KENNEBUNKPORT – One day, Beth Maloney was watching her son, Sammy, speaking to a crowd during the finals of a fifth-grade civics competition.

Weeks later, she could not get him to use the front door, walk across a carpet or sleep in his bed. Eventually, he would stay in his room and barely eat or bathe.

His doctors said stress had triggered an obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, and that Sammy would need extensive, and extended, care. But, as Maloney became nearly overwhelmed by the bizarre behaviors, she got advice that changed her life and, she believes, saved Sammy’s: Check to see if he has a strep infection.

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