strange behavior

Distressed PART (1 OF 2)

My daughter is 4 1/2 years old and I have been noticing this behavior since she was 2.  It started a couple weeks after she switched to underwear.  At first she thought it was great to be a big girl and pick out new undies (that lasted for a couple of weeks).  All of a sudden she didn’t want to wear underwear any more because she didn’t like the way it felt.  If I would try to force her to wear it she would constantly be pulling at it and complaining.  I asked her doctor about it and she said it might be some sort of exaggeration behavior and to just go along with it until it stops.  So, I didn’t make her wear underwear any more, she would just wear little shorts under her dresses and skirts.  A couple people in my family would try to bribe her with things. . . . ("ill give you a dollar if you wear underwear"), etc.  At first she had no interest in that, but then decided maybe she would give it a try.  So we went to the store so she could pick out some undies and she put them on and was very proud.  She got little rewards for being such a big girl.  However, I could still tell that they bothered her every time she put them on.  She would still pull at them but look at me to see if I was watching her.  She didn’t want me to know she was pulling at them.  Over the last year the problem has gone WAY OUT OF CONTROL!  It is now not just her underwear, but many many things that bother her.  She has to try on every bathing suit in her dresser to find one that she can stand (every time it’s a different one).  She pulls her pants down, showing her crack with everything she wears and says that it feels better that way. She says the arm pits of her shirts bother her. Even when I buy them big, she still thinks her shirts are going up in her arm pits and she pulls at them constantly and pulls her shirt off her shoulders and wants to go out like that.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

See reply to Part II.