We must:
1. Locate all the items, which can be a major chore because she plays with them all day. I found the small teddy bear inside the oven in the play kitchen last night
2. Pick up all the items and carry her and the items up the stairs
3. Arrange all items correctly in bed
4. Read 1 book
5. Tell her one story of when I was a little girl and one story about when Daddy was a little boy
6. Give her a kiss in exactly the right spot on the cheek
The problem is, in the morning she doesn’t want to leave these items in the bed. Every single morning, she wants me to carry all of these, plus her blankie, plus her down the stairs. This means that every day these items get scattered all over the house and it’s a nightmare trying to find everything again for bedtime.
Pysch Central, in an article titled, Anxiety and OCD exposed: Seven Signs your Kids need Professional Help, states that signs for children are similar to signs in adults and consist of things like anger, general feeling of being unwell, delayed development, and feeling fatigued. The good news is that my daughter doesn’t really fall into any of these categories. I called my doctor and explained everything to him. He feels that most toddlers exhibit these desires for rituals and although my daughter’s is a little extreme, he doesn’t feel we need to worry about anything. Yet.
As a Mom though, I know I won’t be able to turn off the worrying inside me every time she obsesses over a missing item. My question is, can I really trust the doctor when he says that she’s normal? Are pediatricians today as well versed on OCD as they are autism? Only time will tell.