July 17, 2010: Just a Haircut??

Carter is an interesting little boy. He is the size of an average 4 year old boy and has the language ability of a 5 year old, easily. We often get comments about it when people find out he is only 2. Carter also has a thirst for learning that is almost insatiable. Come on, what two year old knows the different stages of a moon and can explain it to you when he sees it in the sky? However, along with the good comes some “strange” qualities. We often joke that he has OCD and I thought it would be interesting to see what the “signs” are. So I googled “OCD signs in kids” and I came across:

Among kids and teens with OCD, the most common obsessions include:
- fear of dirt or germs ***
- fear of contamination ***
- a need for symmetry, order, and precision ***
- religious obsessions
- preoccupation with body wastes
- lucky and unlucky numbers
- fear of illness or harm coming to oneself or relatives
- preoccupation with household items ***
- intrusive sounds or words

Interesting, to say the least! As indicated by check marks, Carter exhibits 4 “obsessions.” He HATES and CANNOT stand to be dirty or near anything dirty. Example: He and Nama walked out to get the newspaper and Nama asked him to pick it up for her and his response was “I can’t, it’s dirty.” And he promptly walked away. Second, his foods ABSOLUTELY may not touch each other on his plate or eating is out of the question. Example: Gravy on Mashed Potatoes = total meltdown. He is constantly placing things in order: making line, grouping things together, insisting his blocks be a certain space away from one another, etc. Lastly, the kid is obsessed with cleaning and household items. Dust pans and brooms, coasters, candle sticks (which he lines up by height and an equal distance away from each other), to name a few.

So while we don’t honestly think he has OCD, it was interesting to see what the common obsessions are and how many of them are similar to Carter. Luckily he isn’t afraid of dirt and contamination to the point where it impedes on his daily functioning…at that point, we’ll start to get concerned. For now, we’ll just keep this in the back of our minds as we watch him grow and mature a little more.

Take the picture below as a prime example of Carter’s strange habits:

He needed his entire body, including feet and eyes, to be covered in order to let John cut his hair. The clippings from his hair were“making me dirrrrrty daddy!”

Enough Said :)