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Behaviour/development

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Fixation/obsession becoming unhealthy?

2 replies

Diggerorbigger · 21/12/2023 19:50

My son has recently turned 4. He has for the past year or so been getting regularly fixated on different things, for a few weeks at a time e.g. different fairy tales, books etc. So far so normal, I think?

His current fixation is Humpty Dumpty. As in the 10-second nursery rhyme. He draws pictures, sings the song constantly, can sit watching YouTube videos of the same 30 second cartoon over and over again (it’d be for hours if we let him), will make me cut Humpty Dumpty shapes out of card and scream at me if I ‘do it wrong’

What’s concerning me is that this has gone on longer than usual (at least two months but maybe longer) and is only getting more intense. In the past 4 days he’s had two enormous meltdowns lasting ages longer than he’s ever done before (and he rarely has meltdowns any more) sparked by (Monday) us not taking him to the shop to buy a Kinder egg at 8pm so he could turn it into Humpty Dumpty; and tonight because he wanted to repeatedly smash real eggs with googly eyes stuck on them and we only let him do one.

The meltdowns were clearly sparked by him not getting what he wanted, so I don’t think they’re related to ASD (he hasn’t shown any other signs of it) and may simply be caused by over tiredness or overwhelm leading up to Christmas (which he is VERY excited about)

I guess what I really want is to know if others have experience of their DC acting like this, and if it’s worth speaking to a GP in case it may be a sign of neurodivergence?

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SiouxsieSiouxStiletto · 22/12/2023 07:04

The meltdowns were clearly sparked by him not getting what he wanted, so I don’t think they’re related to ASD

I might be being a bit stupid here but why does this rule out ASD? My youngest is on the pathway and at 4 this was probably one of the main signs. Granted, she did have problems with food and sleep though too.

Diggerorbigger · 22/12/2023 10:28

From what I’ve read (although I’ve not exactly done any systematic research on the subject), a meltdown caused by a caregiver saying ‘no’ is less likely to be ASD related as autistic meltdowns are caused by e.g. sensory overload. But as I say I’m no expert so any info/advice you can give @SiouxsieSiouxStiletto would be really helpful

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