Whoa, I honestly thought it wasn't that long ago that I updated. I guess time really does fly!
In my last post I wrote that Ethan's aggressive outbursts were happening less often. Yeah, well, then the holidays happened. He was off school for two weeks, and OH. MY. GOD. Not only did his outburst returned, but they came back with a vengeance. Daily arguments. Daily hitting. Daily kicking. Daily screaming. You name it.
So school opened up once again and I was so looking forward to getting back to our normal routines. I thought once we got back on schedule, things would calm down again. Boy, was I wrong. Within the first week back at school, Ethan had managed not only to attack teachers and other kids, but also another Kid's mom. (And just our luck, it happened to be one of the parents I reached out to for a playdate. You can pretty much guess we never did get that playdate, and probably never will.)
Now, a little over a month after school reopened, things are still touch and go. Ethan may go a day or two without any incidents, but then it all goes down the drain because he couldn't cope with how another kid wanted to play differently, or how the teachers want to do something he doesn't want to do. At home it could be because he doesn't want to put his shoes on, or getting a bath, or he doesn't want any of the choices I give him for dinner (even though he can't or won't tell me what he will eat). Screaming, hitting, kicking, and pushing were now accompanied by throwing things and attempting to escape. In one incident at school, he was angry and actually made it out the front door and onto the street by the time a teacher and I caught up to him.
Just the other day, he threw a chair inside the classroom (because he didn't like what they were doing for circle time), obviously scaring the crap out of the other kids. This prompted a sit-down (for both of us) by the director. She told him that if he hurts the teachers or kids again, then he will be spending his time in her office and the baby class (eg, not fun or "preschool detention").
She mentioned that Ethan could have what's called Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Awesome.
I have the ball rolling on getting a developmental pediatrician involved. We have our first meeting with her later this month, followed by observations, evaluations, and feedback. And possibly a diagnosis. Of something, anything to guide us because we're out of ideas.
