Parents fear for young daughter's safety as her behavior changes dramatically: 20/20 Jul 20 Part 1

[Music] imagine this is your house [Music] imagine it's your family in full-on crisis I just kept thinking like what's going on with my child erratic explosive behavior developing overnight a jekyll-and-hyde transformation as a four-year-old it was just swings that were very dramatic and uncalled for for the situation she would be tantruming for an hour there have been times where I was an hour and a half two hours [Applause] [Music] alexia bear has not always been so volatile her mom Vanessa a special needs teacher dad Brian an accountant and older sister Kyla all welcomed a very typical baby girl to their loving home outside Chicago this is her shortly after she was born and you can just even see like she's a happy baby that she was you know always laughing smiling what kind of pre-k student was she she came home telling us like it was so great I love my teachers I love the school you know listing off every single friend in the classroom she was on track she was even advanced in different areas she was just simple 4 year old on track until the winter of 2014 when as it always does the petri dish of germs otherwise known as preschool claimed its first victim and that's when her mother says Alexia's simple sore throat turned sinister she wasn't really wanting to wake up from a nap and she had a minor fever and what did the doctor say no big deal just run-of-the-mill strep throat a typical course of antibiotics made short work of the strap but curiously at the same time the infection disappeared so did little Alexia's bubbly disposition and how long until you saw a change it was less than two days later it was defiance and OCD she just all of a sudden seemed angry it hits overnight yes yeah a lot of screaming a lot of hitting and kicking adults alarmed teachers isolated Alexia from the other preschoolers even resorting to using bookshelves as barricades they snapped these chilling pictures of a classroom in chaos Furniture would get tipped over bins of toys were dumped or thrown at people when we would try and keep her safe in like an isolated area she would just continue to elevate and elevate they had to call in the social worker this ecologist what is going on in your mind a lot of guilt and blame you know personal blame about what am I doing wrong and how can we help principal AJ McCree says the prevailing wisdom about a child suddenly acting out usually means there's trouble at home but he says Alexia was an anomaly when somebody switches temperaments we look to see something changing at the home whether it's the parents that are separating you know any violence that they might be exposed to that way and I just didn't seem to be the case with this family this just isn't making sense you're a special needs teacher you specialize in de-escalation exactly and yet your child is out of control yes and I don't know how to deescalate my own child but things would become their most dire when prolonged Tantrums turned into threats towards her family and herself at one point the four-year-old even talked about suicide telling my six-year-old you have to stay in your bedroom because I don't know what your sister is capable of it was heartbreaking and she knew the whole time she you know she had told me something's wrong with Alexia's brain she knew so in a weird way she wasn't even blaming her snow you know she had this connection and she was telling me like something happened because this is not my sister I mean Trey Alexia herself knew something was wrong - what are you doing she would cry and say mommy why can't I be good I just want to be good and you know that broke my heart and you had started taping episodes yeah why um he wasn't home a lot so he wasn't seeing it and you know a lot of times it was like he was discounting it at the beginning I've networked working 50 60 hours a week I can't be on the phone with you for an hour talking to you every day help you deal with these situations like before I really recognized what it was that it wasn't something that she could deal with alone three months of relentless emotional anguish then a simple run for milkshakes becomes the final straw can I have three small shamrock shakes Vanessa takes her girls on a seemingly routine stop for a midweek treat until Alexia insists on seconds she said mommy give me your milkshake and I said no and then she counted one two three and then I heard a click the toddler unbuckles her carseat and starts rummaging through her mother's purse as I picked my head up she was stabbing me in the eye with my mascara wand I was scared I was scared for all of our safety this isn't normal you know four-year-olds don't unbuckle their seat belts in the car to stab their mommy in the eye with a mascara wand all over a milkshake you weren't sure if you could get home I wasn't safely no I didn't feel that I was safe that Kyla was safe or that Alexia was even safe from herself out of options the desperate parents finally do what for them had been unthinkable you had to put your four-year-old yeah in a psych ward the hardest nine days of my life we could only see her for an hour a day she was allowed to call us once a day I know how we rolled those phone calls that she she got Wednesday she spent crying to me you know why did you leave me I need you I need you to come back after those excruciating nine days in the psych ward she had only a plethora of prescription psychiatric drugs to show for it did the drugs work no no they made her like a shell of her person when she was on this medication all that happiness was gone when 2020 continues someone else is suffering from the same strange sickness and it's all on home video too but unlike Alexia this child is suffering in silence what's the connection we had a neuropsychological evaluation done she asked them is there anything else that you think I should know when I said well she also had strep right before this all happened and she stopped typing on our computer she turned him looked at me and said are you serious hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you'd like to get more video show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our Channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 13,999,304

Keywords: parents, fear, for, young, daughter's, safety, behavior, changes, PANDAS, strep, throat, Alexia, Baier, violent, tantrums, 20/20 FULL EPISODES, ABC, Juju Chang, what is PANDAS, sore throat, child sickness, pandas syndrome, pandas strep, tantrum, fit, parents warning, acting out, 2020 pandas, kids, children tantrums, bad kids, brain, disorder

Id: J2VaHN3aI0s

Length: 8min 22sec (502 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 21 2018