Panic Attacks?

[ziv_h]

Is it possible for my 2 yr old daughter to be having panic attacks?  I first noticed about a year ago when I would keep her overnight (her mother and I are divorced), when it was time to go to sleep, she would cry and start to gag and vomit, but it stopped after a few times.  However, now her mother has told me that she has started doing it with other things.  First with a bath, not wanted to get even touched by the water.  This lasted about a month, then stopped.  Then she started doing it at her daycare whenever the teacher took out white glue for crafts, and she has also started doing it whenever her mother leaves her with her normal babysitter or her grandparents, which she never did before.  She has an older sister (4 yrs old), who is always there with her, but that doesn

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

These episodes do not appear to be panic attacks as we commonly understand them. This is not to say that anxiety is absent from them. In fact, separation anxiety is at the heart of many sorts of bedtime or nighttime problems. Your description indicates that, for the most part, your daughter is reacting to things she does not like, and in that sense the matter is pretty behavioral in nature. It makes sense to respond to it be letting her calm down and then proceeding with whatever has to happen (e.g., going to bed, having a bath, using sunscreen).

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Accidents such as the sort you describe can precipiate a period of separation anxiety, but the behavior of your daughter is not confined to situations wherein separation anxiety might be occurring.

[ziv_h]

NOTE TO THE DOCTOR FROM THE PARENT WHO WROTE THIS QUESTION! PLEASE READ THIS TOO!  I FORGOT to mention something VERY IMPORTANT - that my ex-wife was in an automobile accident in March and both girls were also in the car.  They were not hurt, but their mother was taken to the hospital for injuries.  Could this be panic attacks returning after the trauma of the accident?