The most troubling for me is that he would have temper tandems over little things, which I understand is quite common for his age. He would sometime cry over half an hour hysterically. We have tried to talk calmly to him, ignore him, distract him, timeouts, yell at him, etc. Nothing works. In fact, ignoring him usually makes it worse. He turns all blue every time we ignore him during a tandem.
So are we just bad parents, is this just a phase, or does he have OE? If he does have OE, what�s the best way to deal with the situation?
I don't think it's likely that you are a bad parent. I do think it's likely that your son has similar OEs to you. So what should you do?
I believe that this situation is an invitation to become a 'SuperParent!'
What is in my super-parent kit?
1) a supportive community: Post here and look locally for groups of families who have BTDT and survived to tell the tail.
2) meditation - with a child who is super sensitive, it's very very useful to have a 'portable virtual spa' so that you can be truely truely calm and grateful for every bit of blue skin and every tantrum. If you can be relaxed while dear little one is losing it, then the tantrums will be shorter and eventually less intense. Yes, you will have to practice in the AM or PM every day so that in about a year you will be one breath away from 'sending calming compassion'
a favorite resourse for mediation is -
https://sites.google.com/site/giftedmeditation/3) Finding a disipline plan you and all the involved adults can live with: I think 'Transforming the Difficult Child Workbook' by Lisa Bravo is a great choice for OE/Gifted families.
4) You might want help from a Pediatric Occupational Therapist. They have techniques to help kids become more flexible. They use the diagnosis 'Sensory Intergration Disorder' but some kids with OEs will be tremendously helped.
5) During a nap, watch the movie 'The Switch' which features a very precosious and very bratty 6 year old. Laugh and cry your butt off.
Hope that helps!
Grinity
