Thanks all for the advice so much appreciated! Will look into all the options - I feel so sorry for the poor little mite yet at the same time it's wearing and so frustrating!!
Not offended by the advice to put him first - he was the apple of my dads eye so he would always expect me to put my son before him.
I'm going to speak to the school and his year tutor today to make them aware as I'm sure it won't be long before he can't control it in school - he has said his mates have mentioned his oddities!!
I tried to talk to him at breakfast to suggest we looked at helping him and I hit a stone walk - so will do my own investigations first! His response to me was simple - by doing it he feels safe and nothing bad will happen!
Thanks again all for support! Will keep you updated x
I just wanted to address this as my heart goes out to anyone who is suffering with OCD.
What will be happening, if he is the same as the other children I met through my son, is that he will fear that something bad will happen (Obsession), the ritual (Compulsion) will make that fear temporarily go away but the fear comes back so you get into this cycle of fear and action, fear action.
I hope your GP can refer you to a superb CBT, we were extremely fortunate that the therapists took on groups of children and another therapist in another room took the parents, friends, carers and families of the child who had OCD and we were taught how our behaviour, in doing normal parent things like giving reassurance, can make it worse and how to work with the children on making agreements about not giving reassurance can help. At first many of us just wanted to put protective arms around our children and reassure them that their fears weren't justified even if that was 100 times a day but we too had to relearn how to best help them.
Don't do anything without professional support, but do get that professional support knowing that it is out there. I wish you all the best and please keep us updated.