Is My 4 Year Old Son Exhibiting Manic Behavior?

[seattlemomof2]

My husband and I have two boys, ages 4 and 11 months. Our 4 year old started preschool in a 3 full day/week Montessori program last Fall. Previously, he had been attending a co-op for two days per week for 2.5 hours each time. The rest of the time he is at home with me.

Earlier this Spring, my son started exhibiting some puzzling behavior at school. We were giving reports that he was generally fine for the first part of the day but by lunch he would start acting out. Typicaly he would pour water or other children's milk on the floro or on another child's food. Once I think he poured it on another child's head. He would sometimes throw his flatware. He would act in a similar way on the playground, taking things from other kids or hitting.

He never acted like this at home and generally had very good impulse control. Honestly, if he found a piece of candy in his room he would bring it to me and ask if he could have it. My husband and I were really puzzled.

Things got worse at his school and we started getting calls asking for me to come pick him up. One two or three occassions we were told that he was completely out of control, knocking over chairs, tearing things off the walls, kicking and spitting (teachers) all while laughing. His teacher told us that she had to take him into her office where he continued laughing and dumped papers off of her desk. She said he completely ignored her authority and seemd to be in his own little world.

My husband and I took him to a child psychologist recommended by our pediatrician. After six or so sessions with him, she couldn't find anything "wrong" until one day in her office when it was time to pick up the toys and he started the same behavior of throwing over chairs, pulling things off the wall, etc. All while laughing and completely ignoring pleas to stop.

When you ask him if he was mad or sad during these "elation tantrums" he will say no, that he is happy and he looks happy doing it.

We planned on having a behaviorist sit in on his classroom and observe him but he had another episode and we ended up pulling him out of school before it could happen. We have another person visit us at home and she concluded that he was fine (at home he acted perfectly normal.)

I am completely confused and the psychologist doesn't seem to know what causes it either.

He's not in school now and won't start again until this Fall. We found a school that we think will have a better system for dealing with bahavior issues but we're still concerned.

Up until very recently, neither my husband or myself had ever seen one of these episodes in action but in the last two weeks it has happened twice:

1. I was in the store with both boys and my older son started to wander away. I asked him to come back by my side and he just looked at me and smiled and then ran away. He is usually a pretty obedient kid.  I got him back and explained to him that this was unacceptable bahavior and why. He didn't even appear to hear me and kept laughing and trying to run away again. I told him that he could not ride in the special car shaped shopping cart (that his father had left to retrieve) again it did not register at all. I raised my voice, which ordinarily immediately gets his attention but still nothing. He kept laughing and tryig to run away. Finally I had to restrain him and make him sit on the floor between my legs. After a few moments the elation wore off and he started getting mad, kicking boxes, crying and screaming but he was back to listening to me and had snapped out of his own little world

2. Yesterday we were preparing to leave the house and my husband told the boy to go to the potty which for some reason set off this behavior again. He started running aways and laughing like a maniac. His father told him that this was against the rules (on our behavior chart and that the boy risked losing his sticker at the end of the day. Normally this registers with my son immediately but this day he was back in that manic behavior zone where he recognizing no authority and continues his negative behaviors all while laughing and generally looking like the happiest kid on the block. My husband finally restrained our son and got him to stay in a time out which snapped him out of the zoned out behavior and turned into a temper tantrum. Five minutes later he was in the car acting normal.

I hope I've explained this well enough. Has anyone seen random behavior like this? Does anyone know what might be causing it?

[margypops]

He was okay after he ate ..makes you wonder if its food related and he has low blood sugar going on , when he eats it adjusts,although you'd think he would be tired before he ate .you know seattlemom it could also be food related or an allergy to something he eats ..

[hollyjbr]

Did you ever find any answers about your son's elation episodes?  My son had something similar happen yesterday, has had similar small episodes but yesterday it lasted ALL day til about 5:00 pm, and then he got REALLY tired and almost fell asleep.  After he ate dinner, he was back to his normal self. Never saw him do anything like that before..