Post trumatic stress syndrome/ children

[Enchanted]

Anybody have any experience of post trumatic stress syndrome in children or any behaviour problems following an anesthetic?
My friends ds 3.5 for the last three weeks has been behaving very unusally (for him). He appears to have seperation anxiety. He becomes very distressed when left at nursery, when anyone leaves the house, when mum gets out of the car leaving him with dad. Last week my dh babysat whilst myself and my friend went out, he was hyserical when we left, then, when she was taking him home he was the same leaving dh. He is the same if anyone leaves his house even though he is with mum & dad. We are trying to find out what could have happened and someone mentioned ptss.
He had a bad accident at xmas and split his lip, he needed surgery and the whole event was dreadful. The first hospital they got him to couldn't treat him and they had to travel an hour and a half to another hospital all the time he was bleeding perfusly. His mum was in a terrible state and we are wondering if his recent behaviour could have anything to do with this, even though it was a while ago.
I have also heard of general anesthetics playing havoc with emotions after the fact.
Any help would be much appreciated, they are at their wits end!

My son's behaviour became very like this after the birth of ds2. Truly dreadful. He stopped playing at all. Wherever we went he would glue himself to stairs and refuse to move. IF we went to a farm or something he would find a step there and refuse to move and start screaming if we tried to budge him. He spent 75% of every day screaming, and would scream at bed time and wake in the night screaming (having always been very good at bed time before) He's non-verbal autistic so your friend may have more options than we did. It did go completely- but took about 4 months. In that time we just tried to be reassuring (bloody difficult when he was up screaming at 3am yet again having screamed until falling asleep at 11pm). The one thing that we found had a miraculous effect was homeopathy (the effect was so incredible that I started training to be a homeopath). Maybe that would be worth a go? It certainly couldn't do any harm.

last year my ds1 was hit very hard on the head by a playmate who wanted to play with the same toy. that night he began to have 'night terrors', couldn't sleep and insisted on coming into our bed every night for about the next 6 months. the only way he will go to sleep now is with a night light on. i find it baffling when parents put this down to 'one of those things'. as adults it would be classed as a violent assalt
we took him to a cranial osteopath which helped enormously. lots of baths, swimming and massage has also helped him learn to relax. if your friend feels it appropriate she could try talking to her son about what happened and how the hospital was there to help him. (i think usborne' have a book called first experiences which covers a hospital visit). if he is feeling particularly insecure give him lots of warning and preparation for what is going to happen each day - hope he feels better soon.

Dd didn't have an anaesthetic or surgery or anything like that happening to herself, but to her dad and the effects you describe are very similar.
3 years ago, when she was 3.5, dh was taken suddenly and very seriously ill. At one point we thought he might die (he didn't) but dd was fully aware of this. Her behaviour at the time carried on almost as normal, but a few weeks later she changed. Normally happy to go to nursery, she became very clingy and point blank refused to go.
We dealt with it by talking very openly about ALL our feelings at any time she wanted to. School was also kept informed and they were hugely supportive in talking to her and offering advice in dealing with it. The main thing I think was to keep the communication channels open. Dd has always been articulate and very on the ball, impossible to fob off with half answers. So for us being open and honest was the best way through.
I think in total, it took about a year before I would say she had totally got over it and could talk unemotionally about the whole thing (but it did get a lot better within a few weeks, once she felt she could talk about her feelings. She didn't want to tell me how scared she was because she knew how sad I had been. Bless her)
Hope that helps.

Enchanted ... I read your post and thought immediately "Cranial Osteopath" and then saw that Shrub beat me to it! I have just finished reading a book called "Osteopathy for Children" by Elizabeth C. Hayden. It clearly states on page 96 that Cranial Osteopathy can help children who suffer a nasty fall that has caused them to be badly shocked ... '... Falls on the chin are particularly traumatic ... '
Definitely worth a try for your friend ...
I wish I had known about this when DS fell and needed stitches in his chin last year ...