Almost 5yo and disturbing 'cruelty to animals' incident & trying to figure out natural consequences - Page 2

[Alenushka]

I would go and see a therapist as soon as possiable.  Cruelty to animals is a very disturbing sign.     The fact that he bullies other children is also worrisome.  Does he wet his bed? Has unhealthy interest in fires?

Some issues are much easier to deal with at age 5 than age 12-15-20.

[milkybean]

About the behaviour towards sister, girl at water play area, etc etc...  Have you looked at his diet?

DS was getting more and more violent, when finally I had an "aha" moment after he lost it 20 minutes after having a DumDum lollipop.  Over the rest of the year we worked it out and realized he can't have anything based on corn syrup.  Colors might be a problem as well, but it's hard to find things with artificial colors that don't have corn syrup in it, and he's not willing to experiment.  However I do remember one WEIRD Easter-time with him licking his fingers while dying eggs (he loved the vinegar) and getting into a really freaky mood. 

Once we got rid of those things from his diet, he became MUCH more calm.  Before that, I had to physically separate him from our cat, because I couldn't get him to be *at all* gentle with her.  No you can't expect much from a 2 year old with a cat, but I had plenty of friends who had cats when their kids were that age and they pretty quickly learn that petting didn't mean pressing down so hard that the cat's belly touched the floor...he never got that.  Sadly she got tremendously sick, then while hubby was cleaning up after her with the door open, she ran away...  So we never got to see if it was causing the weirdness with how he treated the cat, too, and I'd realized how very allergic I am to indoor cats, so we aren't getting another. 

Anyway, just an idea based on our experience!

[Ophelia]

I would go and see a therapist as soon as possiable.  Cruelty to animals is a very disturbing sign.     The fact that he bullies other children is also worrisome.  Does he wet his bed? Has unhealthy interest in fires?

Yeah, actually we did when he was 2....because he's high spirited and low impulse control and we weren't sure how to deal with some issues.  At the time she said he did have low impulse control for his age (so at 2 years it was less than 20%)

Yes, he does have LOTS of pee accidents both daytime and nighttime.  I think it's at least partial food, but unfortunately have not had the cooperation of DH or I would have figured it out by now.  No, not an unhealthy interest in fires.  He likes them and is excited when we have bonfire, but doesn't beg for them all the time.

Have you looked at his diet?

Last fall, on the advice of our ND, we did cut out ALL artificial and corn.  It was well more than 2 weeks, more like a month and a half, because I kept messing up until I finally got all the corn out including toothpaste.  I watched for behavior changes during that time, and nothing.