We have a 10 year old who has sudden change in behavior about 1 month ago…. It started with the nurse calling us from school saying that he was freaking out thinking that a piece of candy he ate had fentanyl in it…. Anf it’s gone downhill from there.

Near constant irrational fears and panic attacks, OCD type behavior (first he was fixated on everything having fentanyl in it, then it was salmonella, then it was rabies, etc).

For the last few weeks, he also will not swallow his spit and holds it in until he can spit it out somewhere (we have to have a bowl by his bedside to spit into).

He has expressed anything from fears of snake venom coming out of the showerhead, to thinking he’s having a heart attack, to thinking a piece of metal worked it’s way into his heart.

Lately, he complains of being hungry, but does not have an appetite. When he does eat, we have to eat some of it first before he’ll eat it.. if you walk by him when he is eating, he freaks out and throws it away…. He’s thrown so much food away just because someone walked by or started talking near him.

On top of all this, he his behavior has become defiant and easily angered. At times, he freaks out from “too much noise”

We have to lay at night with him until he falls asleep, but it can take an hour or two because he feels like he stops breathing when he closes his eyes.

We are at our wits end, and have lost it with him several times (of course feeling awful afterwards)

We have taken him to counseling, to his pediatrician a couple of times, etc.. but “nothing is wrong”. At least physically.

Then a coworker of mine told me about PANDAs, because she knew someone whose son has the same sudden onset problems…. I read about it, and I am 100% convinced that this is what it is..

My understanding is that a strep infection can trigger it (or the antibodies from a strep infection)…. About a week before it started, My wife and I remember him complaining about his throat hurting and having a headache.. she said she saw white spots on his throat, though I didn’t see them when I got home later that day. He never has a fever though, and we never got him tested because he seemed to stop complains about it pretty quickly.

Anybody have a similar experience with their child? Any pediatricians have experience with this? My understanding from my reading is that a lot of pediatricians aren’t familiar with it?

Sorry for the long rant, but we’re going crazy!