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"Anna has been in full-blown hypochondriac mode and I&amp;#039;m not exactly sure why. It all started a few weeks ago, on one of the mid-week nights that she was supposed to go to Peter&amp;#039;s house. She came home from school and was just fine, watching TV, eating snacks, doing the usual. Peter showed up and suddenly, she was claiming that she was sick. He left her with me, of course, and as soon as he was gone, she bounced right back. I asked her if there was something going on (was she mad at her Dad or upset about something else) but she swore she was just sick and now feeling better. A few days later, she tried to get out of going to school, claiming she was ill again. She had no fever or other symptoms, so I made her go anyway and stick it out. She was just fine when she got home and forgot she had even been sick until I reminded her of it. Two days ago, she took a fall on her bike and claimed her wrist was in agony \u2013 until I told her we were going to the E.R. Suddenly it got better, until she got on the phone to say goodnight to Peter, and then it was in agony again. It was killing her/just fine off and on all night, and once, it mysteriously switched to the other wrist and then back again when I noticed. I gave her some Advil and a wrist brace to wear and now she&amp;#039;s lapping up the attention from her friends at school. It all got to be too much this morning when I dropped her at her before/aftercare program. One of the other girls there walked up to her as we were getting out of the car and said &amp;quot;Anna, is it really true you have a tumor? &amp;#039;Cause Megan doesn&amp;#039;t believe you.&amp;quot; That does it. It&amp;#039;s too much. The line is now crossed. I didn&amp;#039;t embarass her in front of her friends, but we&amp;#039;re going to have to have a talk about this. I realize she&amp;#039;s crying out for attention, but we have to figure out a healthy way for her to express what she needs. Nothing&amp;#039;s changed around here \u2013 I&amp;#039;m not working longer hours or anything, so I&amp;#039;m not sure if this is in relation to Peter, me, both of us, school or something entirely different. I may take a day off work next week and just have a Mommy/Daughter day. She needs some TLC right now for whatever reason. I could use some as well, to tell you the truth. I guess she has her ups and downs just like I do. Did your kids go through a hypochondriac phase? How did you handle it? I don&amp;#039;t want her to think she can&amp;#039;t tell me if she&amp;#039;s truly feeling bad, but faking illness or injury is not a healthy way to communicate your needs, either. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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