OCD in children: what we investigate when rituals take over
When intrusive thoughts and rituals start running your child’s day, the direct answer about our role is this: ReMed investigates the physical context around OCD in children, while your child’s psychologist leads the therapeutic work. We map sleep, nutrition, gut symptoms, stress load and infection history through a 60-minute consultation, add functional testing where clinically indicated, and we always ask the question 19 years has taught us to ask first: did the rituals build gradually, or arrive overnight? Sudden onset points us to PANS and PANDAS, our published specialty. Consults run at Bundoora or by telehealth.
Sudden onset, or gradual?
The same rituals can sit on top of 2 very different stories. When OCD builds slowly over months, we investigate the long game: temperament, family history, stress load, sleep and nutrition. When a parent says “he changed in a week”, especially with a strep throat, virus or fever in the recent history, we slow down and take the infection timeline seriously, because abrupt-onset OCD is the hallmark of PANS and PANDAS. Parents are rarely asked this question elsewhere, and the answer shapes the entire investigation. If overnight change is your story, our PANS and PANDAS page is written for you.
What we look at
The onset timeline anchors everything, and around it we map the load on your child’s system: infection history and how recoveries have gone, sleep quantity and quality, what eating actually looks like across a week, gut symptoms that often go unmentioned, school pressure and the family’s stress season. We also note what rituals cost your child physically: the hand-washing that cracks skin, the checking that delays bedtime by an hour, the food rules that narrow dinner. None of this competes with your psychologist’s work; it gives the whole team a fuller map of the child behind the diagnosis.
Testing pathways we commonly use
Ordered only where the history justifies it, and always explained before any money is spent.
A process built for complicated stories
Understand
A 60-minute initial consultation covering your child's full history, not a 10-minute snapshot.
Investigate
Targeted functional testing where clinically indicated, so decisions follow data, not guesswork.
Support
A personalised plan, reviewed and adjusted as your child responds, coordinated with your child's doctors.
Initial consultations run 60 minutes and start from $242: see fees and rebates, or choose your practitioner when you are ready.
What support can include
Depending on your child’s history and results, support can include sleep work to lower the background load, steadier nutrition through ritual-narrowed eating, repletion of measured nutrient gaps, evidence-informed herbal and nutritional support chosen with any medication in mind, and practical planning for flare weeks. Where the picture suggests PANS or PANDAS, the investigation deepens along that pathway. Plans are reviewed and adjusted as your child responds, with your psychologist and doctor kept in the loop with your consent.
Childhood OCD questions, answered straight
Common enough that no family should feel alone with it: OCD often begins in childhood or adolescence, and most paediatric clinicians see it regularly. The catch is that rituals are easy to hide, so children frequently struggle in private long before parents see the full picture. If you are only now realising how much of your child’s day the rituals consume, that is a normal way for this story to start, not a parenting failure.
Abrupt onset is the single most important detail you can give us, because it changes the questions we ask. OCD that builds gradually and OCD that arrives within days are investigated differently: sudden-onset presentations, especially after an infection, raise the possibility of PANS or PANDAS, an area ReMed’s founder has published peer-reviewed research in. Mention the timeline when you book, raise it with your child’s doctor, and read our PANS and PANDAS page before your first appointment.
No. Evidence-based care for childhood OCD sits with psychologists and doctors, usually cognitive behavioural therapy with exposure and response prevention, sometimes alongside medication. We support that work rather than competing with it. Our consultations investigate the physical context: sleep, nutrition, gut symptoms, stress load and infection history, and the plan we build is designed to run beside therapy. With your consent, we communicate with your child’s psychologist or paediatrician.
It starts with a 60-minute consultation (from $242) mapping when the rituals began, how they have changed, what was happening around onset, infections, family history, eating, sleep and school. From there, functional testing is recommended only where clinically indicated: commonly nutritional pathology, with organic acids or gut microbiome testing where the history points that way. Results come back in plain language, with a personalised plan and the reasoning behind it.
Book a 60-minute initial consultation at the Bundoora clinic or by telehealth: OCD investigations translate well to video because so much of the work is history and planning. Bring whatever helps tell the story: school reports, a list of medications and supplements, dates of significant infections. If your child finds the topic distressing, they do not need to attend the first appointment; most of it is a conversation with you.
Related conditions and free tools
The rituals have a story. Let’s map it properly
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ReMed's care is complementary to, not a replacement for, conventional medical care. We work alongside your GP, paediatrician and specialists, and our support is not a substitute for medical diagnosis or treatment. In an emergency call 000. Every child is different: outcomes vary and no specific result can be guaranteed.