Anyone else have a child with "tics?"

[gina2000]

Tics are really, really common in young boys. I was upset and approached his pediatrician about it and his reply was to watch it carefully. My son had one which we traced to allergy meds if you can believe it. If he was on any allergy meds for a period of time, he ticked. The ticking only occurred in the spring and only during the years we gave him allergy meds. There is absolutely no mention of this sort of problem on any box, on any website or any medical paper that we could find. Our doctor accepted the anecdotal evidence and said to test him by taking him off the meds. Once the meds got out of his system, he was fine and has never ticked again.

 

[TaraPA]

You guys rock! I love all this info coming at me. My mom watched DS tonight & I asked her ahead of time to watch him for tics. She didn't notice him tic ONCE. So that observation, combined with what the teacher said earlier, means he obviously can suppress it when he's not comfortable. So either he's comfortable enough around me to let the tic loose, or it's ME causing the tic! What was that about the nutty mom......??? COUNT ME IN AS ONE!

Thanks CathrynRose for all of your great info & support!

 

[kim929]

Tics are sometimes worsened by certain medications. My daughter never had tics until she started her ADHD med. She now has them when the dose isn't well-regulated or she has been off the meds for several days and is going back on. It is a common side-effect so if you are considering medication, look into it very carefully. Stimulants that work beautifully to control other ADHD issues can cause or aggravate tics. Good luck. I hope he finds some relief soon.

My ds6 is treated for tourettes. While we were having our consultation with the neurologist, she said that most people think the meds for adhd causes the tics, but it actually goes along with adhd.

 

[tinabheart]

My DS14 started having tics when he was 7 or 8. He was diagnosed with ADD at age 10. He's been on meds for ADD ever since.

His tics have been sporadic - nothing too major but I have found that they are worse when the following occurs:

1. He's lacking sleep
2. In more stressful situations
3. Beginning of every school year
4. Excessive amounts of video game playing especially games that have a lot of jerking of motion.

Just curious of any of your kids that have tics play xbox 360 or video games and feel this may or may not contribute to the tics.

My son also tics more at home. Just yesterday he mentioned to me that when he's thinking about them, they are worse. When he's distracted, or busy like at school, sometimes they go away.

 

[ChristmasElf]

Pediatricians for some reason are afraid to diagnose tourette syndrome.
Ask for a referral to a nuerologist. That Dr will examine your child, run some tests and then give you a proper diagnosis.

Better to at least rule it out than to take a wait and see approach as when the kids get older, they get more critical and are more likely to tease and cause stress for a child that has Tourettes but has not been treated for it.

Tourette's is usually diagnosed if a child has at least 2 different tics that last for at least a year. Like opening and closing the mouth, rolling the eyes, licking the lips, scrunching up the nose,jerking the arm, etc.
A vocal tic like clearing the throat is another "tic" that many parents will mistake for a cold or allergy.
(The speaking out or yelling of strange words or obscenities is called "copralia" and is only present in a very small percentage of children with tourette syndrome.)

There are many different ways to treat Tourettes and different medicines will work differently on some people than it will on others.
Some of the meds can have side effects like drowsiness, if that happens you just give it to your child at bedtime.

Tourette's can also trigger OCD symptoms like knocking on walls or furniture with the knuckles. Having to check and re check things like if the door is locked, the light is on or off, etc. excessive hand washing is another.

Most children will outgrow Tourettes. And Tourettes usually peaks in boys between the ages of 10-14.
There are some really good Tourette's message boards out there.

I will be happy to send you the links through a PM if you are interested.

 

[ChristmasElf]

You guys rock! I love all this info coming at me. My mom watched DS tonight & I asked her ahead of time to watch him for tics. She didn't notice him tic ONCE. So that observation, combined with what the teacher said earlier, means he obviously can suppress it when he's not comfortable. So either he's comfortable enough around me to let the tic loose, or it's ME causing the tic! What was that about the nutty mom......??? COUNT ME IN AS ONE!

Thanks CathrynRose for all of your great info & support!

It is very common for a child to "let their hair down" around people that they don't worry will criticize them and to suppress them for a period of time when someone that is not always around so they won't see them tic.

A child that has been at school all day and concentrating so hard as to not tic will occasionally come home and have a need to just tic like crazy to express the days worth of tics out.