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Eleven year old son has school phobia

Sun, March 07, 2010 7:34 PM

My eleven year old son has Crohn's disease and has developed a school phobia where he is actually terrified to be in school. He refuses to get out of the car in the morning; I have to have the nurse come down and take him into school. She tries to get him to go to class, but he ends up spending about 1/2 the day in the nurse's office. He is starting to get defiant while he is in school and wants to come home. Any suggestions?

crohnsmomof2
Joined Mar 7, 2010

Mon, March 08, 2010 1:00 AM

Reply posted for crohnsmomof2.

I am sorry to hear your son is going through this. My daughter experiences anxiety every time we start a new school. She is 10 and just start a 5/6 school this year. We talked a lot with the teachers and especially the school counselor, who was very essential to her overcoming her fears. They gave her permission to use the faculty bathroom and she would take her for a while once a week to discuss her fears so she could separate if her fears were things that were 'real' or her mind was making her believe they were 'real'. It helped so much and she got a lot of reassurance at school.

If your school does not have a counselor, then I would strongly suggest getting him counseling for this. They need to feel safe in their environment. Who would want to go if they didn't feel secure. It is an awkward age. We have dealt with this since she was 6 and the teachers were so important in making this work.

vivacemartin
Joined Jun 22, 2009

Sun, March 07, 2010 9:20 PM

Reply posted for crohnsmomof2.

I presume your son has IBD. If that's the case and you suspect the reason he doesn't want to go to school is related to that (having to go to the bathroom a lot, the smells, sounds, teasing, pain etc) it's certainly understandable.

Has your son see the Kids and Teens section on this site? There is some good general information and some Q&A's and suggestions how to handle different situations. It's difficult enough for young adults older people to handle IBD and it's not exactly a comfortable disease to discuss especially with other kids. There's nothing romantic or easy to explain about bowels and bowel movements.

It would be good if he could connect with some other kids either at camp or other group where there are kids dealing with the same thing he is.

titan1
Joined Sep 1, 2008

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