Childhood psychiatric disorders – Types and symptoms

Children are affected with psychiatric illnesses but are not so apparent because they do not talk about it or bring it to the attention of their family.

However, it is important for the parents and care-givers to notice that something is the matter with the child and then have the problem addressed with the help of a health professional or family physician.

Some of the common psychiatric illnesses affecting children are:

Anxiety disorder for e.g. selective mutism

Eating disorder

Childhood schizophrenia

Mood disorders

Pervasive developmental disorders

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Elimination disorders

Tic disorders

Disruptive behaviour disorders for e.g. avoiding school, delinquent behaviour, stealing

Anxiety disorders

The child may experience anxiety due to environmental factors like watching parents fight or argue repeatedly or arguments within the family. Also if both parents work late hours, the child may wait for them to come home and till they arrive he might be anxious or in a bad mood. The child may be withdrawn and not want to go to school; this is termed as separation anxiety disorder. Whatever the cause, the child must be reassured and comforted time and again. Anxiety disorders may also be manifested as a refusal to eat or sleep in his own bed, he may insist on sleeping along with the parents or nanny.

Another important anxiety disorder is called selective mutism and is generally diagnosed between three to eight years of age. Either parents notice it as early as in toddlers or teachers complain that the child is not interacting with others in school and bring it to parents' attention. In selective mutism, the child may speak at home but is mute in social situations due to underlying anxiousness.

Eating disorders

This may manifest as repeated vomiting or abdominal pain in small children or anorexia nervosa or bulimia in adolescents. They may be a result of anxiety or some other behavioural disorders, very few cases are due to a genuine medical problem. Sometimes, forceful feeding by a nanny may lead to vomiting as the amount of food given is too much for the child's stomach and the child cannot retain it. In case of eating disorders in adolescents or older children, negative self-image or the need to be accepted by peers provokes such extreme behaviour. This must be noticed and treated early otherwise the child may become underweight, constipated and may have several nutritional deficiencies.

Childhood schizophrenia

It usually occurs in teens and is called disorganised schizophrenia, and the important features are inappropriate social behaviour, childish behaviour, lack of grooming and even violent behaviour like throwing things in the house or

Childhood psychiatric disorders – Types and symptoms is a post from: mDhil

Hello all
My son now hes 3 years old he was fine eating but once my nanny left and that was one year back he stopped eating normally n by force he do
He keeps only on eating milk fries custard criassant thats it rarely when he eats our normal food
Any ideas I begin to give him appetizer medecine with multi vitamine :(

You might not like this,but i have to say not to use any kind of medicine as medicines are not designed for every human bron or to be born,it is mostly developed on estimate by testing on given sample of population and they might not be representing the entire population.Also every human is different and God as created natural healing processes in living beings.it takes time but works perfectly.

moreover ,i feel you child needs you attention.spend time with him,take him out on walk,beach,distract him from being alone as it will cause mental stress to him leading to feeding problems.He being happy from inside and knowing you care for him ,he will eat anything you will feed him.feed from you hads,he will have you in his memory and love when he grows up.

Try using natural food products. Its good he is taking Milk,as most children hesitate to drink.

fries are not health,as frying increases calories and also makes the child develop a bad habit of eating more and more fried food and they become fans of fast food which is corporate developed food and involves use of several preservatives which even the bacteria dosnt consider eating then why should humans eat it.

custard should be less fed as again it involves mixtures of chemicals to give a desired taste and refined sugar which is not good in general even for adults.

do not allow him junk food.or too much of fried and packed food,introduce some new fruits to him,like blackberries,raspberries something he hasnt eaten or has no idea of.

you see children today are more attracted to the foods are condemed because they are made to satisfy the taste optimally and not the health in the long term.

It looks as if he grew close with the nanny and once she left he is having withdrawal symptoms. A parent should never let their child get so close with a person who is not a relative as they will not be around forever, it's up to the parents to be the caregiver and bond with them. I agree, your child needs more one on one attention and build up a trust with you. All  of the foods you have described are not giving him the nutritional needs he must have to be healthy. Keep on encouraging him to eat and make eating fun by introducing fruits and veggies in a fun way not by force.

Unfortunately as a working women I found myself after 40 days leaving him with this nanny so 8 hrs both of them facing each other but now been 1 year since she went away n he changed to what hes now:( hes refusing any normal food

Before I put my two cents on the matter, I'd like to lay down a few  points.
1- Kids appetites change by age and mood.
2- Kids eat eventually when they're really hungry.
3- Kids should follow an organized system of food delivery.
4- Kids could lose appetite after a newborn, a family member leaving or anything that will cause any kind of stress or anxiety.

Here's my experience with this matter. My kids eat almost anything now and I have no problem with them eating whatever food we offer them. How did we get there?
1- Food is served at certain times. If a kid refuses to eat, he/she will not be able to eat till the next meal.
2- We offer healthy foods as much as possible. So no shortcuts on that, healthy means choosing wisely what to cook for a balanced meal.
3- Salad is compulsory. Not necessarily in big amounts but it has to be there in one meal at least.
4- We don't give in to kids crying or refusing food. We just eat our food and let the kids eat theirs. If they don't eat, we don't let them leave the table. They have to sit and watch us eat.
5- We give surprises every once in a while (ice cream, sweets .. etc.) as a kind of reward.
6- We trick the kids into exercise by letting them do some thing that will make them hungry (playing, working ... etc.)

Just try some of the points above if you can. It is very important to be PERSISTENT and CONSISTENT otherwise you kid will be in control.

egypt beauty@ you need to show him that you love and care for him. maybe he need fresh air,take him to a nice park in the evening.Buy him something he likes.Bring excitement in his life,make him smile and laugh,get recognized to his mind. He is being too lonely and needs attention.

Try to avoid watching television when you are home,and do some creative activity or something he likes to do.these things will take time to get him right.

Kids eventually eat when they get hungry as long as u ban the unhealthy snacks seen that with my little sister's kid, stop giving him the medication it will effect his health later on , most appetizer medication work on the central nervous system )الجهاز العصبي المركزي ) which is not something u wanna mess with at all :)

i read in one of ur posts that he is hyper , well u can use that for ur advantage , let him move alot stop junk food - snacks - pepsi ..etc and he will eventually get hungry and eat whatever u offer from healthy food , i appreciate that ur a working woman but u really need to create quality time with ur kid to make up for the absence of his beloved maid which he got attached to :)

Hi egypt beauty,

Interesting topic indeed.

I must say that I firmly believe that justfedup is absolutely right regarding the situation with your son. First of all he does NOT have any kind of eating disorder, it is a behavioural situation only.

Kids today are quite sophisticated and they learn very early on how to "program" their parents or caregivers just like programming a computer. They quickly learn what buttons to push, what actions to take in order to get the responses that they are seeking to achieve. It's up to us as adults and caregivers to be alert to that and to make sure that the best efforts of our little darlings are in vain. We have to program them, we can't let them program us.... that's our job, our function, our duty to them.

Without actually meeting your child it would be hard for anyone to determine whether his refusal to eat properly is as a result of loss of the relationship with the nanny; if it is a result of having her programmed to allowing him to eat whatever he pleased (or worse still this is what SHE routinely fed him); or if this is a reaction to having you now in the picture with a different idea about what his diet should be. It could be any one of the three or even a combination of any of them.

Parenting means making the difficult decisions, doing what has to be done, not taking the path of least resistance. Unfortunately, far too often parents do just that, they take the easy way out and instead of putting up with the tantrums, riding out the rebelious behaviour, they just give in and the problems go on unresolved.

You've got to take the bull by the horns on this issue, justfedup is spot on with the plan to resolve your problem with "reprogramming" your son's eating habits. You should start a regime just like it is set out ASAP. Your son will thank you for it later, when he's a happy and healthy adult.

Oh, my qualifications??? I'm the father (and primary caregiver) to 4, now adult, sons and daughters and a fifth who will be 7 years old next week. They all have had their share of phases with eating, but are now all quite healthy and happy OMINVORES. They all eat nearly everything imaginable and don't turn up their noses at many things. Yes, everybody has some personal dislikes that is perfectly natural.

I am also an educator with 26 years in the career and I've been required to deal with and counsel people of all ages during that time.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team