I'm hoping someone may have some advice please 🙏
I have a 7 year old boy who has never been any grief. Well behaved, very chatty and outgoing and easy to get on with.
However this past year we have noticed some real changes.
He is becoming so set in his ways and its exhausting. He is not willing to compromise on anything. He obsessed about ideas he gets in his head and it can be over anything. If I tell him I'll show him a picture later, he will follow me and ask me to show him now on a loop and he will persevere like this for as long as it takes. He can't relax or switch off. He obsesses about food - particularly anything sugary. He's a fab eater and will eat really decent healthy meals without fuss as well as a variety of fruit but sugar is like a drug to him. He doesn't sneak food but he's constantly negotiating. If I eat a banana can I have some sweets? If I don't have dessert can I have 2 biscuits? We went to a friend's house at the weekend and he asked for sweets. The friend said they didn't have any. He said you do, I can see them on top of the fridge. Friend says sorry, we aren't eating those. That was it, he couldn't relax. He was so fidgety, getting worked up and coming into me every 2 minutes asking why he couldn't eat them.
The following day at another friend's house with lots of other children. All children go onto the field with the grownups to play cricket. My son refuses to go because he knows that the TV remote is missing. Its not even our house but he wouldn't relax. Asking constantly if we would find it, not because he wanted to watch it just because he knew it was missing.
He seems to obsess about everything. He won't take no for an answer. He doesn't have typical OCD traits though as in he's not bothered if his things aren't in their place, he doesn't have any repetitive habits etc.
He's losing friend's. He had so many friends in y1, this year they are getting fewer and fewer. His best friend was a girl and she now detests him and will openly tell us. Its awkward as we are good friends with her parents. He's not a fan of her either but the impression we get is that she can't deal with his "my way or the highway" attitude and I'm worried its pushing everyone away. He moves to a junior school in September and I don't want him to get off on the wrong foot.
If I try and tell him about how he can be seen as a bit hard work sometimes, he gets so upset as he can't understand what he's doing wrong.
His teachers get frustrated. He's not naughty and they're quick to say that but he doesn't listen to any instructions. He wants to be the fastest, the best, beat everyone at everything. His teacher made him miss playtime a few weeks back as she specifically told the children to write down the answers to sums as well as workings out and he was the only one who only wrote the answers. He went running over waving his paper at breakneck speed. Got them all right but in her words "his lack of listening tipped me over the edge" and she pulled his playtime, which I wasn't massively happy about.
I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle, every week things seem to get a little bit worse. I have another son and he gives us absolutely no cause for concern so I'm just stuck as to what this could be and what if anything I should be doing?
Does anyone have any advice at all? Or does it just literally sound like his personality and something he will likely grow out of?