10 days ago DD switched overnight from being usual mix of helpful/misbehaving to furious/fearful. The trigger was her brother, 3yo, being sick. We had a nightmarish few days when she wouldn't be in the same room, space, pavement with him at all without completely freaking out in a very wild, violent and untypical way.
After challenging her for a few days - saying if she didn't eat with the family then her food would be cleared & if she didn't sleep in her bed (they share a room) then she would have to sleep in the corridor - we relented as she was getting worse (she missed 3 meals) and fought me off the bed, and things improved a bit. We can now walk to school together and she will walk through a room that he is in, and will even play (aggressively) with him if other children are around who play with him. We are edging her every day back towards family life but have not managed to get her to eat with us yet and they are still sleeping in separate rooms.
However now she is getting very angry with me and biting, hitting, screaming at me for minor reasons, such as no cake left when she wanted some. I can't stress enough how untypical this is of her and am bewildered about how to manage in the moment and longer term. Today during latest tantrum I was very calm throughout and afterwards let her cry it out in my arms, but she is very insincere and rude when asked to apologise. At bedtime DP and I decided to withdrawn bedtime story and cuddles as she had been so foul (I stead quick kiss, hug & ILU).
GP says to give her a month or two to recover, but if she doesn't keep improving then she will refer her to CAMHS. A month seems a long wait - maybe we should see a therapist privately? Or is this just behaviour and we should be tougher with her?