy, etc.

2) Explore sensory activities

3) Use play-dough, rice & beans on boxes

4) Finger paint

5) Hang on monkey bars with support

6)Develop a behavioral plan – a functional behavioral plan & develop ways to change behavior

7) Work with medical professionals and follow up with Dr.’s - As stated before I feel her worst days are strongly connected to her bowel movements. We now have an appointment with a Pediatric G.I. Dr. on Oct. 26th

Again just another little side note. There is no documentation available as to what others have tried or found to be helpful. If you’re reading this and have already tried these things I’d love to hear some feed back from you!

A little ray of sunshine :)

admin — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 04:04:05 +0000

SO here’s something interesting!! The E.I. eval actually found something that all these Dr.’s have missed!!! I’m not sure yet of all the details. I’m waiting for the written report from the evaluators but my daughter was found to have sensory issues – I believe the exact term was tactile sensory- and some very slight motor skills / upper body strength issues. I hear that sensory issues are on the rise. A friend of mine said something like 1 in 164 kids now are diagnosed with sensory disorders. I’m sure how absolute that statement is – hear say for me but it came from a very reliable source.

The gratification Disorder may be something she uses to calm herself because of this sensitvity to her environment. So there may actually be a reason why this has continued to get worse !!Much better than what I had been hearing – the same response over and over - ” There’s no real cause it just is a part of normal development and it will pass.” May also explain why she increases in the behavior when she needs to move her bowels – she’s extra sensitive!!

So because everyone I’ve met so far was so quick to say ” Yeap Gratification Disorder” and never bothered to explore other possibilities for the rise in behavior this may have gone unnoticed and, like I used in the pacifier example, may have gone unoticed her whole little life until she out grew her sensory issues ( if that’s possible). By which time I bet she’d continue with the behavior out of habit instead of neccesity for soothing.

So I’m glad I took it upon myself to continue to explore as many options as possible. I’ve learned something more about my daughter and hope this new found info will help us come up with a system that works for her and helps lessen this behavior that she’ll hopefully grow out of faster if we can pin point what it is exactly that bothers her. And if this never helps the Gratification Disorder itself at least in my search’s I’ve found a way to help my daughter when I didn’t even know she needed help! So at the very least soemthing good is coming from this. That’s what I’m trying to say.

As soon as I get the wrtten report I will post what they’ve found / said.

But the night of there visit ( three more since ) I layed in bed with her at bedtime and just gave her a very lite back rub and she fell right off to sleep without doing “it”. So just maybe … fingers crossed