First steps to changing your child’s behavior: 5 reasons for bad behavior in a child

You, the parent, are the most powerful image in a child’s life usually. This holds true for most children under 10 years of age and mostly beyond. The child would look to you for strength, reassurance, and guidance as she navigates the maze called the world.

She would look for and call you after a nightmare, or with another failed attempt at riding without training wheels. My daughter would call for help with her homework especially if it is……homework.

However, just like most parents, we do experience the bad behavior thing. Those undesirable acts that suggest some failure somewhere. Our usual instinct is to blame ourselves first. Some parents blame their own genetics makeup while others blame their spouse’s past actions and attitudes towards child-rearing. Some come to the pediatrician for a diagnosis of a behavioral disorder.

The news (good or bad, you be the judge)is, according to Alex Lickerman M.D. author of The Undefeated Mind, raising children is hard work. All the way. From birth till your job is done. And every step of the way, we are trying to hone the child’s “being human” skills. More often than not we have no experience and have not been schooled in the skills of raising a child formally. Little surprise the frustration that we often experience.

These are 5 reasons why a child may behave badly

1.It has worked in the past.

Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.

Warren Buffet

Children, just like the older versions, adults, are creatures of habit. They tend to repeat what works. That behavior that worked for them in the past is often repeated over and over. In some instances, it has to fail many times before they abandon that behavior. So when you notice a behavior in your child, examine the circumstances to see whether the behavior has worked previously. If it has, then you may expect it to “not work” multiple times over before the child will drop that habit or behavior.

2.The rules are not explicit/clear enough.

I follow three rules: Do the right thing, do the best you can, and always show people you care.

Lou Holtz

As adults, we have been through much more in life and know a lot of things. One that usually stands out is a substitution. For me, it shows when I read to my children. I would unwittingly substitute an occasional word for another and my older daughter would call me out especially if she is reading along. I never knew this was happening until she started pointing them out. May adults have this blind spot when it comes to outlining rules for their children. This confuses children. They want clear rules, not condition-based action. The next time you get that “very wrong” behavior, determine whether the rules were very clear and were not vague.

3.UTHA: Upset, Tired, Hungry or Angry and seeking attention.

A hungry woman is an angry man

Ikechukwu Okereke

Children may act in a very unwelcome way when they are in any of these states. A child may be hungry and act it out. Yes, I know you expect her to say she is hungry, or angry or tired. Unfortunately, they are not little adults. They may not say so besides those are hard words to say for a very young one. If, say throwing a tantrum or acting out or screaming gets them what they want, they will do it.

Pushing it.

I tell them the rules are made by the government. Every firm should comply. It doesn’t mean they can’t compete.

Ma Jun

Every child sometimes wants to push the boundaries a little. They would test the rules to see whether the enforcement was effective. If grandma let her do it (or Daddy….I am guilty as charged), they will shout hurray and repeat it irrespective of any previously established rules. My girls play this card with bedtime and they do win sometimes.

Experimenting and curiosity.

If I see one side of somebody, I want to see the other side.

Kurt Russell

My younger daughter once dropped a raw egg just to see what it was like inside. She told me a few years later when she could better articulate her words that she was just curious. She said she had enjoyed omelets made from this oval and was not tall enough to see how it looked before the omelets. Thus she decided to crack one and see. Yes, she saw and was content.

In a nutshell, before you come running to the office or hook up for an evisit, make sure you have explored these common reasons why your child is misbehaving. It may just be perspective. You do have the answers most times. I will be happy to see you though….after you have explored within.

Visit Omega Pediatrics’ Linkedin page. Also, see our Roswell Pediatrician’s Facebook Page and the Roswell Pediatrician’s Twitter page.

How Do Children Build Up Their Milestones?

We have recently uncovered several child development videos recorded by the CDC that demonstrate the various child development milestones in children. These videos are very instructive and would help any mother who is in doubt as to whether their child is developing well or not.

The videos have been embedded on our website on Omega Pediatrics.

Rather than have you going from page to page looking for the videos, our IT team managed to have them all on one page so that you just have to bookmark the page and then as your child grows, you can go back there to look up what she should be doing and also see how other children did it.

I would encourage every mom who is watching a child grow to capture many of these moments and upload them to Youtube. It will help others in the future who may be looking for the same exact information.

Here is the link to the child development videos by the CDC on Omega Pediatrics Roswell main website.

Please share the page if it is in any way helpful to you.

 

Strep Throat Treatment In Roswell Georgia

One of the most common infections that land children in the emergency room is strep throat infection (or the fear thereof!). Considering how often doctors and other providers check for strep, it must be serious and so parents always want to have their child checked for strep even if the child has no real symptoms that should raise such a suspicion.

Unfortunately, the parent may be setting the child up for even more episodes of strep if they prompt for both testing and treatment as soon as the first set of any symptoms of illness are seen.

I am sure some readers are indeed scratching their heads and wondering how and why. I have a good explanation.

Did you know that kids who are treated very early for strep infections tend to have less time to build up any immunity to the bacteria and so end up having multiple and recurrent strep? Yes, it is true and that is one of the reasons you should let your provider do their thing instead of pushing for strep tests and treatments all the time.

You can read more about how to get treatment promptly and reliably in Alpharetta, Roswell and surrounding cities of Georgia by going to this beautiful and well-detailed set of blog posts on Omegapediatrics.com about strep throat and complications of strep throat as well as treatment.

Seven atypical symptoms of seasonal flu that every parent should be aware of in the 2016/2017 season

It is Spring 2016 and the CDC broke the news to us all: there will be no flu shot without a sting. Yep. No nasal flu shot (if we could rightfully call it that). Done. The nasal spray had failed woefully, providing only 3% protection.

The number 3% is baffling. T-h-r-e-e   p-e-r-c-e-n-t.

That is less protection than Akai Berry would give!

I am not making this up. You can read it for yourself on the CDC website.

Some of us have a bitter sweet feeling because on the one hand everybody gets the same thing now. Little kids under two no longer have to wait for when they will qualify for the shotless shot.

However on a deeper note one can only wonder what went down there. Did anyone know this was happening? How many people were fooled into getting a useless shot. How many people fell ill or even died after taking the LAIV thinking they were protected?

I must be cautious here and say that the influenza virus is a ninja of sorts. It does some meandering, called antigenic drift that makes it harder to pinpoint what it will look like during the next flu season, so the scientists have their work cut out for them.

None-the-less, influenza remains a clear and present danger and the symptoms are similar to a lot of other illnesses, mainly viral. You can read a little bit more detailed blog post here about influenza.

I have a summary of the atypical signs and symptoms of influenza and what to look out for.

The unusual symptoms and signs of influenza

These clinical signs and symptoms may be seen sometimes in influenza.

1. Croup which is swelling of the inner surface of the throat, leading to hoarseness. Seen more commonly in influenza A, it mimics croup which is caused by a different virus, Parainfluenza.
2. Encephalopathy is an abnormal functioning of the brain due to metabolic factors which may have been triggered by an infectious agent within or outside the brain. It may also be seen in noninfectious conditions like Wernicke’s encephalopathy due to vitamin imbalance/deficiencies (thiamine) seen in chronic alcoholics.
3. Increased asthma symptoms and a lack of responsiveness to normally effective doses of inhaler or other medications.
4. Myositis presents mainly with aches and pains in the calf muscles.
5. Myocarditis  is seen as  inflammation of the heart muscles. Though uncommon, abnormality in the quality of the heartbeat is the earliest clue. This symptom can be life-threatening so doctors tend to be on the lookout for it.
6. Parotitis is inflammation of the parotid gland, one of the major salivary glands. It gets tender, swollen and warm. Normally this symptom is seen in Mumps, but that is vanishingly rare in the United States today. In Nigeria, while growing up it was common and the condition is called “awaka nti” in the Igbo language. The parotid gland lies on both sides of the face, kind of over the muscle area that we see moving when we chew.
7. Transient skin rash: these are flat with a few raised areas (maculopapular rash). May be missed in dark skinned individuals but looks more red in lighter persons. The rash is similar to what we see in a group of conditions called viral exanthems. Measles causes such a rash too.

I wish you all the best this year. If you are among the unfortunate ones to get diagnosed with flu, please make sure you tell your doctor (or tell me if you are coming to the pediatric clinic in Roswell) if you have any of these unusual symptoms.

You can read more about influenza this year and what to expect in this slightly more detailed blog post entitled The ABC of influenza and “the flu” for 2016–2017 season .

 

 

Omega Pediatrics

Omega Pediatrics in Roswell Georgia provides pediatric primary care to children in North Fulton as well as the Greater Atlanta area of Georgia. We are located at 1305 Hembree Road Suite 203 Roswell Georgia.

At Omega our cardinal principles are accessibility and love. We strive to make pediatric primary care accessible to our families irrespective of how convenient it may be for us. Our goal is to ensure that every child has access to care either by walking into our clinic, following an online-
booked appointment,  scheduling a telemedicine consult or dropping-in unscheduled. Our clinic is open up to 9 pm daily and when we are not open we are still able to provide off-site care via telemedicine.

Our providers are board certified pediatricians with experience in the care of the child. We cater to acute as well as preventive illnesses. We also have expertise in lactation and weight control for families.

 

Contact Information:

Telephone: +1 470 485 6342 , +1 678 878 3990

Facsimile (Fax): + 1 678 878 4042

Email: info(at)omegapediatrics.com

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/alpharettaroswellchildrenshealth/